Adobe released some new updates to Lightroom and Photoshop this week. One of the Lightroom Classic features is “Assisted Culling”. While I think this is the future of organizing photos, it’s just not something I’m interested in right now since it’s mostly used for portraits (which I don’t shoot). So rather than accidentally get stuck having it process photos, I found a way to turn it off and I thought I’d share it if any of you felt the same. Enjoy!
I love teaching and photography... In that order. I feel that enjoying photography, and photo editing can get WAY too complicated. So my personal mission (and favorite thing to do), is to create education that simplifies the process of taking great photos, and how to edit them to get the results you’ve always wanted.
Thanks Matt, very useful to know. I don’t want it on either!
I bet one of the reasons “the culling panel keeps opening” is the muscle memory of pressing cmd-1 for “Quick Develop” which Adobe destroyed by adding “Asst Culling” & “Culling Services” to the top, with NO way to move them to bottom (to retain our keyboard shortcuts).
2025-10-28 post to https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/early-access-assisted-culling-lrclassic/m-p/15519069?mv=in-product&trackingid=45P49GCB
Disappointing User Interface violence to long time/pro users: Our muscle memory typing (which is critical when one spends 12+hours a day in LrC, has been broken by putting the “Assisted Culling” and “Culling Scores” (btw, labelled inconsistently in the Windows-> Panels menu, where it’s labelled “Photo Quality”) at the TOP!?!
What used to be ctrl/cmd 1 -> Quick Develop, cmd/ctrl 4 Metadata, etc. now creates completely new results. YUCK!
How about you respect us users and 1. allow US to set the Keyboard Shortcuts (which would be helpful throughout the program)
or PLEASE allow we the users to change the order of the Library, right side Panels, changing the cmd/ctrl keys
or Put the new modules at THE BOTTOM of the panel.
To add insult to injury these new panels really only apply to Portrait oriented folks. Right now at least, they are mostly irrelevant to Fine Art, Landscape, etc. photographers. So to put them, immovably at the top and break our navigation is really crappy indeed.
There doesn’t seem to be any workarounds(?) Can’t use a keyboard re-mapping program (like Keyboard Maestro on the Mac), because the shortcuts are Module-dependent (cmd/ctrl 1 does 1 thing in Library, another in Develop, etc.).
UGH!
And also, no, hiding the Culling panels doesn’t change the keyboard shortcuts. And reflexive typing the OLD shortcuts unhides the damn culling panels.
And saying the new “auto-stacking” feature will benefit non-portrait folks is only partially true. MANY of us hate Stacks, and wish we had a preference where we could completely turn it off. We’ve had to learn to frequently go back to Library, select thumbnails, and press cmd-shift-G to unstack/unhide.
Yuck again!
I can’t speak to others. I haven’t used the Quick Develop panel in 20 years and don’t ever plan to so pressing Cmd + 1 never happens for me. I don’t use keyboard shortcuts for panels personally. And Yet I still found the panel to be open and annoying 🙂
Thank you
Thank you for pointing this out. I turned it off
Thank you Matt, didn’t do a great job of identifying my wildlife images for keep or culling first time around, and I stopped using it there and then. Now I know why. It’s meant for portraits!
Thanks for your ever useful tips and training. It’s always appreciated.
Help! This is one of the most annoying features that Adobe have ever introduced. I have turned it off, but if I turn on filters (Ctrl L) an infuriating bright blue nag screen appears at the top of the screen asking me if I want to turn on AI analysis in catalogue settings to use assisted culling. Please tell me how to stop this nag screen.
Thanks Matt
Very useful info
I turned it off too as mostly shoot birds and other wildlife with 600mm f4 and need critical eye focus which Assisted Culling did not provide
I tried it out on some Chicago Marathon photos and it was somewhat useful for the runners. However, when it analyzed my photos in the folder it did not give me the green check or red Xs. It gave me the Focus number but did not identify the photos. Restarted LrC and computer but no change. Must be some kind of glitch as my Catalog settings were correct. For now, I will just turn it off. Totally enjoyed LrC and PS Virtual Summit. I always do VIP..too much valuable information to do all at once. Love that I can go back to your videos and watch on my own schedule!
thank you so much Matt! Always good to know how professionals work. Really appreciate all you do.
Thanks Matt, that’s certainly useful! I don’t know yet whether I’ll want to use it, but I suspect not in the longer term!
Assisted culling is of no interest to me either….. I don’t need it. Going through a few hundred photos is not really that time consuming….and if you go have thousands for a shoot, or job, you need to think again….”machine gun” shutter release…? nah… crazy…
Hi. Glad you found the video useful. And I mostly agree with you. Just know that many photographers can’t help the quantity they shoot. So statements like “if you have thousands for a shoot, you need to think again” don’t work or help anyone reading this comment. You do you… and everyone will respect it, as long as you respect everyone else’s shooting style and needs.
