Greg Benz Photography

A photographer’s review of the new M5 MacBook Pro

October 16, 2025

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Black Friday just came early! With the launch of the M5, you can save up to $400 on new M4 models (even Pro and 16″, which aren’t offered as M5):

 

 

Apple just announced the launch of their M5 chip for the MacBook Pro (MBP), as well as iPad and Vision Pro. This launch is unusual as it splits the MBP lineup: the M5 is only currently available for the entry-level model with a 14″ display. There is currently no M5 Pro, Max, or 16″ MBP.

 

What’s new and notable in the M5 MacBook Pro?

Before we discuss what’s new, it’s important to consider just how unique the 14-16″ Apple Silicon MacBook Pros are. All of them (all the way back to M1) offer:

  • The best laptop display for photographers:
    • Best-in-class HDR displays. There is no other laptop on the market which matches it (though some Windows laptops are starting to offer great HDR displays too).
    • Extremely high color accuracy (calibration is optional for most users with these displays).
  • Outstanding performance and battery life with Apple Silicon.
    • These laptops run for a long time, with almost no fan noise, and no need for bulky chargers or proprietary connectors (MagSafe is optional on MBP, you can charge via USB-C).
    • While SnapDragon X Elite chips look very promising for the future of PCs, there simply is not enough support for Windows on ARM software yet (for example, you cannot run any UXP plugins in Photoshop on WinARM).
  • Very high quality. These laptops look great, they’re tough, and the keyboard and trackpad feel great to use.

 

The M5 MBP features:

  • Third-generation 3nm chip technology with 10 CPU cores (4 performance, 6 efficiency) and 10 GPU cores.
  • SSD read / write speeds are reportedly ~2x faster.
  • A 4TB SSD upgrade is now an option (for $1,200) when buying the base model.

Otherwise, the MacBook Pro appears to be unchanged (same display, ports, WiFi, BlueTooth, etc). This adds up to an incremental, but certainly welcome improvement in the base MBP.

 

M5 test results:

I always buy the Max chip, so I have not purchased an M5 yet. However, I have always found Apple’s reported measurements are generally in line with the real world performance (assuming you know which numbers to review and what they mean for typical photography applications). For every iteration of Apple Silicon, I have generally found gains in the range of 15% time saved for various tasks overall. That is clearly measurable and is very helpful if you need to wait for a long of long tasks like I do (importing images to LR, compiling code, transcoding video, etc). But most photographers wouldn’t notice much of a difference without upgrading 2-3 generations of chip, and Apple’s data suggests that is definitely the case here.

The M5 MacBook Pro raises the performance bar compared to the M4 in several ways:

  • 15% faster multithreaded CPU performance over M4
  • Up to 45% faster GPU performance vs M4 (4x the peak GPU compute performance compared to M4)
  • 30% faster memory bandwidth than M4

The gains here are iterative over the M4, but help push performance even further to keep the MBP at the leading edge. If you have an M2 or older (especially an Intel-based Mac), you’ll notice a significant boost in performance. Gains over the M3 will be something you notice. There is a real benefit over the M4, but it isn’t large enough that most people will notice. My general rule of thumb is that you need a 20-25% improvement to notice, and you should expect about 15% here (in line with previous generational improvements of Apple Silicon).

This helps to solidify the MacBook Pro’s position as what I consider to already be the best laptop for photographers, especially for HDR photography. I’m historically pretty agnostic on the Apple vs PC debate – but after trying a wide range of computers over the past year, I believe Apple has a notable edge in laptops for photography use. They feature a best-in-class HDR display, optimal performance / battery life, and excellent overall quality.

If you use Windows, we finally have some realistic alternatives for great HDR performance (covered in my recommended HDR monitors page). I believe the MBP still has a clear edge, but it’s great to see options for those who prefer Windows.

I will updated this article as more test results become available, or if I’m able to test one of the base M5 machines.

 

The M5 is great, but the M4 offers the best value:

The best part about the M5 launch is that you can likely snag a great deal on the 14″ M4 for a little while. You’ll have the most selection today, and likely the best pricing over the Black Friday period.

The M5 looks like a nice incremental improvement. At this point, it is not available for the Pro or Max chips, nor 16″ display. So currently this is an option for people who either don’t need a lot of processing power or want to manage cost. Most photographers will get  plenty of power and a much better price with the older models.

