Quickstart Guide

Get up and running with BestShots.AI in under 5 minutes: from project creation and direct RAW upload to AI-assisted culling and Lightroom XMP export.

From Ingest to Deliverable in 5 Minutes

BestShots.AI is designed to compress hours of culling into a quick, intuitive review session. Follow this five-step workflow to cull your first shoot.

Step 1: Create a Project

Log in to your BestShots account and navigate to the Projects Dashboard.
Click New Project in the upper-right corner.
Enter a descriptive project title (e.g., 2026-09-Miller-Wedding or Highland-Editorial-Shoot).
Select your preferred default culling mode and click Create Project.

Your project will open immediately to the photo upload surface.

Step 2: Ingest Camera RAW or JPEG Frames

BestShots features Fast Cloud Ingestion (ADR 0015), allowing you to ingest hundreds of high-resolution RAW and JPEG files in seconds without uploading heavy gigabyte-scale RAW master files.

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.
Background Web 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 ~500ms per frame.
Only the lightweight WebP inspection proxies (~250KB–500KB) are transmitted to Microsoft Azure Blob Storage, reducing upload bandwidth by over 95% while keeping your master RAW sensor bytes 100% on your local disk.

Upload in Progress

You do not have to wait for all photos to upload before exploring. Once the initial batch completes, you can proceed directly to the Curation Workspace.

Step 3: Run AI Quality & Burst Analysis

Once your photos are uploaded, BestShots can automatically analyze your shoot:

Click Run Analysis in the project header.
The AI analysis engine evaluates each frame along multiple quality axes:
- Eye Detection & Sharpness: Detects open eyes, focal plane alignment, and micro-motion blur.
- Expression Scoring: Identifies authentic smiles, neutral expressions, and closed-eye blinks.
- Perceptual Burst Grouping: Identifies continuous sequences shot within 5 seconds using 64-bit perceptual difference hashing (dHash).
The highest-scoring frame in every burst sequence is automatically designated as the Hero frame (isStackPrimary), instantly condensing a 20-frame burst into a single clean thumbnail.

Step 4: Rapid Keyboard Culling

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

Key	Action
`K`	Mark photo as Keep
`D`	Mark photo as Discard
`U`	Reset decision to Unrated
`1` to `5`	Assign Star Rating (1 to 5 stars)
`0`	Clear Star Rating
`←` / `→`	Navigate to previous / next frame
`Space`	Toggle full-screen lightbox zoom
`P`	Promote active photo to Stack Hero
`S`	Expand / collapse current burst stack

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

Step 5: Export Non-Destructive XMP Workflow Bundle

When your shortlist is finalized:

Click Export in the top action bar.
Select destination: XMP Sidecars & Workflow Bundle (.zip).
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.
Click Start Export and download the ZIP archive.
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's Capture folder and select Metadata > Reload Metadata.

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.