Aftershoot
Desktop software that culls, edits and retouches entire photo shoots with AI, then delivers them through client galleries. It runs offline on Windows and macOS, learns the photographer's own editing style and bills a flat monthly fee.
What is Aftershoot?
Aftershoot is desktop software that takes on the post-production work a professional photographer faces after every shoot: sorting, editing, retouching and delivering. It installs on Windows or macOS and runs locally, which means images are processed on the photographer's own machine rather than uploaded to a server. The application is built around four modules. Selects handles culling. It offers a fully automated first pass or an assisted mode where the photographer keeps control, groups genuine duplicates apart from creative variations by reading the scene behind each frame, and provides Survey Mode, a Spray Can rating tool and Grid and Loupe views for review. Edits applies colour and tone: it trains an AI profile on the photographer's own edited catalogue, converts an existing Lightroom preset into an adaptive profile in about a minute, or applies one of more than thirty styles built by working photographers. A native RAW editor supplies the manual controls found in Lightroom or Capture One. Retouch covers skin, stray hair, glasses glare, clothing creases, distraction removal and backdrop replacement, working directly on the RAW file with presets that adapt to each image's exposure and colour profile; a single retouch can be synced across a whole gallery. Galleries delivers the finished work through branded client galleries with proofing, favourites, downloads, face detection, face gating, keyword search and a built-in print store with lab fulfilment. The publisher, Aftershoot Private Limited, was founded in 2020 by Harshit Dwivedi and Justin Benson and is registered in Delhi, with offices in India and the United States. The site claims more than 248,000 photographers, 5.4 billion images processed and an average of 39 hours saved per month. Pricing is deliberately flat rather than per image: culling from USD 10 per month, editing from USD 30, retouching from USD 20, or USD 45 for the complete workflow, all on annual billing. RAW, JPEG and TIFF files are supported, exports preserve ratings and labels for Lightroom Classic, Capture One, Photoshop, Photo Mechanic and Bridge, and the workflow is non-destructive. There is no mobile app and no public API.
What it does
- Cull thousands of frames down to a final selection in minutes
- Edit a whole shoot in the photographer's own signature style
- Retouch skin, hair, glare and backgrounds across an entire album
- Deliver branded client galleries with proofing and face detection
- Turn an existing Lightroom preset into an adaptive AI editing profile
- Export to Lightroom Classic, Capture One or Photoshop with ratings intact
- Work entirely offline, with files never leaving the machine
When to use Aftershoot / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if Aftershoot is the right fit.
When to use Aftershoot
- Wedding and event photographers, who come back from every job with several thousand frames to sort
- Portrait, family, newborn, boudoir and school studios needing consistent retouching across a whole album
- Photographers already working in Lightroom Classic or Capture One, since exports keep ratings, labels and flags
- Anyone shooting under a non-disclosure agreement or without reliable internet, thanks to fully local processing
- Established photographers with a large edited catalogue, who can train an AI profile on their own back catalogue
When not to use Aftershoot
- Photographers who work primarily from a phone or tablet, since the software is desktop only
- Developers hoping to plug photo processing into a pipeline, as there is no public API
- Anyone expecting image generation: the tool only processes photographs that already exist
- Users on older hardware, particularly Intel integrated graphics or GPUs with under 2 GB of VRAM
- Organisations whose work falls under HIPAA or FISMA, which the Terms of Use explicitly exclude
How to use Aftershoot
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Download the installer for Windows, Intel Mac or Apple Silicon from the downloads page
- Install the application; the site puts the whole setup at under five minutes
- Create an account and start the 30-day full-access trial, for which no credit card is requested
- Decide on the import screen whether the images may be used for AI training, before importing anything
- Import the shoot, then run culling in AI Automated mode for a hands-off pass or AI Assisted mode to stay in control
- Review the selection in Survey Mode, rate with the Spray Can and switch between Grid and Loupe views
- Set up editing: train a profile on an already-edited Lightroom Classic or Capture One catalogue, import a Lightroom preset, or pick a pre-built style
