How to cull faster with Narrative Select

If you're anything like me, culling and editing takes up half my life. Of course, I've gotten quicker in comparison to the early days, but it's still my biggest time thief. This week, I took matters into my own hands and got one up on it! Before I do the big reveal, here's how I usually edited -

Stage 1 - Upload pictures to hard drive.

Stage 2 - Upload pictures to Lightroom and crack on with the cull.

Stage 3 - Spend time creating a specific preset (if needed) and apply to all images.

Stage 4 - Review and edit all pictures in detail.

Stage 5 - A second review which is faster to ensure consistency.

Stage 6 - Export and share baby!

Simple enough but very time intensive, so I started googling cull solutions first of all. I soon came across a review for Narrative Select and dived right in because...it's FREE!!! I'm dubious about anything free but low and behold, it only bloody works and has so many additional features I wasn't expecting. Let me explain...

You upload your RAWS speedily into individual projects before getting your cull on! You five star them like you would in Lightroom, and it even scans them checking for focus and whether someone's eyes are shut. You don't have to Zoom in and out to check if it's good - it simply highlights them as potentially unsuitable. It even recognises similar pictures and directs you towards the better ones - how amazing is that! 

This week, I used Narrative to cull a wedding and as long as your wifi is good, you will fly through them. Once you're happy with your selection, you simply ship them to Lightroom. I was again dubious about this stage, but as soon as you press ship, Lightroom opens and all the relevant images are ticked for you, ready for import. It's honestly genius and will enable me to keep my Lightroom catalog tidier with less images I'll never use. 

If you'd like to try out Narrative Select, you can use this link here which will sign you straight up. Prepare to be amazed and let me know how you go, but wait, let me sprinkle some more magic...

Let me introduce to you, Imagen AI - an AI batch editing app for Lightroom Classic. I've set up an account and I'm yet to use it - I suppose I'm a bit nervous so let's do it together - this could be the future of editing. Imagen reads the information from your existing Lightroom catalog, and it applies your tailored style to every picture. It makes adjustments using previous edits as the profile - is your mind blown yet?! You pay 5 cents per image, and you get 1000 edited images for free to try it out. What's not to love?! You could potentially edit a wedding in 20 minutes for £25 and the reviews are great.

I hope this has helped and I'd love to know how you get on. DM me! 

Laura x