“Finish Photos Faster”

Welcome to PhotoCull!

PhotoCull is a program designed to help you complete your photograph tasks faster. 

PhotoCull speeds up the the process of selecting which photographs to keep and which to cull.

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Features

• Culling – Remove unwanted images
• Cropping – Crop to the size you need
• Aligning – For easy image comparison
• Loupe – Quickly toggle to see close up and back
• Zoom – Zoom in on the point under the mouse
• Rotate Image – Correct tilted photos
• Thumbnail Strip view – Group photos into working set
• Saving – Save the results of your changes non-descructive
• Undo/Redo – Many commands are undoable
• Fit-To-Window – Photographs are sized to fit the view
• Minor photograph editing
• Constrained Crop Rectangles – Crop rectangles can be constrained to specific aspect ratio
• Requence – Renumber your files sequentually
• Rate Photos – Photos can be rated 0 – 5.   0 is unrated
• Filter by Rating – Select which files to display based on rating

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Table of Contents

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Introduction

PhotoCull is designed to accelerate the process of deciding which photographs to keep and which ones to discard (cull).

PhotoCull organizes photographs into views. Each view has a specific purpose to facilitate.

PhotoCull has simple editing command target at final corrections. Cropping, rotating and saving the result to JPG.

PhotoCull is non-destructive, meaning it will not overwrite your photographs, but it will move the photographs to a subdirectory.

Most commands can be undone and redone. When a photograph is moved from view to another, edited or culled, it can be undone. You can undo an undo command with ‘redo’.

Edit commands are persistent. When you make edits to a photograph, the edits are saved in a separate file that record the history of edits to a file. If you make edits to a file, then save the file then exit PhotoCull. The next time you run PhotoCull you can undo the edits from the previous run. You can always undo to the original state at anytime.

PhotoCull processes photographs in a single directory at a time. You select the directory where your photographs are located.

Every aspect of PhotoCull is to facilitate keeping and culling your photographs, so you “finish photos faster”.

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Terminology

Italicized Words

Keywords, specific to PhotoCull will be italicized.

LMB

Left mouse button click

RMB

Right mouse button click

^ (carat)

Control Key. Example: ^Z means the control key and the ‘Z’ pressed at the same time.

SHFT

Shift Key

Ctrl

Control Key

Culling

Removing the photographs you don’t want.

Ratings

PhotoCull uses ratings to organize and view photographs.

Filtering

Filters are used to decide what to see and what not to see. On a shopping, site for example, you can decide to see only items that are within a specific price range, or have a specific feature, etc.

PhotoCull uses filters for photograph ratings. You can select the ratings of the photographs you wish to see and hide the rest.

Keeping

Saving the photographs you want.

Stamps

A photograph thumbnail, filename and its rating are referred to as Stamp. Stamps can have a rating or no rating.

Operation

An operation is any interaction with PhotoCull that changes a stamp or its location.

Undo/Redo

When you undo an operation, you revert the operation back to its previous state.
After you undo an operations. you may redo it to put it to the same state before the undo (i.e. back to the operation being perforned)

Commands

Certain operations in PhotoCull, are called a commands. Commands are undoable and re-doable.

Non-Destructive

PhotoCull is non-destructive to the original photographs. It does not modify the original photograph, but it may move it to a subfolder.

Modifications to a photograph are saved in a side car and not the original photograph.

Point of Focus

Specific area within a scene that is rendered sharpest by the camera’s lens

Depth of Field

Depth of field (DoF) is the portion of a photograph that appears acceptably sharp and in focus, encompassing the area both in front of and behind the point of focus

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Directory Selector

When PhotoCull starts, you select the button “Select Photographs Directory” to chose the directory where the photographs are you want to process.

The Directory Selector will be displayed

There are two panels in the Directory Selector

• Navigation Panel (left)
• Photograph Preview

Navigation Panel

The left panel is the Navigation Panel. This panel is used to navigate to the directory where your photographs are located.
If your disk drive has slow read speed, this may take some time.  You can test your drives with with our free Disk Read Performance Test

Photograph Preview

The right panel is the Photograph Preview panel. The panel shows all the photographs in the current directory that are supported by PhotoCull. You can view the photograph.

File Names

To view the photographs in the selected directory by file name, select this button.

Thumbnails

To view the photographs in the selected directory by thumbnails, select this button.

Image Viewing in Directory Selector

In this view, you can double-click on a thumbnail to see the image in a larger window.

