Cullibrate gives you two ways to bring photos in. Both are non-destructive — originals are never overwritten or moved without your explicit choice.
Copy & Cull from a card
Use this when your files are still on an SD or CFexpress card. Cullibrate copies them to a destination you choose, and you cull from the copy while the card stays untouched.
- Insert your card. When Card detected appears, choose Refine import…, or click Open with options.
- Under Sources, check the card is selected, then review what will be copied.
- Under Plan, choose a destination. Add a backup destination if you want a second copy on another drive.
- Optionally use Refine: under Files, sort copies into dated folders or rename them; under After copying, verify every copy or eject the card.
- Click Begin Copy & Cull. You can start culling as photos finish copying; the rest continue in the background.
Open instantly
Use this when the files are already on your computer's drive or an external storage drive and you don't want another copy. Drop the folder on Open instantly, or click it to choose. Cullibrate works from the folder without copying or moving anything.
With a Colorbration, choose it beneath Open instantly to see your look on every folder you open there. See Preview Edits.
What Cullibrate writes to your files
As you cull, Cullibrate saves ratings, colour labels, tag or reject choices, crops, and capture-time fixes as standard XMP metadata. RAW files, and formats such as HEIC, get an .xmp sidecar beside them, and the photo file itself never changes. Standalone JPEG and DNG files keep XMP inside the file, where Lightroom reads it: Cullibrate updates only that metadata, never the image. The exception is a DNG kept alongside its RAW, which shares the RAW's sidecar.