LightTable Features

01

Bring photographs in

Cards, folders, and live capture folders, plus Apple Photos on macOS.

• One catalog, many foldersA single SQLite catalog spans every source folder, so the whole library remains available at once.
• Catalog in placeAdd Photos and Add Folder use native pickers and leave originals where they already live.
• Content-based relinkingA file moved or renamed in your file manager reconnects to its edits by content rather than path.
• Apple Photos browser (macOS)Browse photos and albums, then import selected originals, including RAW files and iCloud originals, for editing. Completed copies are reused on retry; the Photos library stays unchanged. Hidden on Windows and Linux.
• Apple Photos importOn macOS, copy the current or compatible representation into a durable folder under Pictures before cataloging it.
• Broad RAW supportOpen the formats recognized by LibRaw 0.22, covering 1,275 cameras from 83 manufacturers.
• Processed-image inputUse HIF, JPEG, and HEIC photographs with color conversion before the film model.
• Verified card ingestCopy into dated folders, apply a rename template, and verify the full content hash before success.
• Second ingest copyWrite an optional backup copy during the same card ingest job.
• Duplicate-safe resumeExisting content is skipped by default, and a restarted ingest resumes without making another set.
• Watched foldersCheck a capture or hot folder every two seconds, then catalog arrivals in place or copy them through verified ingest.
• Arrival presets and follow modeApply a preset to new watched-folder frames and select the latest capture only while the user is idle.
• Catalog backupCreate dated ZIP backups through SQLite's own backup system.

02

Browse and organize

Views and catalog tools for a small folder or a long-running library.

• Four library viewsUse the aspect-ratio Photo Grid, metadata-rich Square Grid, single-photo Detail view, or horizontal filmstrip.
• Adjustable, lazy-loaded thumbnailsChange thumbnail size without loading the whole library into the browser.
• Catalog searchSearch filenames, keywords, loaded metadata, local AI tags, and visible text through SQL.
• Filters and sortingFilter by flag, rating, file kind, or virtual-copy status and sort by name, rating, flag, or date.
• Camera, exposure, and date filtersCombine camera and lens names, keyword paths, capture dates, and ranges for ISO, focal length, aperture, and shutter time. Enter fractions such as 1/250 for shutter time or matching minimum and maximum values for an exact exposure match.
• CollectionsBuild regular collections without moving the underlying files.
• Smart collectionsSave camera, lens, exposure, date, and keyword filters alongside ratings, flags, labels, and text. The collection updates as photographs change, and additional filters narrow its saved results.
• StacksCollapse related originals, derivatives, or burst frames into one library position.
• Virtual copiesCreate independent edits and names while sharing one source decode and one original file.
• Ratings, flags, and labelsApply 0 to 5 stars, pick, reject, unflag, and five color labels, then filter or sort on them.
• Hierarchical keywordsStore Parent > Child keyword paths and find every descendant by searching the parent.
• Info beside the gridKeep ratings, metadata, and keyword controls open while selecting photographs in either grid view.
• Batch keywords with undoAdd or remove keywords across a selection while preserving each photograph's other keywords. Undo the last batch in the current window; later keyword changes are protected.
• IPTC and GPS metadataEdit title, caption, headline, creator, copyright, credit, location, and coordinates across one photo or a selection.
• Folder toolsCreate, rename, favorite, synchronize, reveal, or remove a source bookmark without deleting its photographs.
• Sidecar-aware movesDrag a photograph between catalog folders and move its adjacent XMP sidecar with it.
• Camera metadata readoutSee camera, lens, focal length, aperture, shutter, ISO, dimensions, and capture date.
• Cataloged videoSearch, filter, and play clips with a poster frame and seeking; still-image controls remain off because they do not apply.

03

Cull and review

Move from a full shoot to the frames worth editing.