So the most exciting news about the M5 is that it means discounts on the M4 or better used prices from those who upgrade. If I were in the market for a lower spec 14″ MBP, the primary reason I might go with the M5 is the ability to add the nano-texture display. It is incredibly helpful and you’re less likely to find it with closeout M4s and it was not an option on the M3 and earlier you’ll likely find used. See my M4 review for discussion of the nano-texture.

Check the links at the top for the best deals on the M4.

 

Recommended M5 MBP configurations for photographers:

  • Best value: Get an M4 (see links above) or a used MacBook Pro
  • Budget-conscious M5: 14″ 10-core M4 with 24GB RAM for $1799
    • This offers a fast, high-quality computer with an outstanding HDR display. 16GB is ok, but an upgrade to 24GB will help you get many more years out of it (you’ll likely also recoup some of this cost when you sell it later).
    • This only gets you 512GB storage, so you’ll be very on external drives for storage (see recommendations below).
  • Better M5 (ideal for photography): base M4 Pro with 24GB RAM, nano-texture, and 1TB SSD for $2,149
    • An upgrade to 36GB RAM is certainly worth considering.
    • An upgrade to 2-4TB is very nice, but external storage is much cheaper.
  • Power users or those who need a 16″ display should get the M4 Pro or Max. See my full review for details on recommended configurations.

 

 

I recommend the following options to compliment the laptop:

  • External SSD drives:
    • Internal storage is convenient, but external is much cheaper and a good way to expand if needed down the road. It’s also essential if you want a way to back up your data quickly.
    • USB SSD’s I personally use and recommend:
      • Sandisk Extreme Portable for up to 8TB. Very fast / compact and connects with a single cable. I find this is a great option for backing up the computer, or adding more storage if you don’t have enough internal to the laptop (always be sure to backup your drives).
      • Samsung T5 EVO 8TB. I’ve only had mine for a few weeks, but it is working great and the price is very attractive.
      • Vectotech 8TB. I have three of these and have used them for a long time without issue. They were my top pick for large storage before the price on the Samsung recently dropped.
      • Glyph 16TB. Any SSD this big is pricy, but I can take a copy of all my work with me (I have 20TB of data in total, much of which is normally on a very bulky RAID drive). It comes with a ruggedized rubber grip and requires only a single cable for both data and power.
    • A Thunderbolt SSD is much faster than USB, but at a higher cost. As I have ample internal storage, I have personally opted for cheaper USB drives and have limited experience with the common Thunderbolt models. Also given cost, most of them have limited reviews. So it is hard to comment on reliability and performance. If you are going to use one as primary storage because you buy a laptop with a small drive, I think this is well worth considering (and you should have a robust backup strategy for any external drive, as likely all of them will be less reliable than the internal Apple SSD). I have not personally tested the following drives, but they seem very promising and have good reviews:
      • LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt has a large number of positive reviews.
      • Sabrent Rocket XTRM Plus Thunderbolt3 offers a very fast (2700MB/s) and affordable 2TB option.
      • OWC Envoy Ultra Thunderbolt 5 offers twice the speed, at roughly twice the price of a Thunderbolt 3 or 4 drive. If you really need ultra fast, this looks like a great drive. It’s probably overkill for photographers given batch imports will be limited by your flash cards and individual images aren’t that large, but could be very attractive for those editing 4k or 8k video.
  • CalDigit TS4 dock. This makes it very easy to plug your laptop into everything with a single cable (which includes power for the laptop and data connections to monitor, hard drives, Ethernet, mouse, etc). It includes two downstream Thunderbolt ports, which I find very handy so that I can turn off my RAID drive without losing access to downstream devices. I owned the previous TS3 and it’s also a great option if you don’t care about multiple downstream TB ports.
  • An external HDR monitor. This is optional, but nice if you also want a larger HDR display to complement the outstanding one built into the MacBook Pro.

 

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Review of the Move Shoot Move Nomad to track stars

October 16, 2025

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If you take photos of the night sky, you know that noisy images and blurry stars are a huge hassle to manage. Due to the rotation of the earth, stars star to blur after just a few seconds.

