Frequently asked questions

SmartCull culls school and nursery photo sessions for you, child by child. You upload the whole session as a zip or a whole folder; the software groups every photo by face into an album per child (no class lists or name boards — or, if you prefer to work without face recognition, a separator card before each child), filters out blinks, blur, looking away and near-duplicates, and picks a balanced set of the best shots for each child. You approve the result and download it as a ready zip — and if you like, parents can order from a password-protected online gallery.

Mainly for photographers who shoot schools, nurseries and other group sessions — it saves the hours spent flicking through near-identical frames. Parents benefit too: with the optional parent gallery they log in with a shared group login, find their child's album and order in a few clicks.

Yes. The gallery works on phones and tablets — swipe through photos in the viewer, or tap the faint arrows on either side, and parents can order from their phone. Nothing to install, it runs in the browser. For uploading big sessions a computer is more comfortable.

Ask me here first, or email us at hello@smartcull.uk — please write from the address you signed up with so we can find your account.

SmartCull is the UK service of Fotóválogató, operated by Pál Márk Foroszán (registered in Hungary as Foroszán Pál Márk ev., sole trader, EU VAT HU91145804). Payments are handled by Stripe (see our Terms for the merchant of record).

Closed eyes (blinks), out-of-focus and motion-blurred shots, moments caught mid-speech or chewing, faces not looking at the camera, blank or unhappy expressions, and near-identical frames shot in a burst. Nothing is lost: every filtered photo stays visible in the gallery's “Filtered-out photos” section, with the reason, and you can pin any of them back in.

By default each child gets 15 solo photos, 10 group photos (with friends or parents) and 3 funny-face picks. After uploading you set the numbers for the session in the start window (pre-filled with your last settings), and you can change them any time at the top of the gallery — press Re-sort and SmartCull re-selects in under a minute, without re-analysing the photos. Your numbers are kept when you pin or exclude photos.

A fill-in. If a child doesn't have enough flawless photos to fill the quota, SmartCull fills it with relaxed criteria (a slightly weaker shot — but never a near-copy of a photo already selected, so the parent gallery has no repeats either; your pinned photos are not affected) and marks it with a B badge — so you can see where a re-shoot might be worth suggesting.

Yes — taste stays with you. Pin any photo (it will definitely be included), exclude any photo, and rename children with the pencil icon. Every change is applied to the folders and the downloadable zip automatically within a few seconds. Pinning adds, it doesn’t swap: the pinned photo goes in without pushing out the photos already selected. If it is very similar to another selected photo, the gallery marks it with ≈ — remove the extra one if you don’t need both. If you exclude a photo, the next best one can take its place. If a photo landed with the wrong child, use the “Move” button (👥) to put it with the right child — on group photos you pick which face you mean — or mark it as belonging to no one; this is kept after re-sorting too. Photos under “not assigned to anyone” can be placed the same way.

Log in, give the session a name on your dashboard, then drag the photos onto the upload box — even the whole folder — or click it (or the “Upload and start” button) and choose them; one zip works too. The upload starts as soon as you’ve chosen (without a name, the zip or folder name is used), and the button turns into “Cancel upload” — use it to stop at any time; nothing is kept (photos already uploaded are removed). When the upload finishes, the start window shows the price and your balance, and lets you set how many solo / group / funny-face photos each child should get (pre-filled with your last settings; defaults are in your Profile). Press “Start processing” and follow the progress live; when it’s done, open the gallery — an album for every child, a report and a downloadable zip. If your balance is too low, top up from the same window and we bring you right back to it after payment.

