Burst Curation & Hero Frame Selection

Master burst sequence grouping, facial micro-expression analysis, automated Hero frame promotion, and 1-keystroke burst culling in BestShots.

Automated Burst Clustering & Hero Election

During dynamic moments—such as the wedding first kiss, cake cutting, children running, or athletic sprints—photographers fire bursts of 5 to 25 continuous frames. Manually comparing near-identical frames to find the one frame where both subjects have open eyes, authentic smiles, and razor-sharp eyelash focus is one of the most exhausting parts of post-production.

BestShots combines perceptual visual analysis with facial evaluation to cluster bursts automatically, isolate the winning Hero frame, and allow rapid batch culling in a single keystroke.

The Burst Clustering Pipeline

Burst clustering operates automatically during photo ingestion without requiring manual tagging or sorting:

Temporal Clustering: BestShots analyzes your camera capture timestamps to detect rapid shooting sequences captured within continuous 5-second windows.
Visual Scene Similarity: The system evaluates structural composition and subject framing between adjacent frames. When visual similarity exceeds 85%, the images are grouped into a single collapsible Burst Stack.
Collapsible Gallery Stacks: Instead of cluttering your gallery with dozens of duplicate frames, the burst is neatly collapsed into a single thumbnail displaying a stack badge (such as 12 photos).

AI Multi-Factor Hero Scoring

Once a stack is formed, each frame undergoes automated quality assessment to elect the Hero frame:

Evaluation Factor	Weight	Culling Assessment
Eye Openness & Blink Avoidance	40%	Inspects eyelid positions on all key subjects. Frames with accidental blinks or mid-motion squints receive severe penalties.
Focal Plane Sharpness	40%	Measures critical sharpness across eyelashes, pupils, and facial features to determine which frame achieved peak optical focus.
Expression & Head Angle	20%	Identifies authentic smiles, flattering head tilts, and emotional resonance over stiff or awkward expressions.

The frame achieving the highest composite score is awarded the purple Hero badge and displayed as the primary thumbnail on top of the stack.

Workstation Stack Controls

BestShots provides versatile controls to review and manage burst stacks on your desktop workstation:

Expand Stack & Side-by-Side Comparison

Click the stack count badge (such as 4 photos) or press Space on a stacked thumbnail to expand the burst into a dedicated comparison carousel. All frames render in high resolution with synchronized facial crops aligned side-by-side for instant scrutiny.

Promote to Hero (`P`)

If you prefer a different expression or artistic composition than the AI initial selection:

Hover over the preferred frame in the expanded stack.
Click the star icon or choose Promote to Hero (or press P).
BestShots instantly updates your chosen frame as the new Hero with 0ms optimistic UI feedback.

"Keep Hero & Reject Rest" (`Shift` + `K`)

The single most powerful accelerator for high-volume burst photography:

With the stack selected, click Keep Hero & Reject Rest (or press Shift + K).
The designated Hero frame is instantly marked as Keep (5 stars).
All remaining duplicate frames in the stack are automatically marked as Discard.
A 15-frame burst is completely culled in less than one second.

Dissolve Stack

If photos in a sequence represent distinct compositions that should be judged individually:

Select the stack and click Dissolve Stack.
The stack grouping is removed and all photos return to the main gallery grid as individual frames.

Key Subject & VIP Facial Curation

BestShots pairs burst curation with intelligent facial recognition tailored for wedding and event workflows:

Facial Landmark Detection: Automatically locates subjects even under challenging lighting, heavy backlight, or side-profile angles.
Visual Subject Grouping: Groups recurring individuals across thousands of frames into distinct person clusters.
Subject Filtering: Name key subjects (such as "Bride", "Groom", "Parents") in the Subject Filter panel. Filter your entire shoot to display only frames containing specific individuals or combinations of subjects.

Note

Facial recognition data is strictly isolated to your individual account and project. It is never pooled, never matched against external databases, and permanently purged whenever photos or projects are deleted.