This leaves you with only a few options:

  • Deliberately shoot star trails by using a very long shutter with low ISO. You can’t capture the Milky Way that way and star trails aren’t a good solution to use often.
  • Keep your exposure time very short and use a very noisy single frame ISO 6400 – 25,600. That may work for social media, but it isn’t something you’ll want to print.
  • Capture 10-20 high ISO frames and using stacking software like Starry Landscape Stacker to align (rotate) and combine them to reduce noise while keeping the stars sharp. That will give you a pretty decent result without special hardware, but the final output won’t be a RAW file.
  • Use a star tracker to rotate the camera perfectly with the stars to get a longer exposure at a reasonable ISO. This offers the highest possible image quality, but requires that you carry extra gear into the field and learn how to use it.

That last option to track has always been my aspiration. However, I don’t want to carry bulky devices like the Star Adventurer with me into the field (especially if air travel is involved). And polar alignment has always felt cumbersome and confusing.

So I was very excited when Move Shoot Move (MSM) reached out asking if I’d like to try their compact, laser-aligned tracker. It’s a fraction of the size and weight of other trackers and alignment is as simple as pointing a laser at the North Star. You can easily take this device anywhere.

My goals

I have taken 8 minute tack-sharp images with a 14mm lens on the Star Adventurer. It’s an amazing product which is solidly built and can hold a fairly heavy camera (such as with a 200mm lens), especially if you’re willing to use a counterweight. My goal is to capture skies to complement landscape foregrounds, so I only need to shoot 14-85mm lenses. If I wanted to shoot telephotos to isolate distant objects like galaxies, this would be a good tool to use. But it’s overkill for my needs and not worth the bulk / complexity. And my 8-minute exposures actually had too much detail in dimmer stars.

I use a 13 second exposure without tracking. Rounding that to about 15 seconds, 8 minutes is 32x longer (8 * 60 / 15). In other words, a 5 stop reduction in noise (2^5 = 32). Put another way, I could shoot at ISO 200 instead of ISO 6400 on that tracker.

My primary goal with this simpler, lighter tracker was to reduce noise by at least 3 stops (ideally 4). In other words, to reduce ISO from 6400 to 800 by using an 8x longer shutter time (2^3 = 8). That would be enough I could avoid stacking software even with an f/2.8 lens. I would ideally want a little more to allow me to  stop down the aperture slightly from wide open (such as f/2.2 instead of f/1.8), which can dramatically improve the quality of stars in the corners of the frame.

Given my untracked shutter time for a 14mm is 13, that gave me a goal of 104 seconds (ie roughly 2 minutes).

When shooting closer to 85mm, I’d be an exposure around 5-8 seconds. That means I’m facing an extra stop of noise (half the shutter time) with a long lens. But the math is a little fuzzier as a long lens will be more sensitive to tracking error the further I point it away from the North star (as there is more relative angular motion). I’d like to avoid stacking when using a tracker, but it’s an option I’d use before carrying a heavier tracker.

I don’t have any interest in longer focal lengths of the night sky, and I frankly wouldn’t expect a device like this to offer the stability / accuracy needed for such a long and heavy lens.

How are the results with Nomad?

I was very happy with the experience. Setup with the laser pointer was incredibly easy. I was able to get 2-4 minute exposures which were sharp with the 14mm lens. I was able to meet my goals with longer lenses as well (unsurprisingly given similar weight for the lens and a similar goal in terms of extending relative shutter times). It was exactly what I was hoping to see: 4+ stops of noise reduction.

In the slider image below, the left side is a high ISO shot (12,800) at f/4. The right side used the tracker to achieve nearly 4 stops of reduction (3 stops of noise at ISO 1600, and 2/3 stop improvement in aperture at f/5.0). 

This comparison underplays the benefit – I could have done better if I’d checked the result more closely in the field. I have another frame (not shown) with 5 stops of reduction (4 stops of noise at ISO 800, and 1 stop improvement in aperture at f/5.6). That other frame had minor star blur from motion at 120s. It was a very usable image, but I’d rather show one that’s tack sharp. I could have easily gotten a bit over 4 stops of noise reduction, but was seeing some tracking error at 5 stops. Perhaps if I aligned more carefully or revisited the laser calibration I would have pulled off 5. It was a rather impressive result for a 79mm focal length with minimal effort.