You can upload the photos one by one — even by dropping a whole folder — or as one zip: a session can have up to 3,000 photos, a zip can be up to 5 GB and a photo up to 40 MB (without a zip, the total size doesn’t matter). Formats: JPG/JPEG, PNG, WEBP and TIF — HEIC and RAW files (CR2, NEF, ARW) are not supported, please export them to JPG first. There is no resolution limit: full-size camera files are fine. We keep a high-quality copy of each uploaded photo at 3,500 px on the long side — plenty for 20×30 cm (8×12 in) prints — and delete the originals and the zip after upload; the downloadable selection contains these copies, and your originals stay with you. Any folder structure works, subfolders included. Non-image files (documents, Thumbs.db, macOS system files) are simply skipped. You can also add photos to an existing session from the gallery, one by one (up to 40 MB each).

The analysis and the selection are redone (including your manual marks), but the parent gallery login and any orders received so far are kept. SmartCull asks you to confirm first, so it can't happen by accident.

A folder per child (Person 01, Person 02… or the names you gave them), each with solo, with-friends and funny-faces subfolders, containing your original full-resolution files. Filenames are kept, so you can go straight on to editing and printing.

SmartCull groups photos by face but doesn't estimate age, so you mark teachers, staff and parents yourself: click the person icon next to the name in the gallery (click again to switch back to child). If an adult (for example a parent) appears with the same child in most of their photos, their photos go to the end of that child's album in the parent gallery; other adults' photos (for example a teacher's) go into the albums of the children in them (see “Where do parents' own photos appear in the parent gallery?”). An adult gets no top-up to the requested number and no funny-faces folder. The change shows in the folders and the zip within seconds.

At the end of their child's album — not as a separate numbered album at the bottom of the gallery. People without solo photos don't get an album of their own: if someone appears with the same child in at least 60% of their photos (typically a parent), all their photos go into that child's album; everyone else's (for example a teacher's or a helper's) go into the albums of all the children in each photo — just like group photos. Each photo appears only once per album, and a photo with no child in it is not shown to parents. In the gallery (your session's photo page) the name shows where that person's photos go — so you know exactly what parents will see. You can switch this per gallery — on the gallery page under Sorting settings, or in the parent access settings: the “People without solo photos … don't get their own album” box is on by default; switch it off and everyone keeps their own album, after the children.

It's optional, but it helps: tell us how many children are in the group and, when processing finishes, we compare it with the number of child albums found. If there are more albums (the same child split into two, or an adult among them) or fewer (someone was absent, or two children were merged), the top of the gallery shows which albums to check. The number doesn't change the grouping; if you're not sure, leave it empty.

Yes. If the parents haven’t consented to face recognition, choose “With separator cards” when you upload: the program then uses no face recognition and separates the children by cards photographed during the shoot. Before each child’s portraits, photograph the “New child” card (on paper or on your phone screen), and before photos with a sibling, friend or parent the “Group photos with the previous child” card — until the next “New child” card these go into the previous child’s album, under “With friends and parents”. You’ll find the cards on the /cards page: print them, or show them full screen on your phone. After processing, each child gets their own album (“Child 01”, “Child 02” … — you can rename them), and the card shots don’t appear in the gallery. Quality filtering (blinks, blur, near-duplicates) works the same way. If a card shot was missed, use the scissors button at the bottom left of a photo in the gallery to start a new album from there; if one child’s photos ended up in two albums, use “Merge with previous” in the album header. It works best with a shoot from one camera, because the order comes from the capture time of the photos. A comparison of the two recommended, lawful ways: /lawful-use.

Yes, if you use it in one of the two recommended ways. 1. With face recognition: grouping children by face is processing biometric data under GDPR, so you need prior written consent from the parent (legal guardian) of EVERY child in the uploaded shoot — a template is on the /parental-consent page. 2. With separator cards: if you don’t have every consent, choose “With separator cards” when uploading — the program then does no face recognition, no facial data is created, and the children are separated by cards photographed during the shoot (/cards). A comparison of the two ways: /lawful-use. Which one you use and how is your decision and responsibility.

