For sports & event photographers
15,000 frames. One deadline.
ShotSelect is built for the same workflow you already use in Photo Mechanic — burst grouping, compare mode, fully remappable shortcuts — but free, native on Apple Silicon, and zero cloud round-trips. Cull a four-quarter NBA game on the press-row laptop and ship before the post-game presser.
Download for macOS vs Photo Mechanic ($150/yr) →
v1.1.0 · 92 MB · Apple Silicon & Intel · macOS 12+
Burst grouping
14fps R5 bursts collapse to one viewer. Cycle through with Tab. Pick the keeper, reject the duplicates with one keystroke. Time-of-capture-based grouping respects gaps so unrelated frames don't merge.
Compare mode
Flip any 2–4 frames into split-screen at full pixel. C toggles. Sync zoom. Pick the sharpest with ↑ on the winning panel. Made for separating two near-identical decisive moments.
Fully remappable shortcuts
50+ keystrokes, all rebindable. Keep your Photo Mechanic muscle memory if that's what your fingers know — map P=pick, X=reject, etc. JSON-export your shortcut profile and use it on every machine.
PM speed without the $150/yr
Same shortcuts your fingers already know.
ShotSelect's defaults match the Photo Mechanic playbook: P pick / X reject / 1–5 stars (0 clears) / 6–9 color labels / arrows navigate. The cull pass on a 10,000-frame match feels identical — you'll know within 5 minutes if the muscle memory transfers (it does).
XMP output is byte-identical with Photo Mechanic's, so any wire-service or stock-agency upload tool that reads XMP from PM reads ShotSelect's output the same way. There's no IPTC dialect mismatch.
Where PM still wins for photojournalism: Code Replacement (auto-fill captions from a roster JSON) and built-in FTP. ShotSelect doesn't ship those today. See the full PM comparison →
Common questions from event photographers
Can I match my Photo Mechanic shortcuts exactly?
Yes. All 50+ keystrokes are remappable from Settings → Keyboard. The defaults already match PM (P pick, X reject, 1–5 stars, 6–9 colors, arrows navigate). See the keyboard guide →
Does it scale to 30,000-frame jobs?
Yes. Persistent photo_metadata cache keeps grid views responsive even at 100k+ images. Multi-source ingest pulls from multiple SD cards or folders into one cull session. Sustained throughput tested across multi-hour sessions.
Will the IPTC fields make it to my wire service?
The basics — title, caption, byline, copyright, keywords — yes. ShotSelect writes IPTC IIM via XMP that wire-service tools read natively. The full IPTC editor (Code Replacement, AP-style auto-expansion) is still PM-only territory.
Burst grouping vs Photo Mechanic's Burst sequence?
Same idea, time-of-capture based. ShotSelect groups frames within 1 second of each other (configurable). Cycle within a group with Tab. Mark the keeper; the rest auto-reject if you want.
Can I cull on a press-row laptop with no internet?
Yes. ShotSelect runs 100% offline. The on-device CLIP model is bundled with the app. No license check, no cloud telemetry, no internet round-trip required.
Does it support Sony A1 / Nikon Z9 / Canon R5 raw bursts?
All three plus Sony ARW, Nikon NEF, and Canon CR3 / CR2. Burst frame rate up to 30fps tested. Embedded JPEG previews render in 10–20ms regardless of burst depth.
Try it on next week's match.
Free. macOS. Same shortcuts as PM. Open the folder, start culling.
Built for your shoot