Windows 10 & 11 · macOS 12+ (Apple Silicon)

A faster way to cull than Lightroom.

Lightroom is a great editor. It is a slow place to cull: you import first, the catalog wants to own your photos, and big folders lag. PhotoTaken does just the culling, fast, then hands the shots you'll use to Lightroom. No import, no catalog, no subscription, and your ratings travel in standard XMP.

Try it free for 14 days See the full PhotoTaken site

Why photographers cull elsewhere

Lightroom is a great editor. It is a slow culler.

We are working photographers, and we edit in Lightroom too. But culling a wedding inside it meant waiting through an import before we could even scroll.

The catalog wants to own your photos, previews render while you are trying to move, and a few thousand frames in, it drags. Culling is the one part of the day that should feel instant, and it did not. So we built a tool that does only that part, and does it fast. It is called PhotoTaken. You still edit wherever you like: your picks follow the photos in through standard XMP, with no catalog import of the rejects.

PhotoTaken vs Lightroom

Side by side, honestly.

Lightroom wins on editing and we say so. PhotoTaken is the fast culling step in front of it, not a replacement for the develop module.

	PhotoTaken	Lightroom Classic
Cull a card with no import or catalog step first	✓	—
Stays fast scrolling thousands of RAW frames	✓	~
RAW+JPEG paired as one file (rename, move, drag)	✓	~
Ratings and labels in portable XMP, no catalog needed	✓	~
Verified dual-drive ingest straight off the card	✓	~
Runs offline; no account or cloud sign-in	✓	~
One-time purchase; no subscription	✓	—
Full RAW develop and photo editing	—	✓

✓ Yes ~ Partial or with caveats (hover for detail) — No

How they fit together

PhotoTaken and Lightroom, side by side.

Cull on the card in PhotoTaken, then send only the shots you'll use to Lightroom to edit. Your star ratings and color labels are written as standard XMP, so they show up in Lightroom with no catalog import of the rejects. PhotoTaken is a one-time purchase, from $69 for Light or $189 for Pro, bought once, not another monthly line on your Lightroom bill.

Questions

What people ask before they try it.

Mostly about the catalog, and about what happens to the picks you make here.

Can I cull first and import only the shots I'll use into Lightroom?

Yes, that is the point of using the two together. Rip through the card here, choose your best images, then import just those into Lightroom. The rejects never have to enter your catalog at all.

Do my star ratings and color labels show up in Lightroom?

They travel with the files. We write standard XMP, embedded for JPEG and TIFF and as a sidecar for RAW, so the stars and labels you set while culling are already there when Lightroom reads them.

Is this a replacement for Lightroom?

No. There is no RAW develop here, no masking, no presets. PhotoTaken is the step in front of your editor, getting a full card down to the shots worth working on.

Do I need to build a catalog first?

No. Point it at a folder and the contact sheet fills. Nothing to import, nothing to sync, and no wait before you can start picking.

Is it a subscription?

There is a 14-day trial of the Pro edition, with no credit card. After that it is $69 for Light or $189 for Pro, bought once. No subscription, and every feature on the roadmap arrives as a free update.