You pay per photo you process — no subscription, no monthly fee. Credit comes in packs: Starter £15 for 1,500 photos, Standard £40 for 5,000 photos, Pro £90 for 15,000 photos. Processing a session uses one photo of credit per uploaded photo (a 2,000-photo class = 2,000 photos of credit); re-sorting, pinning and downloading are free after that. Credit never expires while your account is open. The parent gallery is free — switch it on for any processed session, with nothing to buy. Prices are in pounds sterling. Prices include VAT where it applies — in the UK and the EU, the price you see is the price you pay.

Nothing — the parent gallery is free. Switch it on from any processed session’s page: there is nothing to buy, no monthly fee and no commission on parents’ orders. The one exception is a first (trial) session with more than 100 photos: unlock the extra photos first (this uses credit), because until then they are masked.

Yes. Your first session is free up to 100 photos — sorting, zip download and parent gallery included, no card needed. If your first session is larger, the first 100 photos are still free and only the rest uses credit — until you unlock them, those extra photos appear only as masked previews (watermarked or blurred — the same image protection the parent gallery uses — without file names). You can also click through the live demo on the home page (photographer view and parent gallery) without an account.

No limit. Once a session is paid for, you can download its finished selection as a zip as many times as you like while the session is stored — also after pinning, excluding or re-sorting, at no extra cost. Sessions are deleted automatically 30 days after upload (or after the parent ordering deadline, if you set one), so save your zip before then. The only exception is your free first session: up to 100 photos everything is open; if it's larger, the zip stays locked until you unlock the photos above 100 on the session page (this uses credit) — after that it's unlimited too.

Buy credit on the Buy credit page by card or the other methods offered at checkout. Payments are processed by Stripe, which — through its Link service — is the Merchant of Record for the transaction: Stripe calculates and collects VAT where applicable, sends the receipt and invoice, and handles payment-related support and refunds. Business customers can enter their VAT number at checkout.

Yes, within 14 days of purchase you can get a full refund for any credit you haven't used yet. Credit already used — processing started, a session unlocked, or a parent gallery switched on — can't be refunded. Details are on our Refunds page; the refund itself is returned through Stripe to your original payment method.

No — credit never expires while your account is open, so you can buy a bigger pack and use it across the season.

Yes — and the parent gallery is free: switch it on from the session page, with nothing to buy. First set up your details in Profile: your name and contact details, the products parents can order with your prices, and the photo protection (watermark or blur). Then on the session page press “Switch on the parent gallery”: enter the school or nursery name and an ordering deadline, and SmartCull generates a group ID and password for you to share with the parents. Parents browse a protected gallery with only their child's photos, add to basket and order — you get an email and a printable order form PDF for every order.

Orders from parents go directly to you: the sale is between you and the parent, you produce and deliver the photos and invoice the parent yourself. SmartCull is not a party to that sale and takes no commission — we only provide the gallery and the ordering page.

Choose one of three options in the photo protection section of your Profile: a text watermark (a dense diagonal pattern over the whole photo, e.g. “PROOF”), your own watermark image (upload your logo as PNG or JPEG — a transparent PNG looks best), or a blur mask (everything blurred except the faces). A live preview shows how it looks on a real photo.

In Profile (top right of your dashboard), on the parent gallery card: add, edit or remove the products parents can order and their prices (new accounts start with 6×4 print £3, 7×5 print £5, digital download £6). Changes don't jump into parent galleries that are already open — press Save on the session page to apply your current profile values, so prices never change in the middle of ordering.

On the session page (dashboard → Manage), in the Orders card. You also get an email about every order. You can download each order form PDF, or all of them at once — as a zip of full-page forms for printing, or as a compact summary PDF with several orders per page.

You decide who gets the group ID and password and how you share it — typically in the class's private message group. Under our Terms, the consequences of a leaked or improperly shared password rest with the photographer or the person who shared it. Tip: every session gets its own strong login, and you can switch the gallery off when ordering ends.