When view an image, you can use the left/right arrow keys to new the prev/next image in the directory

Watch Directory Selection:

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View Types

The views are the primary way the stamps will be displayed. The stamps can be moved from one view to another and may be in multiple views.

Thumbnail View

The Thumbnail View shows all of all the photographs as stamps for the directory you selected. This is the main view.

In the Thumbnail View, you can:

• Select Files
• Rate your photographs
• View individual photographs
• Cull photographs

Photo Viewer

The Photo Viewer shows the full size image and provides viewing features, fast culling, cropping, image rotation and saving.

Thumbnail Strip

This view is shows image files in a “film strip” style. This view contains a single image viewer and a horizontal strip of stamps to choose from.

This is useful for selecting a small group of similar photos to work on, like culling similar images.

Keepers

The Keepers section is where you place the photographs that you want to keep. This is a holding area for the photographs you want to keep.

Similar Images

This view will find similar photographs and show them in a list. You can then operate on each group.

Recycle Bin

Stamps that are culled are placed in the Recycle Bin for the selected directory. This is a holding area for culled photographs. They can later be deleted from the disk drive.

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Thumbnail View

The Thumbnail View is the primary view of all the photographs in the selected directory. The photograph’s thumbnail, filename and rating are grouped together to form a stamp.

Navigating

Navigating the Thumbnail View is done via mouse wheel and key input. See navigation section below.

Rating Stamps

Each stamp can be given a star rating of one to five stars, or no rating.  Click on the star rating to change it.  You can also use the keys (0-5) to select the rating for all selected thumbnails. 

Rating a stamp with the same rating it currently has will unrate it. For example, if there is an unrated stamp and you rate it a 3 by clicking 3 or select the 3 stamp, it will be rated 3. If you the rate the same stamp a 3, it will set the stamp to unrated. Hitting the ‘0’ key will also set the stamp to unrated.

To rate multiple stamps, select the stamps you want to rate, then press the rating (0-5).
LMB on a stamp’s star, when multiple stamps are selected, only sets stamp rating clicked on.

Double-Click to View

To view the photograph full size and to send it to the PhotoViewer for closer inspection and minor editing, double

Ratings Filter

Filtering is choose which set of Stamps to view based on their rating. By default, no filtering is enabled. When a filter is active, it will be in the selected state. When none of the filters are selected, then no filtering is performed and all stamps with any ratings are visible.

Example:

To shown in the Thumbnail View only the stamps with rating 1 or rating 3, LBM on filter ‘1’ and filter ‘3’. To show all stamps, deselect all filters.

Watch Ratings and Filtering

Sort by Filename

Sort by Date Taken

Settings

Report Bugs

Forum

Duplicates

Similar Images

Selecting this button will open a dialog that prompts for a similarity measure (how similar the photographs are to be considered a match). Select “Analyze Photographs” to proceed.

This is a two step process. Analyzing, then grouping. Both operations have a progress bar.

Analyzing only needs to be performed once and the result is saved. After that, that, only the grouping process needs to be performed.

Similar Image Results

The similar photographs that were found will be grouped by row. Double-click in the row to view the stamps in the Thumbnail Strip view.

Send to Keepers

You can send stamps to Keepers by the following methods. Select one or more stamps, then:

• • Press the ‘Q’ key
  • Right click, then select “Keep Selected Stamps”

Send to Thumbnail Strip

Click Thumbnail Strip Button

All selected thumbnails are sent to the Thumbnail Strip.  If no thumbnails are selected, then all thumbnails are sent.

Select the thumbnails you want to view in the Thumbnail Strip.  If no thumbnails are selected, then all thumbnails are used.

Double-Click on a Stamp

If no stamps are selected and you double-click on a stamp, it will be sent to the Thumbnail Strip.

Double-Click on Selected Stamps

When you double-click selected stamps, they will be sent to the Thumbnail Strip.

Send to Recycle Bin

Hit the Del key to move a Stamp to the Recycle Bin

File Resequencing

File names can be resequenced. The filename will be numbered according to the settings in the dialog

Prefix: The first letters all the all images will share
Starting number: The sequence number to renumber the files

Edits

You can modify the stamp in the Photo Viewer. If you do not save the stamp, it will be marked as “edited”. When you exit PhotoCull and there are edited, unsaved files, it will warn you.

