What is Speed Contact Sheet?
Speed Contact Sheet is a macOS photo culling app built for photographers who shoot in volume — weddings, events, portraits, sports — and need to get from thousands of frames to a clean selection as quickly as possible. It is a dedicated culling tool, not an editor: its only job is to help you decide which photos to keep, reject or flag, and to do that faster than anything else in your workflow.
Every rating is written to a standard XMP sidecar file, so your selections flow straight into Adobe Lightroom, Capture One or Adobe Bridge. The app never moves or modifies your original photos.
Where culling fits in your workflow
Culling is the first pass — the part most photographers dread. Before a single photo gets edited, someone has to look at every frame and decide what stays. On a big shoot that can mean reviewing 8,000 images one by one. Speed Contact Sheet is built for exactly that step, and nothing else. By doing one job well, it gets you to your keepers faster, then hands them off to whatever editor you already use.
Who is it for?
- Wedding and event photographers facing 2,000–10,000 frames per job.
- Portrait, fashion and product shooters who burst and need to pick the sharpest frame fast.
- Anyone whose first culling pass feels slow and who wants a tool dedicated to selection rather than editing.
- Photographers who'd rather trust their own eye than have software decide for them.
Key features
Full-speed rating
Stars (1–5) and color labels with single-key shortcuts. Cull at the speed of thought.
Game controller support
Cull with an Xbox, PlayStation or MFi controller over Bluetooth or USB. Map navigation and ratings to buttons.
Non-destructive XMP
Ratings saved as standard XMP sidecars. Files are never moved or modified. Works with Lightroom, Capture One, Bridge.
Full RAW support
CR3, CR2, ARW, NEF, ORF, RW2, DNG and more — plus JPEG, HEIC, PNG, TIFF and automatic RAW+JPG pairing.
Built-in Pomodoro timer
A focus timer designed for long culling sessions, so a 10,000-photo job stays manageable.
Histogram & metadata
Live histogram and a full EXIF panel: camera, mode, white balance, shutter, aperture, ISO, lens and focal length.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| 1–5 | Rate with 1 to 5 stars |
| 0 | Clear rating |
| 6–9 | Apply color labels |
| T / P | Tag photo |
| Arrows | Navigate between photos |
| Space | Open / close full preview |
| Z | Zoom |
| I | Toggle info panel |
| Caps Lock | Auto-advance after rating |
What makes it different
Speed Contact Sheet doesn't try to be the only app you open. It does one thing — manual culling — and is shaped entirely around making that step fast and comfortable:
- You decide, not an algorithm. Culling is fully human-driven. The app's only job is to make your decisions land faster — no AI guessing which shot you love, nothing uploaded to anyone.
- Cull from the couch with a game controller. Pair an Xbox, PlayStation or MFi controller and rate thousands of frames without hunching over a keyboard.
- A focus timer built for the grind. The built-in Pomodoro timer turns a punishing 8,000-photo cull into structured, repeatable sprints.
- Truly non-destructive. Ratings and color labels are written to standard XMP sidecars and flow straight into Lightroom, Capture One and Bridge. Your originals are never moved or modified.
- Apple-native and focused. Built specifically for macOS, designed to do the culling step better than anything else in your workflow.
Status
Speed Contact Sheet is currently in development and coming to the Mac App Store. Want to know when it's ready? Email hello.coronaapps@gmail.com and we'll let you know at launch.
Frequently asked questions
- What exactly does the app do?
- It's a dedicated culling tool for the first pass of a shoot: review thousands of frames and rate them with stars and colors at full speed, then carry those selections into your editor through standard XMP metadata.
- Does it use AI to pick my photos?
- No. It's fully human-driven — you make every call, and nothing is uploaded or scored by AI.
- Will it change my original files?
- No. Originals are never moved or modified. Ratings and color labels live in standard XMP sidecar files.
- What formats are supported?
- RAW (CR3, CR2, ARW, NEF, ORF, RW2, DNG and more), JPEG, HEIC, PNG and TIFF, with automatic RAW+JPG pairing.
- Is it available yet?
- Not yet — it's in development and coming to the Mac App Store. See luiscorona.com.
About the maker
Speed Contact Sheet is made by Corona Apps, the independent studio of Luis Corona — a wedding filmmaker who spent over a decade editing real emotion frame by frame and now builds focused macOS tools for visual storytellers. Questions, bugs or feature ideas: hello.coronaapps@gmail.com — every email is answered personally.