Yes. The parent gallery has two access modes and you can switch any time: password (parents log in on the parent page with the group ID and password) or a unique link with no password — just like the public shop: you share one link (e.g. …/gallery/k7x2p9qr4m-sunshine-nursery) and it opens the gallery straight away. The start of the link is a random key that cannot be guessed, and search engines don’t index it; but anyone who has it can get in, so share it only in a closed group (such as the class message board) and only if the parents’ consent covers it. If it reaches the wrong people, “New link” cancels the old one and every gallery opened with it straight away. In link mode the password login is off; switch back and it works again. The end of the link comes from the gallery name; link mode needs no group ID. The group ID for password access can be changed — letters, numbers and hyphens; if it’s taken, we’ll tell you.

In the gallery (your session's photo page) there's an eye icon next to every child's name: it decides whether the child may appear in the parent gallery — yes by default. Switch it off (for example, when a parent hasn't given consent) and the child's own album disappears from the parent gallery (group photos they share with other children stay in those children's albums); the name then shows “not in the parent gallery”. Your downloadable selection (zip, folders) doesn't change — to take a photo out of it, use the exclude button on the photo. You can switch it back at any time. Note: the eye icon only removes the child from the parent gallery. Face grouping needs parental consent for EVERY child in the shoot — if someone doesn’t give it, process the shoot with separator cards instead (/lawful-use).

As soon as you switch the parent gallery on, the protected previews for parents (watermarked or blurred photos) are prepared automatically — a few minutes for a few hundred photos. If the selection changes later (pin, exclude, re-sort, new photos) or you change the image protection, the affected previews update by themselves; there’s nothing to do. A parent who logs in right at the start, while previews are still being prepared, sees a short “being prepared” notice.

You order directly from your photographer: the order is made with them, they produce and deliver the photos and invoice you. SmartCull only provides the gallery and the ordering page, so please contact your photographer about orders, prices and delivery — their details are in the gallery and in your order confirmation email.

Use the group ID and password your photographer or the school/nursery gave you, on the parent gallery login page. If you've lost them, ask your photographer — they can generate a new password in a click. If your photographer gave you a link instead, just open it — no password needed.

Click “Create your free account”, enter your name, email and a password. We send a confirmation code to your email — enter it and your account is ready straight away. Your first session is free up to 100 photos.

On the login page, use the “Forgotten password?” link and we'll email you a new one. Parents: ask your photographer for a new gallery password.

In Profile, at the bottom, under “Delete account”: enter your password and the account is deleted immediately and permanently — with all your sessions, photos and parent galleries. Unused credit and purchased parent galleries end with it (if you bought credit within the last 14 days, ask for a refund of the unused part first). If you tell us what didn't work for you, we'd really appreciate it.

Your name, email (with a confirmation code) and password; the photographer details shown in the parent gallery and on order forms (name, email, phone); the photo protection (watermark text, your own watermark image or blur, with live preview); the products and prices parents can order; and your default quotas (solo / group / funny-face photos per child). A new account has no products yet: on your first login the Setup wizard (you can reopen it any time from the top of the dashboard) walks you through the photographer details, the products and prices (with suggested items) and the photo protection. You can switch a parent gallery on without products, but parents can then only browse, not order — the dashboard, the session page and the gallery remind you until you add products.

Yes. Face grouping runs on our own servers in the EU (Hungary); photos are never sent to third-party AI services and never used to train models. All traffic is encrypted (HTTPS), photos are only accessible after logging in, and parents only see their own group's gallery, as watermarked previews.

Every session — photos and face data — is deleted automatically 30 days after upload (if you set an ordering deadline for the parent gallery, the 30 days count from that deadline). We email you a reminder 5 days before. You can delete a session yourself any time with the Delete button on your dashboard — deletion is permanent, so download your zip first.

You, the photographer, are the controller; we act as your data processor under a written processing agreement (UK GDPR / EU GDPR Art. 28) — it's on our DPA page and forms part of the Terms, so it applies automatically when you accept them. Collecting and keeping parents' consent for photography, the gallery and face grouping stays with you.