Thumbnail View Shortcuts

Navigation

Key/Mouse	Action
PgUp/PgDn	Page up/page down
Left/Right arrow	Navigate up one line
Up/Down arrow	Navigate down on line
Home/End	Go to beginning/end of stamps
Mouse Wheel	Scroll up/down
Scrollbars	Scroll up/down

Key	Action
^Z,^Y	Undo, Redo
0, 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5	Rate current selection
Del	Move all selected thumbnails to the Recycle Bin
H	Opens help page
Escape	Clear selection
^A	Select all
PgUp/PgDn	Page up/page down
Left/Right arrow	Select thumbnail before/after
Up/Down arrow	Select thumbnail above/below
Home/End	Go to beginning/end of thumbnails

Thumbnail View Stamp Selection

The way you select stamps is very similar to the way you select files in Windows.

Action	Result
LMB on thumbnail	Thumbnail is selected
^LMB on thumbnail	The selection state of the thumbnail is toggled
LMB+SHFT	Selects all thumbnails between the selected thumbnail and the previously selected thumbnail (if any)
Hold LBM on an unselected thumbnail, then move the mouse	Forms a selection rectangle.  All thumbnails that are enclosed by or touch the selection rectangle are selected.
Hold LBM on a selected thumbnail and move the mouse	Selected thumbnails are dragged

Stamp Interaction

Action	Result
Key 0-5	Rates all selected thumbnails with the rating 1-5, 0 is used to unrate a stamp.
Mouse Double Click	Open in PhotoViewer to see full sized for a stamp
Mouse click on star rating	Set stamp rating

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Photo Viewer

The Photo Viewer shows the full size image and provides fast culling, cropping, image rotation and saving.

Prev/Next Windows

When viewing a photograph in the Photo Viewer, there may be one or two smaller windows on either side of the main photograph display. 

The left window displays the previous photograph, if there is one. 

The right window displays the next photo in the sequence, if there is one.

View Functions

Zoom

Use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out. Zoom will maintain the mouse over the current point in the photograph.

Fit-to-Window

Operations that disable Fit to Window

• • Zooming in or out
  • Panning
  • Rotating the image
  • Align point to center
  • Loupe

Pan

Press and hold the LMB down, then move the mouse. The photograph will then pan.

Loupe Mode

Editing

You can perform minor edits on photographs and save them to JPEG files.
You cannot edit RAW file images.

Cropping Photographs

Selection

When the mouse is inside the Photo Viewer window, hold Ctrl+LMB down and drag out the selection rectangle

Crop

Watch Cropping:

Crop Rectangle Constraint

You can constrain the crop rectangle to various sizes,  Right click to see the context menu. Select “Crop Rectangle Constraint”

Auto Crop Rect: Find the largest crop rect possible. Useful when the image has rotation applied. Note that moving or resizing the crop rectangle will disable Auto Crop Rect.

“Unconstrained” : no crop rectangle constraints are enforced.

“Same as image”: uses the ratio of the image currently displayed.

4×6 through 24×36: supported aspect ratios

“Swap Constraint Dimensions”, 4×6 through 24×36 width and height are swapped. 6×4 for example.

After selecting a constraint, it will be applied when dragging out the crop rectangle.

Rotate

Rotate 90° left or right

The rotate buttons rotate the photograph 90 degrees clockwise or counter-clockwise

Rotate arbitrary

To rotate an arbitrary amount, press and hold the Alt key, move the mouse to the edge of the view and press and drag the LMB to rotate the photograph.

Watch Rotating and Image:

Align Photographs

Align photographs us a simple, but powerful feature. This allows fast aligning of features across multiple files.

Double-click on a point on a photo to place that point in the center of the view. Go to the next image(s) and do the same. Then switch to Loupe mode. You will then be able to compare the same feature , up close, across multiple images easily.

Example: Suppose you have three images of a family and you want to see which photo of the boy in the front is sharpest. The video below demonstrates double-click on the boy’s left eye in each of the photographs, then switching to Loupe mode (L-key).

Watch Aligning Photographs:

Exif Data

 Click this EXIF icon to display EXIF data for the photograph, if available.

Saving

Save as JPEG

You can save an edited photograph to a jpg. PhotoCull is non-destructive to the original file. The original file is move to a subdirectory called “originals” and the jpg file is written in it’s place.

Crop and save

This button combine two operations in a single step.  If there is an existing crop rectangle, it will perforce the crop

This will also perform a non-destructive save.  The original will be moved to a sub-directory and the saved file will replace it.  Note that only jpg save format is supported.

Crop and save then next

Combines the crop, save as above, then selects the next photo in the sequence. Very useful for rapid processing.