- Refine individual frames in the built-in RAW editor
- Apply a retouching preset, adjust one image, then sync the result across the gallery
- Create the client gallery directly from Aftershoot, or export to Lightroom, Capture One, Photoshop or local storage
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Flat pricing with unlimited volume, so no per-image fee whatever the size of the shoot
- Processing is local and works offline, so files never leave the photographer's machine
- AI training can be declined from the import screen, without losing access to the service
- Four stages of post-production in one application, through to client delivery
- Fits an existing Lightroom Classic or Capture One workflow, with ratings and labels preserved on export
- The AI learns the photographer's style rather than imposing one of its own
- 30-day full-access trial with no credit card, and modules can be bought separately from USD 10 per month
Cons
- Desktop only: no mobile app and no browser version of the processing software
- No public API and no developer documentation
- The pricing page is rendered in JavaScript and shows no figures without it, so prices have to be found in the FAQ and the product pages
- Training a personal editing profile requires an already-edited Lightroom Classic or Capture One catalogue of at least 2,500 images, with 10,000 recommended
- Real hardware requirements: preview and retouching are unreliable on Intel integrated graphics or GPUs with under 2 GB of VRAM
- Payments are non-refundable unless expressly stated otherwise
- GDPR paperwork is incomplete, with no DPA, no subprocessor list, no Article 27 representative and a privacy policy dating from July 2023
Pricing & Plans
A permanent free plan exists only for Aftershoot Galleries, whose Starter tier includes 10 GB of photo storage and 1 GB of video storage. The culling, editing and retouching modules are paid, following a 30-day full-access trial that requires no credit card. The lowest paid entry point is USD 10 per month for AI Culling on annual billing, or USD 15 per month billed monthly. Pricing is flat rather than per image, and all fees are due immediately and non-refundable unless expressly stated otherwise.
- unlimited AI culling
- AI Automated and AI Assisted modes
- Survey Mode and Spray Can
- precision culling options
- all integrations (Lightroom Classic
- Capture One
- Photo Mechanic
- Bridge) and offline processing
- unlimited AI editing
- personal AI profiles
- Instant AI Profiles from a Lightroom preset
- more than thirty pre-built styles and the native RAW editor
- at USD 30 per month billed annually
- unlimited AI retouching
- adaptive presets and batch synchronisation
- at USD 20 per month billed annually
- the end-to-end workflow with unlimited culling
- editing and retouching in a single subscription
- at USD 45 per month billed annually
- free
- with 10 GB of photo storage and 1 GB of video storage
- paid tiers add storage on a launch price grid still presented as temporary
- Every plan includes a 30-day full-access trial with no credit card required
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how Aftershoot handles your data.
GDPR overview
The privacy policy carries a dedicated GDPR section listing the seven data subject rights: access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, objection, portability and withdrawal of consent. Aftershoot undertakes to answer requests within one month, while reserving the right to charge a small fee for access requests. European users are pointed to that section from the opening of the policy, and a separate CCPA section covers California. Beyond this, the documentation is thin: no Data Processing Agreement is published or offered, no subprocessor list appears anywhere on the site, no Article 27 EU representative is designated and no data protection officer is named. The policy is version 3, dated 13 July 2023, and therefore predates the Retouch and Galleries modules. The company is established in India, with offices in India and the United States.
Who owns the data?
Under the Terms of Use, the photographer keeps full ownership of their photographs and of anything they post. Aftershoot receives only a limited, non-exclusive licence to access, optionally store and process those files in order to deliver the service, and to use the photographs and editing data to train the AI systems behind the application. The company commits explicitly never to publicly display, distribute, sell or sublicense customer photographs to a third party, never to use them in marketing without separate permission, and never to claim ownership. The licence ends automatically when the account is deleted. Ideas and feedback sent to Aftershoot, by contrast, become the company's property.