• Range and multi-selectionUse Shift or Command/Ctrl to build a selection directly in the library.
• Survey viewLay a selection or burst out together and rate whichever cell is active.
• A/B viewNarrow Survey to two frames, swap their positions, and make one the select while rejecting the rest.
• Rate and advanceHold Shift with a digit to assign a rating and move to the next frame.
• Two shortcut schemesChoose between key layouts for photographers arriving from different editors.
• Recoverable reject removalSend rejected photographs in the current view to the system Trash with one shortcut.
• Before-and-after compareDrag a divider over the image, move the wipe slider, or hold B.
• Assisted cullingReview focus, eye, and exposure checks before applying flags. Preserve existing decisions by default, undo a flag batch, and compare similar photos with suggested keepers.

04

Develop and grade

A conventional RAW workflow when Film is off, with the same grade after Film when it is on.

• Film and Develop workspacesSwitch Film off for a neutral RAW edit or leave it on and grade after the physical film pipeline.
• Standard and Linear profilesUse a neutral base curve with protected middle gray or the bare scene-referred render.
• Progressive RAW previewRAW photos use LightTable’s accurate rendering from the first frame. Switching photos while zoomed in reuses matching cached previews, then loads sharper detail in the background.
• Capture white balanceChoose as-shot, automatic, daylight, cloudy, shade, tungsten, fluorescent, flash, or custom white balance before film exposure.
• Demosaic profilesChoose camera-native, fine-detail, or smooth-color RAW conversion.
• Highlight recoveryBlend clipped channels or reconstruct highlight color during RAW development.
• Sensor-stage noise reductionApply light or full noise reduction before the rest of the edit.
• Basic gradeAdjust exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, whites, blacks, temperature, tint, vibrance, and saturation.
• Presence and finishControl texture, clarity, dehaze, and vignette. Adjust vignette size and feather to shape the edge treatment.
• Detail controlsSet sharpening amount, radius, detail, edge masking, luminance noise reduction, and color noise reduction.
• Learned denoisingRun a bundled Core ML denoiser for sensor noise; builds without the model say it is unavailable instead of passing pixels through.
• RGB and channel curvesDraw a point curve for RGB or an individual channel, or shape highlights, lights, darks, and shadows with parametric controls.
• Black-and-white treatmentSwitch to monochrome and shape brightness with an eight-band B&W mixer.
• Eight-band color mixerAdjust hue, saturation, and luminance across eight hue bands.
• Point ColorSample up to eight source hues, set their affected range, and adjust or even out hue, saturation, and luminance.
• Four-way Color GradingGrade shadows, midtones, highlights, and the whole image with separate wheels, blending, and balance.
• ScopesUse a live RGB histogram, luma waveform, RGB parade, or YCbCr vectorscope beside the image.
• Auto tone and white-balance dropperStart from an automatic tonal pass or sample neutral color directly from the photograph.
• Clipping readoutShow clipped channels while judging exposure and output.
• Camera profilesApply the hue map, look table, and tone curve from a chosen DCP file, with unsupported interpolation named.

05

Film, print, and scan

A modeled photographic process rather than a color preset.

• 23 film stocksEach stock carries its own spectral response, density behavior, masking, halation, development, and grain model.
• LightTable tuned PortraChoose LightTable's color interpretation of Portra 160, 400, or 800, informed by reference photographs and color checks. The original Spektrafilm versions remain available, and existing edits keep their selected rendering.
• 9 print profilesSend a negative through a modeled print material instead of stopping at a film-colored image.
• Authentic and Creative routingFollow a stock's intended print profile or preserve an intentional stock-and-paper combination.
• Camera exposure and scene meteringSet capture EV and meter placement before the film response is calculated.
• Film formatChoose the physical image size used to turn stock grain measurements into pixels.
• Stock-specific grainScale each stock's own particle-area baseline instead of laying one noise texture over every image.
• Diffusion and halationModel light spread at capture and around bright areas in the emulsion.
• Film developmentChoose measured black-and-white development times or use a clearly labeled creative contrast control.
• Print exposure and preflashControl paper exposure and pre-exposure before the scan stage.
• Yellow and magenta filtrationGrade the darkroom print through Y/M filtration rather than a hidden color transform.
• Print glare and output recipesModel the viewing material and choose a defined print-to-output treatment.
• Scan finishSet scan softness and sharpening after the print or reversal stage.
• Reversal-film routingSlide films bypass the negative print stage and go directly to scan.
• Profile bypassTurn the stock model off without discarding the rest of the edit.

