Lightroom Culling: How to Cull a Wedding Gallery

How to cull a wedding gallery in Lightroom, step by step

Shortcuts are written Windows / macOS where they differ. The order matters more than the shortcuts: every frame gets looked at twice, but each look asks only one question.

1. 1

   Import for speed, not for editing

   Lightroom Classic

   In the Import dialog, open the File Handling panel and set Build Previews to Embedded & Sidecar. Lightroom Classic then shows the preview the camera already wrote into each file instead of rendering every raw file first. Tick Don’t Import Suspected Duplicates if the cards were copied more than once.

   Embedded previews show the camera’s own rendering, not Lightroom’s. That is fine for judging focus, eyes and moments, but do not judge colour or exposure from them. If you want Lightroom to swap in its own previews later, Preferences > General > Import Options has Replace embedded previews with standard previews during idle time.

2. 2

   Set the screen up for judging faces

   Lightroom Classic· our practice, not a rule

   Cull in Loupe view (E), not the grid: at thumbnail size a soft eye or a half-blink is invisible. Press Tab to hide the side panels, L to cycle through Lights Out, and F to cycle screen modes until the photo fills the display.

   We cull at a size where we can read the eyes without zooming. Zooming to 100% on every frame is the single biggest time sink; save it for the frames you are genuinely unsure about.

3. 3

   First pass: reject only

   Lightroom Classic· our practice, not a rule

   Go through the whole gallery once and only reject. Shift+X flags the photo as rejected and moves to the next one, so one key does both. Do not pick anything on this pass.

   What we reject on the first pass: misfires and test frames, missed focus on the face, closed eyes and mid-blink, frames where someone walks through the shot, and exposure the edit cannot save (see how to fix overexposed photos for where that line sits). Anything you hesitate over stays unflagged for the next pass.

4. 4

   Collapse the bursts

   Lightroom Classic

   Bursts and repeated frames are where culling time goes. Photo > Stacking > Auto-Stack By Capture Time groups frames shot close together; the Time Between Stacks slider sets how close. Open a stack and choose its strongest frame.

   To choose between a handful of near-identical frames, select them and press N for Survey view, which shows them side by side. C (Compare view) puts two frames next to each other when it is down to a final pair.

5. 5

   Second pass: pick the keepers

   Lightroom Classic

   Hide the rejects first. Press \ to show the Library Filter bar, choose Attribute, and filter to unflagged photos. Ctrl+L / Cmd+L turns the filters on and off.

   Now go through what is left and pick: Shift+P flags the photo as a pick and moves on. U clears a flag if you change your mind.

6. 6

   Rate and label for the edit

   Lightroom Classic· our practice, not a rule

   Stars and colour labels are free-form in Lightroom Classic: 1 to 5 set a rating, 0 removes it, and 6 to 9 apply the red, yellow, green and blue labels. What they mean is up to you, as long as it is the same on every gallery.

   Our convention: stars mark album and hero candidates, and a colour label marks frames that need retouching beyond the global edit, such as glare on glasses or skin work. That way the retouching list exists before the edit starts.

7. 7

   Check coverage, not just the count

   Lightroom Classic· our practice, not a rule

   Filter to picks and switch to Grid view (G). Scroll the day in order and check every key moment is there: the first look, the vows, the rings, the first kiss, family formals, the toasts, the first dance. A gallery can hit its target count and still be missing a moment.

   Put the picks into a collection (Ctrl+N / Cmd+N creates one) so the edit works from a fixed set, then move on to editing the wedding gallery.

8. 8

   Keep the rejects until delivery

   Lightroom Classic· our practice, not a rule

   Lightroom Classic can delete every rejected photo at once (Ctrl+Backspace / Cmd+Delete, Delete Rejected Photos in the Photo menu). We leave rejects flagged until the gallery has been delivered: a couple asking for "the one where Grandma was laughing" is common, and a flagged reject can be un-rejected in a second.

9. 9

   If you cull in Lightroom (the cloud app)

   Lightroom

   The method is the same, but the keys differ: Z flags a pick, X rejects and U removes the pick flag. Star ratings are 0 to 5. To hide rejects or show only picks, use Refine Search (the funnel icon) and choose the flag you want.

10. 10

    Optional: let Assisted Culling take the first pass

    Lightroom Classic and Lightroom· our practice, not a rule

    Both apps now include Assisted Culling. In Lightroom Classic you switch it on in Catalog Settings > Metadata (or run Auto Analysis), then open a folder or collection in the Library module. It sorts photos into Select, Reject and Review groups using criteria Adobe names Subject Focus, Eye Focus and Eyes Open, and Apply Batch Actions can flag, rate or label a group in one go. In Lightroom (the cloud app) you open an album and choose Assisted Culling > Cull.

    Our view: it is useful for clearing obvious technical rejects. It cannot tell the first kiss from the frame after it, so the picks in step 5 still need a person.