Studio Project Organization & Starring

Organize your studio catalog with genre filters, project starring, customized culling priorities, and automated discard retention timers.

Studio Project Lifecycle Management

Busy photography studios manage multiple client assignments at the same time: weekend weddings, weekday commercial shoots, family portrait sessions, and multi-day sports tournaments. Keeping these diverse assignments organized ensures your editing queue stays on schedule.

BestShots provides comprehensive catalog organization tools that let you filter, favorite, and customize culling behavior across your entire project library directly on your desktop workstation.

Dashboard Photography Genre Filtering

The Projects Dashboard features a dedicated Genre Filter Bar located directly above your project catalog grid:

Live Project Counts: Each genre pill displays the current number of projects in your library (for example, Wedding (14), Portrait (9), or Sports (5)), alongside an All Genres overview tab.
Nine Specialized Photography Genres: Easily filter your catalog by Wedding, Portrait, Event, Landscape, Real Estate, Sports, Product, Newborn, or Other.
Unified Multi-Signal Search: The genre filter combines seamlessly with text search (by client name, shoot location, or project notes) and sorting controls (by Last Updated, Shoot Date, Total Photos, or Project Name).
Keyboard Navigation: The filter bar fully supports keyboard arrow navigation and accessible focus indicators for rapid studio operation.

Instant Project Starring

The starring feature lets you pin high-priority shoots to the top of your studio dashboard:

One-Click Favoriting: Click the star icon on any project card to mark it as an active priority. The change updates immediately in your browser.
Starred-Only Toggle: Click the "Starred Only" toggle on your dashboard to hide completed, archived, or secondary shoots. This keeps your team focused exclusively on active client deadlines.

Updating Shoot Genres & Culling Profiles

If you need to change a project's photography genre after creating it, you can reassign it at any time in Project Settings:

Open your project and click the Settings tab.
In the Shoot Genre & AI Culling Profile card, select the genre that best reflects your shoot.
Review the tailored culling priorities for that genre:
- Portrait & Newborn: Prioritizes subject eye sharpness, gentle micro-expressions, and catchlight clarity.
- Sports & Action: Emphasizes motion freezing, crisp subject separation, and sequence burst pacing.
- Commercial & Product: Focuses on edge-to-edge sharpness, depth of field consistency, and clean framing.
Click Save Changes to commit your updated profile.

Note

Updating a project genre profile applies to all subsequent analysis runs. Any human decisions and ratings you have already applied remain completely preserved.

Per-Project Culling Overrides & Retention

While studio preferences set default standards for your account, individual client shoots often require custom configurations:

Custom Quality Thresholds: Adjust the minimum quality threshold (0 to 100) on a per-project basis to match specific client needs (such as raising the bar for a luxury bridal session).
Automated Discard Retention Timers: Set an automated cleanup schedule (such as 7 days, 14 days, or 30 days) to automatically purge discarded test frames after client delivery, keeping your cloud vault tidy.
Project Renaming & Sidecar Sync: Renaming a project automatically updates your export templates and sidecar metadata bundles without breaking file linkages.