There were a few quirks using Nomad. When a camera is mounted and aimed at your preferred composition, it may block the alignment laser. I don’t fault the design here, you just need to consider it in your workflow. You can simply point the camera elsewhere or remove it temporarily to align. I found that hanging a heavy bag from the tripod was very helpful as it ensured I didn’t alter alignment while attaching the camera (or cause problems if I bumped the tripod in the dark). 

The other challenge I had was the power switch. It feels firm and I wouldn’t expect it to get easily toggled. However, on 2 out of 4 nights driving down bumpy dirt roads I found the power switch had been switched on. It was in the carry case from the manufacturer and there was apparently enough friction in a bouncing camera bag to knock the switch. Both times this meant I had a dead battery. I was unprepared the first time and just shot high ISO frames for stacking. The second time I was more prepared and connected an external battery pack to the USB-C charge port and was able to use it. I contacted Move Shoot Move and they acknowledge the issue as well as plans to make design improvements to the switch. It isn’t a deal breaker, but you should consider putting some electrical tape over the switch or bringing a spare battery if you’ll traveling on rough roads.

High ISO Tracked

How does tracking compare with stacking?

In the screenshots below, you can compare a tracked (ISO 200, 240 seconds) vs stacked (18 frames at ISO 6400, 13 seconds => 234s total exposure time to be directly comparable). Both used the same minimal RAW adjustments for chromatic aberration, color balance, sharpening, and minor noise reduction. Both use the same crop to show a 100% view of a portion of the sky from the Milky Way. The level of noise is very similar in these two approaches, which is what I would expect given the total shutter time is nearly identical.

However, the tracked shot has numerous benefits over the stacked result:

  • much better star color
  • better contrast
  • the final sky is still a RAW image, which allows blending with a non-destructive result

The tracked shot shows much more detail in minor stars. You might view this as a plus or minus. I like the overall image much better, but I would probably process to minimize minor stars a bit to avoid having too much detail.

The two approaches are both great and I’d happily use either. But I have a clear preference for the tracked result. With the simplicity and lightweight of the Nomad, it’s a tracker well worth using for better night skies in landscape images.

Neither frame below has really been processed, so the final results would get much better. But this shows the mostly straight out of camera result (with again minor tweak of white balance and minor noise reduction being applied consistently to both frames).

Stacked (18 noisy images) Tracked (best single image)

Recommended components

The MSM website doesn’t make it very clear which components beginners should buy. I recommend the following:

  • Nomad with laser (for alignment in Northern Hemisphere) and ballhead (cheap, light, reliable option to mount your camera)
  • Wedge to allow you to mount the Nomad to your tripod and aim the Nomad for proper alignment. You may alternatively use a geared head (a ballhead will probably feel pretty fussy for precise alignment).
  • Phone mount, if you will be shooting in the Southern Hemisphere

They also offer a V-mount to give you more freedom to align the camera (as the ballhead base won’t be level given the angle of the Nomad). While this sounds nice, it significantly reduces stability of the camera and will likely force you to use shorter shutter speeds. I believe you can (and should) avoid it most of the time, but you may find it helpful if you’re using a longer lens to point at parts of the sky far from the center of rotation.

Tips for shooting stars with a foreground:

You can try to be a hero and get both a blue hour shot and your night sky all setup without moving the tripod. Don’t be a hero. This is a disaster that adds no value to the shot. Keep in mind that whether your keep your tripod in the same spot behind a foreground subject or move it a mile away and point it in the same direction in the sky, it will show the exact same sky.

If you try to do everything with the same setup, it will be a nightmare. You can’t see your foreground at night and you can’t see the stars in the day. You can use photo pills to predict the stars, which would at least help at night (less so if shooting in the morning as you’ll struggle to see your foreground if setting up first for the stars). Even if you do that correctly, the camera will be rotating for the stars and this will cause problems at edges.

Whether you shoot in one place or two, you’ll be blending two images. Make your life easy. Shoot the foreground and sky separately. You can take notes on the compass heading and elevation if you want your sky to match exactly what would have shown in the same foreground setup. But by separating these shots, you’ll avoid edge issues with rotation, simplify setup, give yourself the freedom to walk back to your car while there is some amount of light left, or shoot a few good skies you can use some other time with your foreground. You can be as exacting and literal as you want, and it will make things so much easier.

How do you set up the Nomad?