06

Mask and retouch

Named local edits that remain adjustable and travel with the recipe.

• Up to 16 named masksKeep several non-destructive local corrections organized on one photograph.
• Subject, Sky, and Object masksCreate on-device selections with edges refined against the image. Check the overlay and paint over missed or extra areas.
• Portrait masksSelect Person, Face Skin, Eyes, Eyebrows, Lips, Teeth, or Hair with Apple Vision on the Mac.
• Depth masksUse embedded depth when available or estimate a continuous field, then adjust the near and far range.
• Brush, Linear, and Radial masksPaint or draw local selections. Adjust either endpoint of a linear gradient, or drag its line to move the whole gradient. Radial gradients can be oval and rotated, with Width, Height, Rotation, and Feather controls.
• Dodge and burnBuild coverage across separate brush strokes with Flow, set its ceiling with Density, and raise or lower Exposure to lighten or darken the area.
• Auto MaskTurn on color matching to restrict each brush stroke to colors similar to its starting point. Adjust Tolerance to include a wider or narrower range.
• Add, Subtract, and IntersectRefine a mask through explicit set operations instead of rebuilding it.
• Luminance and color rangesConstrain a selection by brightness or a sampled color.
• Local adjustmentsAdjust Exposure, Whites, Blacks, color, Texture, Clarity, and RGB or individual-channel tone curves inside each mask.
• Mask overlay and inversionInspect coverage, hide a mask, change its opacity, or invert it.
• Automatic removalPaint a target and let local inpainting remove it.
• Heal and clonePlace exact two-point corrections, then drag source and target, change feather and opacity, or refresh the source.
• Spot visualizationRaise local contrast to find sensor dust and small marks before correcting them.
• Up to 50 correctionsStore heal, clone, and removal spots as edit instructions; the original never changes.

07

Optics and geometry

Profile-based correction when the match is exact, manual control when it is not.

• Exact lens-profile matchingApply calibrated distortion, transverse chromatic aberration, and lens shading only when camera and lens identity match.
• Manual lens controlsCorrect distortion, vignette, red/cyan fringe, and blue/yellow fringe without a profile.
• Perspective controlsAdjust vertical and horizontal keystone, fine rotation, and scale.
• Auto level and uprightDetect lines in the frame, solve level and perspective, and add the scale needed to avoid empty corners.
• Crop and aspect ratiosDrag the crop directly and choose a standard or custom aspect.
• Rotate and flipRotate 90 degrees or flip horizontally and vertically.
• Fit, pan, and 1:1Pinch or scroll to zoom, pan the image, fit it to the viewer, or inspect one image pixel per display pixel. Switching photos keeps the current zoom and remembers each photo’s pan position while the window is open.

08

Edits, presets, and history

Repeat a treatment without flattening the decisions inside it.

• Non-destructive recipesFilm, grade, geometry, masks, healing, and lens settings are stored separately from the source.
• Undo and redoReverse local edits and visible commands, including changes made through agent control.
• Copy and pasteCopy settings to a selection, every visible photograph, or one target with clear success and disabled states.
• Previous settingsApply the previous photograph’s edit to the current photograph.
• Full stylesReplace the current edit with a complete preset.
• Tool presetsLayer only the controls included in a preset and leave everything else alone.
• Film-aware presetsInclude the physical Film pipeline, add a grade after Film, or switch Film off for Develop.
• Named versionsSave and restore editing checkpoints without duplicating the source image.
• Speed-key adjustmentsHold a mapped key while scrolling, dragging, or using arrows to change its control; double tap to reset.
• Per-camera RAW defaultsSave demosaic, highlight recovery, white balance, and sensor noise choices for a camera.

09

Migrate and interoperate

Bring the useful parts across and name what cannot cross render engines.

