Dark Studio shoot: “Space Ecology” 304 frames · 254 series · 127 selected Install it
Ppick Xreject Spaceloupe Enterseries 1-5stars in the app all of this works from the keyboard

What the app does

  • Ingests the card with checksums and a backup copy, never touching the originals.
  • Analyses the shoot: sharpness, closed eyes, faces, duplicate series.
  • Develops: 29 controls, tone curve, 8 colours, split toning, 5 kinds of masks, geometry, RAW via darktable.
  • Retouches skin gently, keeping pores and texture.
  • Exports sets for print, web and social.
  • Finds a frame by words from its content, with no internet.

What the same costs elsewhere

Dark Studiofree
Aftershoot Complete$540 a year
Narrative Select$120–720 a year
Imagen AI$0.05 per frame

Prices taken from the vendors' own pages on 7 September 2026. Dark Studio is free: there is no subscription to pay, in any currency.

Honestly about the weak spots

Privacy is not our differentiator. Aftershoot and Narrative Select also run on the photographer's machine. Only Imagen uploads to the cloud.

On reportage the culling is weak: it matches the photographer's picks about as well as chance. On portraits and product work it is noticeably better. The app marks, it does not decide.

No personal colour profile yet: it does not learn from your past edits.

Install it

Free forever, no account and no licence keys. The installer sets up everything the app needs; the first run is about 700 MB and up to half an hour, after that it starts in seconds.

Windows10 or 11, 64-bit macOSIntel and Apple Silicon

One thing in return, and only if you feel like it: tell us where the app gets it wrong. Few people use it yet, so one such note is worth a month of guessing.