Think of your platform in two parts: a lower and upper stage. The lower stage is everything up to the Nomad itself, including:

  • Your tripod
  • Anything you need to hold and align the Nomad (which might be a leveling base, wedge, or ballhead)
  • The Nomad (including laser or phone alignment tools)

The upper stage includes:

  • a ballhead (so you can point the camera at your desired composition)
  • your camera

Rotational alignment is ensured for everything in the upper stage once the Nomad is aligned. Everything rotates as a block, so you can point the camera anywhere you want from that upper ballhead.

Setup:

  • Set up the tripod legs. Make it as stable as possible and add weight if you can (such as hanging your camera bag from it).
  • Add the wedge or geared head you’ll use on the lower stage for alignment.
  • Attach the Nomad and roughly align it.
  • Attach the red plate / ballhead. The top red plat on the Nomad needs to be very secure to the ballhead on top. Bring a coin to tighten the screw in the field, and use the offset hex screw to ensure your top ballhead is on tight. Once you add the camera weight, it’ll be loose / insecure if you haven’t done this properly.
  • Attach the camera. Using the upper ballhead, try to get it pointed at your subject or nearby, but the laser should not be blocked.
  • Do your final / precise alignment now that the camera is attached.
  • Adjust the upper ballhead as needed to align the camera with your desired composition.

Thus far I’ve mentioned aligning with the North Star using a laser. Technically, this is not perfect. As though of you using polar alignment on a higher-end tracker know, the North Star is not the true center of rotation for the night sky. It’s just really close, and for our needs with a 14-85mm lens we don’t need to correct for the difference.

The laser itself should come calibrated to be straight, but it includes some set screws you can tweak to ensure the laser points properly straight. Here’s a video if you’d like to fine tune that laser calibration:

 

If you’re shooting in the Southern hemisphere, you can’t see and use the North star. Instead, you’ll need to align relative to the Southern Cross, which you can most easily go by using Photo Pills and your phone (with this attachment) as shown in this video:

Find ANYTHING in Lightroom with this incredible tool

October 14, 2025

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Every once in a while you see something that makes your jaw literally drop. That was my experience when I first saw Peakto from CYME.

Image a software program where you:

  • use natural language search using an AI that understands what it sees in your photos and videos (including the dialog)
  • never need to add keywords (but can if you want)
  • can simultaneously search across multiple Lightroom catalogs, Apple Photos, On1, Adobe Premier, Final Cut Pro, etc – even loose photos, videos, and PDFs not in any catalog
  • lets you jump quickly between Lightroom catalogs to edit images
  • can search based on AI-assessed quality of your images (technical scores, aesthetics, too dark / bright, saturated, monochrome, etc)
  • can see analysis of color harmonies (split complementary, analogous, etc)
  • can search even when your content is on an offline / disconnected drive
  • get highly useful results in seconds

That’s just the beginning of what Cyme’s Peakto AI-driven photo organizer for MacOS offers. This is one of the most interesting uses of AI for photography I’ve seen (and for the purists – this AI is not editing your art, just helping you organize and search it). In this tutorial, you’ll learn what it can offer you and how to make the most of it.

Disclosure: This section contains affiliate links. See my ethics statement for more information. When you purchase through such links, you pay the same price and help support the content on this site.

 

How to use Peakto to find anything:

Ways to search:

  • Camera settings like aperture, shutter speed, and ISO: click on “metadata” and then type in only the number and pick from the options that show. For example, type in 100 and then pick “ISO 100” or “1/100s” – but do not type “ISO 100”.
  • File type: Use the video / photo dropdown to target formats like AVIF. Note that PDF is available under the photo formats.
  • Color (label): as Peakto supports more than just LR, it has some colors which won’t ever match for an LR catalog (such as pink). Just stick with the relevant colors. Note that you can apply a color to an image in Peakto at the bottom. I would avoid this, as it does not sync back to Lightroom.
  • Keywords: Click the tag icon near top left, then click “in sources” (rather than AI)
  • Use the dropdown right of the filter input to choose “strict“, “balanced“, or “broad” depending on how literal you wish to use your search terms.
  • Exposure: in the metadata section, start typing things like “bright” or “dark”.
  • Video dialog: search in the speech section and it will review the AI-generated transcript. When you hover a thumbnail in the search results, you will show a blue bar at the top indicating times in the video where it detected a likely match.
  • Date:
    • Open the timeline, then click and drag to isolate a time range to search (which is great for rough timelines).
    • Use the date icon near top left (which is handy for searching specific years, or perhaps months).
    • Or, in the metadata section, start typing a year and then pick the year or month below (click … if you need to see more months in that year).
  • Folder: click the folders icon near top left and type in your search value there (the “file info” section is for the file name only, not folders).
  • Collections: use structure filter.
  • People: click the person icon near top left and click on a person or search by name (note: you may use the person view at the bottom to add name annotations if desired).
  • To search for AI-generated categories (color-harmonies, etc):
    • At bottom left, click the panorama icon and then explore various tabs to find what you need – or click “see all” to filter in the grid (which is much easier to see a large number of images).
    • Or if you know the name, you can use the metadata section. For example, start typing things like “analogous”, “compound”, “complimentary”, “square”, or “triad” and then picking from the options listed.
  • Limit searches to a specific catalog by using sources (icon at left).
  • Create saved searches by using smart albums (icon at left).

Showing the info you need:

  • Change the sort order at top-right to “relevance”, date, or smart filters like “technical score” (to find good photos), people count, or saturation score.
  • Show detailed file info like EXIF, stars, keywords by clicking the file info icon at top right.
  • The AI tab in file info is loaded with interesting analytics including:
    • Peakto’s scoring of image aesthetics (such as aesthetic score, technical score, brightness, etc). These inform the sort order.
    • AI content analysis, which offers the ability to improve the AI by adding or removing tags for category, style, and people.
    • analysis of your color harmonies (complementary, split, etc and actual dominant colors).

Getting to the content from search results:

  • Right-click an image and “open with Lightroom” (shortcut: <cmd>-E)
  • Or right-click and use “show in Finder”

 

 

Other tips for working with Peakto:

  • It works best as an alternative to images by content / subject when you don’t habitually add keywords to your images. In other words, the most value comes from combining content search (“waterfalls”), in combination hard parameters (star rating, dates, etc) to narrow things down. As much as I’d love to use the AI scoring to find the best photos, it isn’t something I expect to use heavily without further refinement.
  • Take some time to get comfortable with the new approach offered here. You should expect a learning curve to find the best ways to search. This is a very powerful application and works differently from probably anything you have used. It isn’t difficult, but it isn’t something you’re going to master in 10 minutes either.
  • ??? Combine smart albums with search terms to create custom searches on the fly without having to retype common values into the search bar.
  • Make sure you have standard previews built in LR before you ask Peakto to sync – otherwise it will build very pixelated previews and the AI scoring values will be erroneous as a result. (tip: enable Preferences > General > Replace embedded previews with standard previews during idle time to help ensure LrC stays updated in the background).
  • Similarly, make sure you have your original media connected (if on an external drive) when you first sync with Peakto. This helps access the original if needed (such as if a preview is missing).
  • Do not bother setting stars, color, etc in Peakto. It does not sync back to Lightroom at this point. This would be nice (especially when using smart filtering to help set rejected or starred images).
  • Even with a fast computer, the interface can be a little slow when doing such complex search. When you enter a search term, give the computer a few seconds to update results. I would expect performance improves over time, but this is a gargantuan task for any computer. The fact that this level of searching is even possible now is amazing.
  • Use the menu bar icon to control Peakto’s background refresh rate and how much resource you’d like to allow it to use. I wish Lightroom had a similar control, this is quite nice to prioritize other work you want to do vs letting the tool work as fast as possible.
  • Settings / Applications / External editors is where you can deselect any program you don’t want to see in the “open in” options when you right-click a thumbnail.

 

Which version of Peakto should you buy?

Peakto is offered with a few different versions, both as a lifetime purchase or a subscription. I recommend photographers get either of the following:

  • Best long-term value: standard LIFETIME version (which costs slightly more than two years of subscriptions and includes one year of updates, and you could keep using it indefinitely with no further payments).
  • Latest features long term: standard version with a two-year subscription for 40% off the monthly pricing. Note that only subscriptions offer a trial, so you might start there and then convert to a lifetime license.

I don’t see a reason for individual photographers to opt for either the professional or enterprise options. The higher price tiers are designed for teams or those who wish to add a Premier plugin.