Photo Viewer Shortcuts

Key	Result
^Z/^Y	Undo/Redo
0-5	Rate Photo.  0 is unrated
F	Fit image to window
L	Toggle the Loupe.  Zooms in for 1:1 pixel ratio
Delete	(Cull) Move photo to the Recycle Bin
Left/Right arrow	Previous/next thumbnail
Up/Down	Selects image above or below current image.  Does not apply to Thumbstrip View
Escape	Cancels crop rectangle
C	Crop the image to the crop rectangle
^S	Crop and Save.  If rectangle crop exists, apply it
^D	Crop, Save and Next.  If rectangle crop exists, apply it and save.  Go to next image
T	Toggles display of prev/nect thumbnails

Mouse

Hold LMB (on the image) and move mouse	Pan image
Mouse Wheel	Zoom in/out. Disables Fit to Window mode.
Double Mouse Click	Centers the image on the double-clicked point. Useful when applying to several images to align their eyes, for example.
Alt-LMB (move mouse)	Rotate the image
Right Mouse Button	Displays the Context Menu

You can crop the image by dragging a rectangle around the image

Hold ^LMB and move mouse	Create crop rectangle
Hold LMB (on the crop rectangle) and move mouse	Move the  crop rectangle
Hold LMB (on the crop rectangle handles) and move mouse	Resize the crop rectangle

Context Menu

Locate On Disk

Opens the file in File Explorer

Crop Rectangle Constraints

Auto Crop Rect	Finds the largest crop rectangle for the image
Unstrained	No limitation on crop rectangle size
Same as Image	Restrict the crop rectangle to the same size as the current image
4×5 to 24×36	Restrict the crop rectangle to specific ratios
Swap Constraint Dimensions	Reverse the ratio above.  4×5 becomes 5×4
Confine Crop Rect Inside Image	Restrict the crop rectangle to be inside the current image

Panel

Check Box
Fit To Window Mode (F)	Fit images to the window.  All images will be fit until this is disabled.  Disables Loupe mode.

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Thumbnail Strip

The Thumbnail Strip displays a selection of photographs and displays them below the view, “film-strip” style. This is very use full for selecting a single best photograph from a group of photographs.

Thumbnail Strip example

Remove Current Photo

Remove Unrated

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Keepers

When you select a photograph to keep, it is removed from the other views and place here. You can choose to “unkeep” a photograph which moves in back to the Thumbnail View

You can copy or move the photographs from the selected directory to a new directory. Note that if you move the photographs to a new directory, they will no longer be visible to PhotoCull in the current selected directory

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Recycle Bin

The Recycle Bin is where the photographs that are culled are place. It is similar to the recycle bin or trash bin for the operating system.

The Recycle Bin is holds only those files culled from the current directory. 

Each directory has its own Recycle Bin. When you select a different directory, it will have a different Recycle Bin.

Note that placing a photograph in the Recycle Bin does not delete it from the hard drive.

You can restore culled files from the Recycle Bin to the Thumbnail View with these buttons

You can delete the all the files in Recycle Bin from the hard disk by selecting this button

When you delete a photograph from the Recycle Bin, it deletes the file from the hard-disk by moving to the operating system’s recycle bin/trash. You can still recover the file by restoring in from the operating system’s recycle bin/trash.

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Commands and Undo/Redo

There are many operations that PhotoCull performs. Certain operations are classified as commands and are undoable and re-doable.

Commands are operations that affect the stamps content or current location. Operations that affect displaying or visualization are not commands.

These are actions are commands and undoable:

• Editing a stamp
  • Crop
  • Rotate
  • etc
• Moving a stamp to a different view
  • Move a stamp to Keepers or the Recycle Bin

These actions are not commands and not undoable:

• Navigation.  
• Selection changes
• Changing display settings or view
• Mouse operations: panning, zooming, scrolling etc.

Undo in PhotoCull is different from other applications. There are two types of commands. Edit and global commands. Edit command are specific to a single photograph being modified. Global commands operate on the state of one or more photographs.

• Edit Commands
  • Single stamp based
  • Modifies stamp
  • Cropping
  • Rotating 
• Global
  • General operation, not specific to a single stamp
  • Moving one or more stamps to a view
    • Move to Recycle Bin 
    • Move to Keepers 

When there are commands that are available for undoing, the undo button will be enabled. Hover the mouse over the undo button to see the description of the command that will be undone.

Edit commands can only be undone when the stamp that was editing is in the Photo Viewer

You can mix commands between global and edit commands, but note that the commands will be undone in the order received.