• Lightroom Classic catalog importCopy and read an LRCAT without changing it, even while Lightroom is open.
• Library state migrationBring across ratings, flags, labels, keyword hierarchies, collections, stacks, virtual copies, IPTC, GPS, and optional history.
• Develop-setting conversionMap controls with a defensible counterpart and label the result approximate because the render engines differ.
• Mapped-and-skipped reportSee every converted control, named skip, and conversion note before applying imported settings.
• XMP sidecar read and writeRead ratings, keywords, metadata, crop, and develop settings; optionally write portable library state beside originals.
• Shared metadata conventionsRead Photo Mechanic tags and digiKam pick, color, and keyword conventions alongside standard XMP metadata. Custom color labels are reported when they cannot be mapped.
• XMP merge and conflict checksPreserve unrelated metadata when writing changes. Conflicting external edits to the same property or ambiguous sidecar filenames leave the sidecar unchanged for review.
• Queued XMP updatesAutomatic sidecar writing is optional. Offline and failed writes stay queued for retry, so reconnecting a drive does not discard pending metadata changes.
• Preset importOpen LightTable LTPRESET, Lightroom or Camera Raw XMP, legacy LRTEMPLATE, ZIP bundles, Capture One COSTYLE, and COSTYLEPACK files.
• Preset exportWrite LightTable, XMP, or Capture One COSTYLE presets.
• Folder and bundle importImport one preset, a ZIP package, or a whole settings folder recursively.
• External pixel editorOpen an adjusted 16-bit ProPhoto TIFF in another editor and register the saved derivative back as a stack.

10

Merge, match, and proof

Combine frames and judge output without hiding the method.

• HDR mergeAlign, deghost, and exposure-fuse bracketed frames into a 16-bit ProPhoto master.
• Panorama mergeFeature-align overlapping photographs, stitch them projectively, and feather the joins.
• Focus mergeAlign small focus-breathing changes and combine up to 60 frames through a sharpness-weighted pyramid.
• Source manifestsSave a sidecar beside every merge master listing the photographs used to make it.
• Reference matchAlign a scan as an overlay or split view, measure the difference, and adjust only visible capture or print controls.
• Soft proofingPreview sRGB, Display P3, matte paper, or gloss paper without changing the edit or export recipe.
• Gamut warningMark colors that fall outside a selected print target in magenta.

11

Export, performance, and control

Color-managed delivery, a measured renderer, and access beyond the window.

• JPEG, PNG, and TIFF, plus HEIF on macOSChoose the delivery format, quality, and long-edge resize in each export recipe.
• True 16-bit TIFFWrite RGB16 TIFF while film and grade calculations remain floating point until encoding.
• Three output color spacesExport sRGB, Display P3, or ProPhoto RGB with the matching ICC profile embedded.
• Reusable export recipesSave destination, format, size, naming, metadata, watermark, and collision behavior together.
• Selection rulesExport approved, rated, or all photographs.
• Filename templates and collisionsBuild names from tokens and choose what happens when a destination file already exists.
• WatermarksApply a text or image watermark as part of a saved recipe.
• Metadata policiesInclude nothing, copyright only, everything, or everything except location.
• Recipe and provenance sidecarsWrite an adjacent LightTable JSON record of the export recipe and renderer revision.
• Concurrent exportRun two jobs at a time while sharing the resident GPU film engine.
• Rust and GPU renderingUse a resident GPU renderer for warm previews and full-resolution export work.
• Measured preview latencyA warmed 1100-pixel film render measured 50.5 ms median across 30 runs on the disclosed benchmark Mac.
• Matching preview and export mathThe preview and exporter keep curves and grading operations in the same order.
• Local AI indexOn macOS, optionally index objects, scenes, visible text, and face counts with Apple Vision; face detection never assigns identities.
• Optional image descriptionsOn macOS 27 or later, Apple Foundation Models can add a natural-language description without replacing the Vision index.
• Command-line controlList, rate, flag, edit, render, analyze, compare, export, and drive the visible app through the local CLI.
• App and Help in 20 languagesChoose a language in Settings for the interface, native menus, and searchable Help. Applying it saves pending edits and reloads the window.
• Agent control through MCPExpose documented local tools and current window state; mutations are attributed, visible, and undoable.