 

What could be better in Peakto?

No tool is perfect, especially one with an ambition to help you find content through AI across nearly all possible photo and video sources.

I’d like to see support added for the following:

  • When you “open in Lightroom”, you may not see the image if you have a filter (ie if LR is filtering for 5 star images and the one you opened isn’t one, the filter is not cleared and you will see nothing).
  • Negative searches. For example, not “very colorful” to help find muted images (perhaps there is a category for this, but I couldn’t guess one).
  • An ability to sync changes back to Lightroom. For example, it would be nice if could search for low quality images and mark them all as rejects from Peakto.
  • AI scoring to help reject shots for events with people (closed eyes, no focused subject, etc)
  • A count showing the number of matching search results would be very nice.
  • It would be nice if rejected images showed greyed out like they do in Lightroom.
  • A way to hide rejected images (you can filter for picks, but then unflagged images will be hidden too).
  • Davinci Resolve, which is very popular for video editing. I contacted Cyme and they confirmed that this is on their roadmap (to add support similar to how they would handle a Final Cut database now). Additionally, you can already export a collections of photos and videos from Peakto to Davinci.

I’d like to see the following refined / improved:

  • AI scoring could be more accurate / relevant. Low technical scores often flagged images which are fine.
  • Speed could be better (but is understandably a challenge with the massive ambitions of this product).
  • Search filter inputs are a bit buggy. Sometimes you change something and it does not stick, things like that.
  • Video search results are a bit clunky.
    • When you search for speech, it also returns content results. For example, if I search for “rock” in speech, I see results showing a beach where there is no dialog (though it does accurately find the point where I pan past a rock).
    • The blue area showing matches for your search result don’t show in either the large viewer or transcript, making it hard to immediately find the area of interest.
    • Starting / stopping is cumbersome. There is no keyboard shortcut for playback (or at least no tooltip to indicate it). You cannot pause playback when when you click the play button in the transcript. Clicking <space> in most video apps would play/pause but here it toggles large/small views.

 

For those with questions, you can see Cyme’s privacy policy.

Batch export HDR photos via Web Sharp Pro’s Lightroom integration

September 15, 2025

Quick note- I have 2 HDR sessions (and a third on advanced masking) at the Lightroom Virtual Summit this week. You can stream for free, or if you use my affiliate link can get the RAW files from my HDR sessions, recordings from all sessions (including 17 other great instructors), notes, and other exclusive bonuses as part of the VIP Pass.

 

Web Sharp Pro (WSP) supports numerous workflows for creating stunning HDR photos for Instagram, Threads, or your website. And with the power of its integration with LR (Lightroom Classic or Cloud) and CO (Capture One), you can now easily export any of your images for all these uses with the click of just a couple buttons. You could export SDR or HDR with any customizations you like for sharpening/borders/watermarks/etc with perfect sizing and optimization for social media or your own custom specifications. The possibilities are endless and this integration makes it easy to achieve right from your preferred image organizer.

Once set up, the workflow in Lightroom Classic is simply (see below for Lighroom Cloud):

  1. Export your images from LR / CO to Photoshop (PS) via template as noted below.
  2. WSP will open a dialog where you simply confirm the settings you wish to use to finish the export

That’s it, it only takes a couple clicks once you’ve set up the export template and settings in Web Sharp Pro.

Your LR / CO export template should include the following:

  • export to the location where you want WSP to save the final images (it will always act as if you choose “save to source folder”, as this allows you to control the export location from LR / CO)
  • Set the new files to have “-wspBatchAndDelete” added to the file name (this tells WSP to process the images and then delete these temporary files when done). You must include this in the name exactly, so it’s best to copy and paste.
  • choose 16-bit TIF with a wide gamut space like P3 (WSP will convert the final image to your preferred colorspace).
  • If you wish to support HDR images from LR, select “HDR output” (keeping bit-depth as 16).
  • If you keep metadata, WSP can keep it or remove it per your preferences in WSP
  • Choose to have the exported images opened in Photoshop (WSP will begin processing images when they open in PS and include the special naming).

