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
High-Volume Ingestion
Direct streaming to Azure Blob Storage bypassing serverless payload limits.
Intelligent AI Curation
Sliding window perceptual burst grouping and multi-factor hero frame ranking.
Rapid Hotkey Culling
Optimistic 0ms response speed with zero mouse latency or cursor hunting.
Non-Destructive Sync
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, original RAW master files remain safely on your local workstation. Background browser workers extract ultra-sharp 2048px WebP inspection proxies and camera EXIF metadata in ~500ms, reducing upload bandwidth by over 95% while uploading only lightweight proxies to your secure studio vault.
2. Intelligent AI Analysis
- 9 Photography Shoot Profiles: Calibrate AI curation to your specific shoot type (Wedding, Portrait, Event, Landscape, Real Estate, Sports, Product, Newborn, Other) using tailored 8-point criterion weights.
- Intelligent Evaluation Calibration: Automatic profile weighting ensures sports shoots prioritize motion freeze while wedding shoots prioritize facial expressions and iris focus.
- Perceptual Burst Grouping: Group rapid continuous sequences captured within 5 seconds into clean burst stacks.
- Facial & Eye Focus Verification: Accurately locate subjects, inspect eye sharpness and openness, and detect awkward blinks or micro-expressions.
- Automated Hero Frame Selection: Automatically surface the sharpest, best-composed frame in each sequence as the Hero frame.
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 instant optimistic workstation updates, every decision registers in 0 milliseconds with instant screen response 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 visual quickstart guide.
Key Guides in this Documentation
Explore our in-depth studio guides to master every layer of the application:
- Quickstart Guide: Get started in 5 minutes with desktop workstation project creation, fast RAW proxy ingestion, AI burst ranking, and XMP workflow export.
- Shoot Profile Calibrations: Authoritative guide to the 9 photography shoot profiles, 8-point criterion weights, and domain-specific tolerances.
- Multi-Axis AI Quality Scoring Framework: Explore the 8 evaluation criteria, mathematical scoring formula, reasoning-first validation, and enterprise evaluation pipeline.
- Project Management & Organization: Learn how to filter your studio catalog with the real-time Shoot Profile Filter Bar, star active shoots, and configure per-project culling overrides.
- Rapid Keyboard Shortcuts: Master the two-finger hotkey workflow, global shortcuts, multi-select operations, and 0ms latency guarantees.
- Credit Deduction Lifecycle & Refunds: Understand our zero-cost ingestion reassurance, studio credit accounting, and automated failure refunds.
- Adobe Lightroom Classic: Learn how BestShots generates standard XMP sidecars, pairs camera filenames, and integrates with Lightroom Classic with zero file mutation.
- Capture One Pro: Learn how to import BestShots AI ratings, color tags, and selections seamlessly into Capture One sessions and catalogs.
- Darktable: Learn how to synchronize BestShots AI ratings, color labels, and 1-click organizer workflows into the free, open-source Darktable RAW developer.
- Burst Stacking & AI Hero Selection: Understand continuous burst clustering, automatic hero frame promotion, stack expansion, and facial subject identification.
- Camera RAW vs. JPEG Ingestion: Deep-dive into 21 supported camera formats, client-side proxy extraction, 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 visual data are never used to train, tune, or improve proprietary or public AI models. Cloud inferences operate under strict zero-data-retention (ZDR) enterprise policies.