I shoot airshows and often shoot in “machine gun” mode. Many are out-of-focus. Would love for this to work on my photos
Matt, your PSAs, instruction, sales.etc., are always much appreciated. The important part of this one is the independence, trust and integrity bump that reinforces how you give it to us straight. Keep ’em coming!
Thank you, Matt. You are a life saver.
Thanks Matt, your public service announcements are always greatly appreciated.
In the process of turning off the assisted culling feature I noticed a tick box for “Include develop settings in metadata inside JPEG, TIFF, PNG and PSD files”.
My question is… if I uncheck that box is there any downside that might cause a problem later on?
I really do not want/need my develop metadata available to anyone else if I send them a photo file but I’m being cautious in case there is a potential issue I am unaware of.
Thanks Matt. It’s interesting but I think I’m with you on waiting until it gets better at non-portraits.
Thanks for the heads up, I’ll not use it either.
thank you I won’t use it either
Mr Google now wants me to sign in to watch any of your videos, never had to do that before. Trouble is that when I do log in it does not accept my log in. So frustrating.
THANK YOU!!! This is a great tip and I know it would have really bugged me to figure out how to turn it off .
Thanks for that great tip Matt, good stuff. I’m a great fan of the PS Virtual Summit, bought a VIP pass for every one since they started. The whole collection is a very useful resource library.
Thanks for the head’s up. I prefer for this kind of thing to be permanently off, too.
Your instructional posts are not always extremely helpful Matt, but they are timely and generally much earlier posted than those of your counterparts. Much appreciated.
I’m wondering, if instead of the two words “not always”, you meant to say “not only “?
I thought the same thing. I had to read it a couple of times to realize it was meant as a compliment I think and not the opposite 🙂
Great tip Matt. Never would have found that on my own.
Hi Matt,
Would it work for multiple birds in flight photos?
I’m sure Auto Stacking would, but give it a try and that’s the best way to find out
Thank you, Matt. As I usually do, I am holding off updating to allow people to find oddities like this and for Adobe to release a “fixing stuff” update. As an outdoor photographer, I see no use for this panel/feature, and like you, simply want it off.
Hi Michael. It’s not an oddity. Adobe won’t change anything as nothing is broke. I’m just sharing a feature I don’t like and that I personally prefer to turn off. Remember not every feature they release will be one that landscape and nature photographers need. But again, it’s not a bug. It’s deliberate and you waiting to install the new version won’t change that.
Turned it off and removed the culling panels from the Library view – much cleaner now.
CONCUR, pain in rear!!!!!
I was not able to turn auto-culling on and off. I keep it up-to-date and 14.5.1 doesn’t have the culling thing.
The new LRc requires macOS Sonoma and that won’t run on my ancient 5 year old iMac. I need to spend 2 or 3 thousand on a new Mac because the now OS-es won’t run on Intel platforms. Adobe only _says_ that it runs on Intel, but they require a macOS rev that will not. Merde.
Thanks. Just did it. Good idea.
Mahalo for this. I tried it on a folder of bird photos. Didn’t work. Maybe down the road it will see Birds Eye’s.
I had a much more serious problem with the culling “stuff”. I tried to import photos. A big culling dialog popped over over the top of the import window, apparently to show me something about the new “feature”. There was NO WAY to get rid of it. The “x” icon on the dialog did nothing. I finally resorted to using the task manager to kill the task. I tried three times over — import could not be used. I wound up uninstalling the latest release, reinstalling the previous version, and unpacking the zip of the previous catalog version. If I hear about some bug fixes, I’ll try the latest release again, but remember how you showed to turn the thing off. Not impressed by the lack of QA.
Thanks for the tip. I had the same issue last night & it drove me crazy!
Thank you so much.
I tried it with a folder of 285 pictures of a trip to the Netherlands. While Adobe fine-tuned it for portraits, the Subject Focus selection does also work for landscapes, architecture, cityscapes and even cars and planes. The rejects are blurry pictures, poor compositions, and less interesting variations of the same subject. The sliders move in multiples of 10 (10-20-30-…).
The only problem I get when the feature is on is when I select pictures to edit them in PhotoShop (as a smart object?), I get PhotoShop to hang…
Thank you, Matt. I wouldn’t use the new culling feature either since I, too, don’t do portraits…
Thank you for all your suggestions. They help me learn the additions to these software without spending much time. I have a PC and surprisingly the culling feature is not even available on my LrC. When I go to the upper left to the “identity badge” as you tried to call it only shows the metadata options I saw in catalog settings showed up there too. I did turn off other features that I don’t care about so maybe that will speed things up for me in Lightroom.
Thank you!
I always like seeing your latest notification arrive in the inbox. Your explanations are clear, pertinent, and easy to follow As an instructor myself, I like and value your approach. I like the fact that you use the style of talking as if you’re talking to just one person. That means that I as a viewer feel as if you’re talking just to me.
Thanks Jim!
Thanks Matt – I agree its slightly annoying at this point