You do not need to work with HDR to use these exports, but the settings above will support it. The images will open as 16-bit SDR or 16-bit HDR. If you send SDR and have enabled “enhance SDR to HDR”, WSP will create it for you. If you send just the HDR, WSP will help you create the base SDR image for any gain map (or if you request SDR output, such as for Facebook). And if you send both, WSP will combine them create a custom gain map – this offers maximum artistic control and can easily be done in LrC by creating a virtual copy of your HDR and editing it for SDR.

Note that if you use that 3rd workflow (SDR + HDR) in a layered source file, you should instead export from LR using “original” as this will preserve your layers. This can be a nice way to manage everything in a single file. However, TIF is otherwise ideal for exporting anything direct from RAW images (as using “original” will invoke ACR when you export to PS).

Click the “Tutorials” button in WSP for more information on the integration.

 

You do not have to do any setup if WSP if you just wish to export with the current settings. However, you may use the save/load settings to create multiple options for batch exports. For example, you could create a template which exports HDR photos with a border for Instagram and separately creates simple SDR photos for Facebook (which does not yet support HDR) and export both at the same time. The possibilities are limited only by your creativity.

The basic steps to create saved settings to use in WSP during bulk export from LR / CO are:

  • Set the settings you’d like to use in WSP
  • Under “Settings”, click “Save / Load Settings” to open a dialog where you can save the current settings as a new preset.
  • Check the categories you wish to save in your preset (anything you leave unchecked will default to the current settings in WSP at the time you use that preset – ie, these are like overrides).
  • Give it a name and click the option to save.
  • Repeat for as many presets as you’d like to create. Everything you create will be shown as a potential option when you export via the LR / CO

 

Click the “Tutorials” button in WSP for more information on how to use “save/load settings” to create your own export presets.

If you use Lightroom (cloud version, not Classic):

The cloud version of LR does not support virtual copies nor the ability to export a copy of the original without flattening it. That means you will still be able to send over SDR-only (use WSP’s “enhance SDR to HDR”) or HDR-only (WSP will help you tone map the SDR version), but you will need a different approach to send over both for the same image. I would generally recommend LR cloud users just send over the HDR version. Lightroom Classic is in many ways a much more powerful program, and the limitations here are an example of that.

If you want to create a permanent SDR + HDR edit and use Lightroom cloud, use this approach to prepare your images:

  • Open your HDR image to edit in Photoshop as a Smart Object. You will save it as a 32-bit layered TIF / PSB file where the layers include both the SDR and HDR version).
  • Create an SDR edit (right-click  the Smart Object and choose “new object via copy”, then double-click it, turn off HDR mode in that copy and edit as desired).
  • Move the SDR layer to the bottom of the layer stack and rename it so that it includes “SDR” in the name.
  • If you wish to use layers for your SDR edit, you can make a group named “SDR” at make sure it is the last top-level layer in the layers panel (move all SDR content into that group).

When WSP sees a 32-bit image, it treats the image as edited as the HDR version and will use the bottom layer named “SDR” as the SDR version. This is workflow #3 as described further under the “tutorials” button in WSP.

Once you have created your layered SDR + HDR images, you can export in bulk using a different approach. You cannot make duplicate originals with layers, so you will not use the automation shown above for LR Classic. Instead, use the following workflow:

  1. select all your layered images in LR.
  2. right click and choose Edit in Photoshop / Edit in Photoshop. That will send the layered images over. This won’t be a temporary copy or renamed, these are your working files. So you won’t see the automatic popup from WSP.
  3. Just click “Batch” to export the opened images.
  4. Close the images manually.

Lightroom Virtual Summit

August 30, 2025

Update: the VIP is on sale through Sunday Sept 21 and then will never be available again.

I’m teaching three classes as part of the upcoming Lightroom Virtual Summit. This free event includes 18 world-class instructors teaching 46 classes over 5 days.

I’ll be teaching three classes:

  • The Future of Photography: Creating with the new HDR Mode in Lightroom
  • How to Share HDR Images Online
  • Advanced Masking Techniques (not focused on HDR, but would apply there too)

There’s also a VIP Pass option, which includes lifetime access to class recordings, class notes, and other exclusive bonuses.

If you purchase the VIP through my affiliate link on this post, you’ll also receive all the RAW files I used in my two HDR classes.

Luminosity masking:

Download the FREE
luminosity masking panel »

Or, simplify luminosity masking
with Lumenzia:

Greg Benz Photography