Reuse rights
The photographer may reuse everything Aftershoot produces without asking permission: the company claims no ownership over the images and takes no rights over the output. On its own side, Aftershoot collects registration and contact details, payment data handled by Stripe, feedback and navigation data. Imported images and their associated edits are used solely to train the machine learning models behind the product, and the policy states that this material is never reproduced, resold or redistributed and can be deleted on request at any time. Email addresses are shared with brand ambassadors only where the user has explicitly consented at registration. Training can be declined from the import screen before any file is brought in.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
Two different realities sit side by side. The images themselves are processed locally on the photographer's own Windows or macOS machine and, according to the site, are never stored on Aftershoot's servers, so for culling, editing and retouching there is no hosting question at all. The website and the Galleries module are another matter. The Terms of Use state plainly that the Site is hosted in the United States and that any user accessing it from elsewhere is transferring their data to the United States. Galleries stores photographs and videos online, with 10 GB of photo storage and 1 GB of video on the free tier. The privacy policy adds that data may be transferred, stored or processed in a country other than the user's own, and made accessible to affiliates and third-party providers internationally. No specific data centre, region or provider is named beyond that. DNS resolution points to Cloudflare on an anycast address, which identifies the CDN in front of the site rather than where anything is actually stored.
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting Aftershoot.
- Photographs are used to train Aftershoot's models by default; the opt-out sits on the import screen and has to be set before any file is brought in
- Payments are due immediately and non-refundable unless expressly stated otherwise
- Delaware law and exclusive Delaware jurisdiction govern the contract, while the company is registered in India, which is a long way to go for a European user with a dispute
- No Data Processing Agreement, no published subprocessor list and no Article 27 EU representative, which makes the tool harder to justify in a formal GDPR assessment
- The privacy policy is version 3, dated 13 July 2023, and predates the Retouch and Galleries modules it is meant to cover
- The Terms of Use exclude any use subject to HIPAA or FISMA, which rules out certain regulated contexts
- Handing culling and editing decisions to an AI over the long run can dull the photographer's own eye; the tool is built to learn your judgement, which only works if you keep exercising it
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Low for culling, moderate for editing. Installation is a single download for Windows, Intel Mac or Apple Silicon, which the site puts at under five minutes, with no configuration and no connection needed afterwards. Culling then requires nothing more than importing a shoot and pressing start. Editing raises the bar: training a personal AI profile needs an already-edited Lightroom Classic or Capture One catalogue of at least 2,500 images, with 10,000 recommended. Importing a Lightroom preset is the shortcut, giving a usable profile in under a minute. Minimum hardware is a four-core CPU and 8 GB of RAM.
Deployment
Integrations
Behind Aftershoot
Fundraising
Social
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Alternatives
Tools that compete with or complement Aftershoot.
Frequently asked questions
What exactly does Aftershoot do?
Does it work offline?
What does it cost?
Is there a free trial or a free plan?
Are my photos used to train the AI?
Will it replace my editing style?
Does it fit a Lightroom or Capture One workflow?
What files and machines does it support?
Is there a mobile app or an API?
Who is behind Aftershoot?
Should you pick Aftershoot?
Aftershoot is a narrow tool that knows exactly what it is: high-volume photographic post-production, not a general-purpose assistant. For a wedding, event or portrait photographer sitting on several thousand frames after every job, the proposition is concrete. A first culling pass in minutes, an edit applied in the photographer's own style, portrait retouching across a whole album, and a client gallery at the end of it, without ever leaving the application. Two things set it apart. The first is that everything runs locally: the software is installed on Windows or macOS, works without a connection, and the files stay on the machine, which matters to anyone shooting under a non-disclosure agreement. The second is the pricing, flat and unlimited rather than per image, with modules sold separately from USD 10 per month, so a photographer who only needs culling pays only for culling. The reservations are real but mostly practical. There is no mobile application and no public API. The pricing page shows nothing without JavaScript, so the figures have to be hunted down in the FAQ. Training a personal editing profile is demanding, since it needs an already-edited catalogue of at least 2,500 images. And the compliance paperwork is thin for a European buyer: no Data Processing Agreement, no subprocessor list, no Article 27 representative, a privacy policy last revised in July 2023, and Delaware law governing a company registered in India. One point deserves attention rather than alarm. Photographs are used to train the models by default, and the opt-out has to be set on the import screen before importing. It is offered plainly and costs nothing, but it is a decision to make on the very first run. With a 30-day trial and no card required, evaluating the rest costs nothing at all.
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