How Do You Cull Photos Efficiently? Culling In vs. Culling Out in Photography

This post will teach you general approaches to culling in photography and the best methods to use to cull efficiently, regardless of what software you are using. If you’re looking to learn how to cull in Lightroom or other culling software, check out my blog post on that here!

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What is culling in photography?

In the world of photography, culling means choosing what photos you’re going to edit and/or deliver to a client. Or keep for yourself, or post, or whatever “finishing” photos means to you!

Selecting which photos to edit and deliver is one of the most important things we do as photographers. We call this “culling” in most of the photography industry! In some sectors of photography like journalism, though, they call the selection process itself “editing.” Definitely a good thing to know! But since “editing” means something else to most photographers (like color correction, stylistic changes, retouching, etc.), it can get a little confusing. To keep things clear, I’ll refer to the photo selection process as “culling” from here on out!

Usually, the culling process in photography happens after we import photos and before we start editing. While you can theoretically cull your photos at any stage of the process, it’s most efficient to do your culling as early as possible. If you can make all of your choices before you start editing your photos, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and work later on!

Why should you choose which photos you want edit before you start editing?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: do not start off editing 100+ photos to see how they turn out if you’re only planning to end up with 30! It is, say it with me, a huge waste of time.

And also, if you have too many photos in front of you that are super similar to each other, you’ll keep going back and forth between photos wondering if you made the right decision! That is, if you’re anything like me.

Here’s the thing: as a photographer, you have an eye for what looks good, and for what fits your style. And you have to trust your gut.

That’s easier said than done sometimes, I know! I have spent sooooo many hours flipping between nearly identical images trying to make a decision. And several years into being a full-time professional photographer, culling is still the part that takes me the longest. Even with the tips and tricks I’m about to share with you!

The first very obvious tip, if you can do it, is to just… take fewer photos. (Ha! Sounds so easy, right?)

I know, I know. Bear with me. We’ll get to more tips on culling efficiently even if you’ve got thousands of photos to sort through, too! But it does have to be said, right?

It’s much easier said than done. But if you can, try to be judicious and intentional about when you click the shutter. Even if it’s just 10% fewer almost-identical photos to sort through later, it can make a real difference. Not only can it save you on time and decision fatigue, but it can prolong your camera’s life, too!

How can you be less of an overshooter and take fewer photos—without missing the good ones?

If you’re doing digital photography and you have the habit of overshooting, here’s one small adjustment you can make: change your camera’s “shutter release mode” from a continuous mode to a single release mode. In a continuous mode, your camera will keep taking photos for as long as you hold down the shutter. That can be really useful for high-speed or once-in-a-lifetime moments! But otherwise, try to switch your camera over to only taking one photo each time you click the shutter. It won’t stop you from taking lots of photos, but it might slow you down just a smidge.

And if you’re willing to try film, even just for fun on the side, that can be a great way to practice slowing down and getting your photos right in camera, too! Being intentional and taking fewer photos is one big reason why I really love shooting with film. It’s one of the few ways I can really slow my artistic process down, and part of the reason why I almost exclusively shoot film for my personal work these days. I’d highly, highly recommend it.

Bonus points if you spend some time with a fully manual film camera, and yes that includes manual focus! This is my favorite fully manual film camera if you want to try it out. But if you have one lying around in the attic, start with what you have first! I’ve written some guides to get you started with manual-focus film cameras here if that’s new to you, and on using manual focus for things like street photography here, too. 🙂

That said, with my digital camera, on a fast-paced photo shoot, or at something like a wedding where some moments will only ever happen once? I can easily end up with 1000 photos in just one hour! And most of the time, a lot of them are super similar to one another. So I’m not speaking here as someone who has perfected the art of taking less photos. It really, really isn’t easy sometimes.

Going through tons of photos to find the best ones takes me a long time and lots of agonizing, even though it’s my literal job!

So I absolutely don’t want to put that burden on a client by delivering lots of duplicates. And I don’t want to waste my time editing unnecessary photos either! Neither do you, I bet. So let’s get to it.

Approaches to choosing which photos to edit: the “culling in” method vs. “culling out”

“Culling in” vs. “culling out” is a conversation that happens in photographer circles a lot! In general, I would recommend the “culling in” method in photography. In fact, except in some specific professional photography scenarios, I’d say you should pretty much always be culling in rather than culling out! But let’s start with:

What does “culling in” mean? And what does “culling out” mean?

