Quickstart Guide: From Ingest to Cull in 5 Minutes

From Ingest to Deliverable in 5 Minutes

BestShots is engineered to compress hours of manual culling into a fast, intuitive review session on desktop workstation monitors. Follow this five-step workflow to cull your first shoot.

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Step 1: Create a Project on the Desktop Workstation

1. Log in to your BestShots account and navigate to the Projects Dashboard.
2. Click New Project in the upper-right corner to open the desktop project creation workstation (/projects/new).
3. Desktop Workstation Split Layout: BestShots enforces a desktop workstation experience (minimum 1024px viewport) with an efficient layout designed for large displays:
   • Project Identity: Enter a descriptive project title (such as 2026-09-Miller-Wedding or Highland-Editorial-Shoot). The project name input automatically receives focus on load.
   • Shoot Notes: Optionally expand the prompt to add shoot notes or a client brief to record client preferences, delivery deadlines, or creative intent (up to 500 characters).
   • 9 Photography Shoot Profiles: Select your shoot genre from the visual cards. Each card displays an intuitive icon and a tailored culling focus:
     • Wedding: Moments, facial expressions, and emotion prioritization
     • Portrait: Critical eye focus, flattering skin tones, and expressions
     • Event: Candid interactions, stage presence, and atmosphere
     • Landscape: Dynamic range, level horizons, and edge-to-edge sharpness
     • Real Estate: Window pull balance, vertical perspective, and clean lines
     • Sports: Peak action freezing, motion control, and decisive moments
     • Product: Color accuracy, spotless backgrounds, and fine detail
     • Newborn: Peaceful expressions, gentle skin tones, and low noise
     • Other: Balanced general photography evaluation
4. Dynamic Curation Journey & Live AI Preview: As you select a shoot profile, the preview card instantly reflects:
   • 3-Step Curation Journey: Highlights 1. Project Identity & Profile (Current) to 2. Photo Ingestion to 3. Automated AI Curation.
   • Live Criterion Weights: Displays the normalized 8-point evaluation weights calibrated for your selected shoot profile.
5. Click Create & Continue to Photos (or press Enter).

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Step 2: Ingest Camera RAW or JPEG Frames

BestShots routes directly to the photo ingestion surface (/projects/[projectId]/add-photos), which adaptively adjusts based on project state:

• Initial Empty-State Ingestion: For newly created projects, the interface displays a streamlined header paired with the Curation Journey card displaying your selected shoot profile evaluation weights.
• Subsequent Batch Upload: For established projects with existing photos, the interface renders workspace navigation tabs (Photos, Add Photos, Analysis, Export, Settings), allowing you to append additional batches seamlessly.
• Pre-Upload Culling Overrides: Before starting an upload, you can optionally adjust the quality score threshold (0 to 100), toggle facial focus verification, or customize burst sensitivity for this specific shoot.

Fast Client-Side RAW Ingestion

1. Drag and drop your camera RAW files (Sony .ARW, Canon .CR2 / .CR3, Nikon .NEF, Fujifilm .RAF, Lumix .RW2, Olympus .ORF, Leica / Adobe .DNG, Apple ProRAW / .HEIC) or standard JPEGs directly into the upload dropzone.
2. Background browser workers instantly extract high-fidelity 2048px WebP inspection proxies and camera EXIF metadata (camera make, model, lens, shutter speed, ISO, aperture, and capture timestamp) right inside your browser in roughly 500ms per frame.
3. Only the lightweight WebP inspection proxies (250KB to 500KB) are transmitted to your secure studio cloud vault, reducing upload bandwidth by over 95% while keeping your master RAW files 100% on your local disk.

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Step 3: Run AI Quality & Burst Analysis

Once your photos are ingested, BestShots executes automated computer vision and quality curation:

1. Click Run Analysis in the project header.
2. The AI culling engine evaluates each frame against your selected shoot profile:
   • Shoot Profile Calibration: Automatically applies the profile exact 8-point criterion weights (such as 25% expression for Wedding, 25% motion freeze for Sports, 25% dynamic range for Real Estate & Landscape) to guarantee objective, genre-aware scoring.
   • Eye Detection & Sharpness: Evaluates focal plane alignment, micro-motion blur, and iris sharpness. In sports and outdoor action, protective eyewear (sunglasses, visors, helmets) is accommodated without false penalties.
   • Expression Scoring: Identifies authentic smiles, neutral expressions, and closed-eye blinks. In newborn photography, peaceful sleeping expressions are evaluated positively.
   • Perceptual Burst Grouping: Identifies continuous sequences shot within 5 seconds using visual difference analysis.
3. The highest-scoring frame in every burst sequence is automatically designated as the Hero frame, instantly condensing a 20-frame burst into a single clean thumbnail.

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Step 4: Rapid Keyboard Culling

Navigate to the Photos tab to begin manual review. BestShots implements a high-speed, zero-latency keyboard workflow:

Thanks to instant optimistic workstation updates, every rating and culling decision reflects on your screen in 0 milliseconds, with no waiting for network round-trips.

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Step 5: Export Non-Destructive XMP Workflow Bundle

When your shortlist is finalized:

1. Click Export in the top action bar.
2. Select destination: XMP Sidecars & Workflow Bundle (.zip).
3. Under Settings:
   • Photo & Sidecar Naming Format: Keep the default Keep Original Camera Filenames ({originalName}) so sidecars automatically pair with the RAW files on your local drive.
   • Include 1-Click Desktop Organizer scripts: Ensure this option is checked to generate instant sorting scripts.
4. Click Start Export and download the ZIP archive.
5. Extract the downloaded ZIP archive. Inside you will find your .xmp sidecars, desktop organizer scripts, and a self-contained README.html visual guide.

Applying Your Curation Decisions

Choose the workflow that fits your post-production setup:

• 1-Click Desktop Organizer (Zero Software Required):
  Copy organize_keepers.bat (Windows) or organize_keepers.command (macOS) into your camera photo directory and double-click it. The script immediately creates a bestshots_keepers folder and copies your approved keeper RAW files into it.
• Adobe Lightroom Classic & Adobe Bridge:
  Copy the .xmp sidecars into your photo folder alongside the RAW files. Open Lightroom Classic, select the photos, and choose Metadata > Read Metadata from Files (or browse the folder in Adobe Bridge) to see all 5-star ratings and color labels appear instantly.
• Capture One Pro:
  Copy the .xmp sidecars into your session Capture folder and select Metadata > Reload Metadata.

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Replaying the In-App Workspace Tour

Need a refresher on where specific controls are located? Click the Tour button in the curation workspace toolbar at any time to launch the step-by-step interactive spotlight guide.