The demo and the home page only show children whose parents gave written consent for it. The photos are anonymous (no names), blurred or watermarked, used on smartcull.uk, fotovalogato.hu and trimalin.fr (the French version) and hidden from search engines; in our Facebook and Instagram posts and ads we only use photos of children whose parents separately and expressly agreed to that. Consent can be withdrawn at any time and the photos are then removed. Any other use or download of these photos is unlawful — if you see misuse, please tell us at hello@smartcull.uk.

Yes — a parental consent form at smartcull.uk/parental-consent, with a separate clause for face grouping (biometric data). Use the “Download (PDF)” button to save it, or print the page directly. Add your details, one copy signed per child, and keep the signed forms; nothing needs to be uploaded. When you switch on a parent gallery, the session page links to it too. If a parent doesn't consent, leave the child out of the parent gallery with the eye icon next to their name in the gallery.

Use the “Report unlawful content” link at the bottom of any public shop, or email hello@smartcull.uk — the shop's name is already in the message. We review every report, take unlawful content down without delay and notify the uploader with the reasons. Pornographic, violent or hateful photos, or photos that infringe other people's rights, may not be uploaded.

Only when and as far as the service needs it: to fix problems, check that it works and improve the quality of the processing — on our server only, without copying or passing them on, logged and confidential (Terms 6a). We never use your photos to train AI, never share them with third parties, and delete them automatically at the end of the retention period (30 days).

Both sides: the photographer view (albums per child, filtered photos with reasons, pin and exclude — nothing is saved) and the parent gallery (browsing, basket and sizes, everything except placing a real order). There's also a two-minute video from upload to parent ordering on the home page. Downloads aren’t available in the demo — the “Download selection” button only shows where it would be. Sign up free to download the zip of your own session (your first session is free up to 100 photos).

Yes — two short recordings on the home page: the two-minute walkthrough (upload, an album per child, editing, the parent gallery and ordering) and the photo-shop video (create a shop, share the link and QR code, a customer orders). You can also click through the live demo, and your first session is free up to 100 photos.

A free way to sell any set of photos — an event, a sports day, nature or macro work, portraits — without SmartCull sorting them. You upload a zip, and the shop gets a unique, password-free link and a QR code. Anyone with the link browses watermarked previews, fills a basket and orders at your prices; you get a ready order sheet by email. It is for photos you would show publicly anyway; for school and nursery sessions use the password-protected parent gallery.

Nothing. There is no processing fee, no monthly fee and no commission, and the shop never expires. The free shop does not include SmartCull’s sorting — photos are shown as uploaded, in file-name order. Per-child sorting with the password-protected parent gallery is the paid product (your first session is free up to 100 photos).

Anyone who has the link — it is the only key, there is no password, so share it only where you intend to. The link is a long random address that cannot be guessed, search engines are told not to index it, and buyers only ever see watermarked, reduced previews. If the link reaches the wrong people, press “New link” on the shop page: the old link and the old QR code stop working immediately. You can also switch the shop off and on at any time.

Not through SmartCull. Orders are forwarded to you by email with a ready order sheet; you arrange payment and delivery with the buyer yourself, and the sale is between you and them. You can write your collection, delivery and payment details at the top of the shop so buyers know what to expect. SmartCull takes no commission.

Nothing for a whole year — the shop has no expiry. If nobody opens it for 12 months and you do not touch it either, we send you a warning email; if there is still no activity 30 days later, we delete the photos. The orders, your settings and the link itself are kept, and you can upload the photos again at any time.

None. Your photos stay yours: we only store them and show them the way you set up — never reused, shared, used for advertising or for training models. They are deleted when you delete the shop, when you close your account, or after the one-year inactivity rule.

Pick any photo in the shop with the ★ button: it becomes the preview picture of the shared link (with the shop's photo protection, e.g. a watermark). Without a featured photo a general shop graphic is shown. The preview title is the shop name and the description shows your name. Facebook stores the preview when the link is first shared — if you feature another photo later, refresh it in Facebook's Sharing Debugger (developers.facebook.com/tools/debug).