Essentially, these are two different mindsets for how you approach selecting your images. When you’re looking through your images and making choices, are you thinking more about what you should get rid of, or more about what you should keep?

Let’s begin with “culling out,” since that’s usually people’s default method when they’re starting out in photography.

What is the “culling out” method in photography?

“Culling out” in photography means that when you’re going through your images, your main focus is getting rid of the bad photos to try to narrow it down.

So maybe you’re going through and removing images where people are blinking. Or you’re culling out photos where the focus is off, or where the composition is worse than another similar image you have.

Illustrated graphic showing what culling out means and how it can impact your photography workflow. There are 7 green images representing "yes" photos, 5 blurred purple images representing "no" photos, and most photos are yellow for "maybe." Culling out would mean getting rid of the 5 "no" photos, but then you're left with all the maybes and yeses to sort through a second time.
Here, the green images would be your favorite photos, the blurred purple images are the obvious “no” photos, and all those yellow images are maybes. They’re good shots, but they might be too similar to better green photos, or just not quite as exciting choices. If you’re using a culling out method, you’d be getting rid of the 5 “no” photos. That’s a start, but then you’re either editing way too many photos, or you have lots to look through again when you do your second round of culling.

This style of culling is what a lot of us gravitate towards instinctively, and what a lot of photographers do without even realizing it. However, it’s usually a lot slower than “culling in” and also it can mean we’re making more micro-decisions than necessary!

What is the “culling in” method in photography?

“Culling in” means you’re intentionally looking for and choosing only the images that you’d want to edit and deliver.

When you are going through photos and deciding what to edit, you are focusing on the yeses. And you’re tuning out the “no” and “maybe” images as much as you can.

In some ways, looking only for the “yes” or “almost maybe yes” photos can make the decisions feel harder at first. It’s much easier to decide that a blurry, closed-eye photo is a “no” than it is to decide which of 10 very similar photos is the “yes.” And it can be really hard to keep yourself in the “culling in” mindset, especially at first!

Illustrated graphic showing what culling in means and how it can impact your photography workflow. There are 7 green images representing "yes" photos, 5 blurred purple images representing "no" photos, and most photos are yellow for "maybe." Culling in would mean selecting the 7 "yes" photos and ignoring all the rest.
In this image, we’ve got the same mix of green, yellow, and blurry purple photos. Again, all those yellow images are good photos, but since they’re as not amazing as the green ones, you’d do your best to ignore them with the “culling in” photography method. When you’re culling in instead of culling out, you’ll end up with a smaller selection from the get-go, and your selection will be more photos you really love! Even if you select some maybes along with your yes photos, you’re still in a better place than you would be with culling out.

If you consciously focus on what you want to keep instead of what you want to get rid of, you’re going to make everything easier for yourself in the long run.

If you do a second pass through the photos, you’ll probably have a much smaller number of photos to look at the second time. Even if you did keep some of your “maybe” photos in the mix, that’s still a big improvement! You’re already culling through your photos more quickly than before.

Remember, choosing what to edit doesn’t have to mean you actually delete anything permanently!

You’re not losing anything by curating a smaller selection. You’re just focusing on the gems.

Though it can feel nice to give someone extra photos, sometimes overdelivering is just creating more work for everyone!

I don’t want to feel like I’m working on a lot of photos that look essentially the same. Or delivering or posting a lot of photos that look the same! And I don’t want to push the hard work of choosing the best images onto my clients, because it really is hard work!

If the photos are for yourself: are you really going to print or post every photo you took? Think about what you actually are going to use them for, and make decisions accordingly.

If you’re delivering photos to a client (or a friend, or whoever!), try to remind yourself that curation is not only part of the artistic process, it’s also part of the service.

Personally, I start to feel a lot more excited about my work when I get my selections down to only photos I’m genuinely happy about and proud of. It’s a lot more exciting for me (and for my clients!) to have a selection of photos with good composition and variety to look through.

I hope this primer on culling in photography helps you on your photography journey! Keep an eye out for future posts about culling in Lightroom and in other apps. And feel free to ask any questions you may have!

If you’d like more photography tips or resources, you can also check out my resource list for photographers or read my post on advanced tips for being more efficient in Adobe Lightroom!

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