BestShots Help & Documentation

Complete guide to AI-powered photo curation, hotkey workflows, Lightroom XMP sidecar sync, and high-volume RAW ingestion.

Welcome to BestShots.AI

BestShots.AI is a desktop-first photo curation platform engineered for high-volume wedding, portrait, sports, and commercial photographers. When a typical shoot produces 2,000 to 5,000 frames, traditional manual culling in desktop catalogs introduces hours of friction, visual fatigue, and delayed client deliverables.

BestShots accelerates the selection phase by combining local edge computer vision, perceptual hashing, and cloud intelligence to surface your sharpest, most emotionally resonant frames in seconds.

The Four Workflow Pillars

Workflow Pipeline ArchitectureClient-to-Cloud Streamline

High-Volume Ingestion

50MB Direct RAW

Direct streaming to Azure Blob Storage bypassing serverless payload limits.

Intelligent AI Curation

Face & Sharpness

Sliding window perceptual burst grouping and multi-factor hero frame ranking.

Rapid Hotkey Culling

K / D Two-Finger

Optimistic 0ms response speed with zero mouse latency or cursor hunting.

Non-Destructive Sync

XMP Sidecars

Bit-for-bit RAW preservation with instant Lightroom Classic and Capture One sync.

1. High-Volume Ingestion

Ingest authentic camera RAW files across 21 formats (Sony, Canon, Nikon, Fujifilm, Lumix, Olympus, Leica, Hasselblad, Phase One, Pentax, Apple ProRAW/HEIC) and standard raster images. Under our Fast Cloud Ingestion architecture (ADR 0015), original RAW master files remain 100% on your local workstation. Background Web Workers extract 2048px WebP inspection proxies and camera EXIF metadata in ~500ms client-side, reducing upload bandwidth by over 95% while uploading only lightweight proxies to Microsoft Azure Blob Storage.

2. Intelligent AI Analysis

Perceptual Burst Grouping: Group continuous sequences captured within 5 seconds or less using 64-bit difference hashing (dHash) with Hamming distance metrics.
Subject Landmark Detection: Identify key subjects using SCRFD face detection and extract 512-dimensional facial embeddings via ArcFace stored in PostgreSQL pgvector.
Quality & Expression Scoring: Detect closed eyes, subject blinks, focal plane drift, motion blur, and micro-expressions, automatically designating the optimal frame as the Hero (isStackPrimary).

3. Rapid Keyboard Culling

Review thousands of images without touching your mouse. The dedicated two-finger culling system pairs K (Keep) and D (Discard) with arrow keys for immediate rating and flagging. Thanks to TanStack Query optimistic updates, every decision registers in 0 milliseconds with instant cache mutations and automatic rollback safeguards.

4. Non-Destructive Export & Workflow Bundle

Export your curation decisions as an industry-standard XMP Sidecar & Workflow Bundle (.zip) under a strict Zero RAW File Mutation Guarantee: original RAW masters are never rewritten or altered. Bundles preserve original camera filenames ({originalName}) for automatic linkage with Adobe Lightroom Classic, Capture One Pro, and Adobe Bridge. Every bundle includes 1-click desktop organizer scripts (organize_keepers.bat for Windows and organize_keepers.command for macOS) plus an interactive README.html visual quickstart guide.

Key Guides in this Documentation

Explore our in-depth technical guides to master every layer of the application:

Quickstart Guide: Get started in 5 minutes with project creation, fast RAW proxy ingestion, AI burst ranking, and XMP workflow export.
Rapid Keyboard Shortcuts: Master the two-finger hotkey workflow, global shortcuts, multi-select operations, and 0ms latency guarantees.
Non-Destructive Lightroom XMP Sync: Learn how BestShots generates standard XMP sidecars, pairs camera filenames, uses 1-click organizer scripts, and integrates with Lightroom Classic, Capture One, Adobe Bridge, and Darktable.
Burst Curation & AI Hero Promotion: Understand the 64-bit dHash perceptual clustering engine, automatic hero frame promotion, stack expansion, and facial subject identification.
Camera RAW vs. JPEG Ingestion: Deep-dive into 21 supported camera formats, client-side Web Worker proxy extraction (ADR 0015), and >95% upload bandwidth reduction.
High-Volume ZIP Archiving & Naming Templates: Understand streaming ZIP bundles, {originalName} pairing tokens, and custom filename templates.
Billing & Credits FAQ: Everything you need to know about pay-as-you-go credit packs, rollover rules, no-subscription pricing, and Stripe receipts.

100% Photographer Ownership & Zero AI Training

At BestShots.AI, your creative work belongs exclusively to you:

100% Copyright Retention: You retain all right, title, and intellectual property in uploaded photographs. BestShots receives only a temporary, revocable license strictly needed to generate preview thumbnails and analyze quality scores.
Zero AI Model Training: Uploaded client photos, facial crops, and vector embeddings are never used to train, tune, or improve proprietary or third-party AI models. Cloud inferences executed via Microsoft Azure OpenAI Foundry operate under zero-data-retention (ZDR) enterprise policies.