1
Shuffle
Point it at a folder. Every photo enters the bracket in random order, so the first frame gets no head start.
Free · Native Mac app · macOS 26
600 frames. Four keepers. One bracket.
Delecto shows your shoot two photos at a time. Pick the better one. Winners advance, round after round, until only your keepers are standing.
Coming soon to the Mac App Store
See how it works ↓Free · macOS 26 or later
←→ pick
↑ both advance
↓ both out
Space zoom
⌘Z undo
The problem
Rating asks a question you can’t answer.
How good is this photo? Three stars? Four? Every shoot ends the same way: six hundred frames, a grid of thumbnails, and an hour of second-guessing before a single one is flagged.
A bracket asks the only question you can actually answer at a glance: which of these two is better? Answer it enough times and the shoot culls itself.
How it works
Single elimination, for photographs.
2
Pick
Two photos side by side. Click the better one, or press ← or →. Space zooms in to check focus.
3
Advance
Winners move to the next round. ↑ keeps both. ↓ drops both. Misclick? ⌘Z, even across rounds.
4
Stop when it’s done
Keep going to a single champion, or hit Stop & keep survivors once you’re down to the handful you wanted.
A 600-photo shoot is about 600 decisions. Each one takes a second.
Press Space to check focus at full size. Click the photo to pick it from there.
Library
Every pick is saved the moment you make it.
Close the window mid-round. Your bracket is waiting in the Library, exactly where you left it. Resume it, rename it, re-run it from all photos or just from the picks, or delete it. Deleting a bracket never touches a photo.
Autosave after every pick
Undo across rounds
Resume from the Library
Re-run from your picks
Results
The whole shoot, drawn as a tree.
When a bracket ends, switch from the Picks grid to the Bracket view: every photo is a node, every round a column, and the winner’s path runs in gold. Zoom out to see the shape of the shoot. Zoom in to see why one frame beat another.
Export
Nothing moves until you say so.
While you cull, the app records decisions, not file changes. When you export, picks are copied by default; the originals stay put. Choose Move if you’d rather they leave the shoot folder. Eliminated photos can go to a rejected subfolder. XMP and AAE sidecars travel with their photo, and names never collide.
A small Brackets.delecto file is written beside your photos, so the sorting travels with the folder. Copy the shoot to another Mac or an external SSD and double-click the file to bring every bracket back.
Formats
RAW, decoded natively.
JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF, TIFF, BMP, HEIC and HEIF (including Sony .HIF), plus camera RAW. Decoded by macOS itself, so there is nothing extra to install.
CR2CR3NEFNRWARWSRFSR2DNGRAFORFRW2PEFRAW3FRERFKDCMRWX3F
Apple Intelligence · Optional
Let the Mac decide. Or just ask its opinion.
Click Let Apple Intelligence cull and every match is decided on your Mac, with a one-line reason you can read in the bracket tree afterward. Prefer to stay in the chair? Press S for Suggest: it tells you which photo it would pick, and why, and leaves the decision to you. Take over at any moment with Esc.
Quality first.
Sharpness, lens smudge, clipped highlights and shadows, faces and their capture quality, horizon tilt. A blurry frame never beats a sharp one, and obvious mismatches are settled without the model.
Then taste.
Moment, cinematic, authentic, moving. Those are the default criteria. Edit them in a sentence or two, up to 150 words.
Always explained.
Every verdict carries a reason. You can disagree with it.
Set your expectations
It is thorough, not fast. A verdict takes about 8 to 20 seconds per match on an M1 Pro, so a 100-photo bracket runs unattended in roughly 10 to 20 minutes. Start it, make coffee, come back to a decided bracket and a reason for every match.
Requires a Mac with Apple silicon and Apple Intelligence turned on in System Settings. Everything runs on the device. Nothing is uploaded, and there is no account and no API key.
Coming soon to the Mac App Store
Apple Intelligence is optional. The bracket works on any Mac running macOS 26.
Privacy
Nothing leaves your Mac.
No network
There is no networking code in the app. It cannot phone home.
No dependencies
Zero third-party libraries. Only Apple’s own frameworks.
No analytics
No telemetry, no tracking, nothing counted.
No account
Install, open, cull. Nothing to sign up for.
Why it exists
I shoot a lot and post very little. Every shoot comes home as a few hundred frames and leaves as one to four. I built this because the fastest way I know to find those four is to stop grading and start comparing. I called it Delecto, Latin for delight, because that’s what the last four should be. It’s free because I wanted it to exist.
Edson, photographer and maker of Delecto
Coming soon to the Mac App Store
Free. macOS 26 or later.
This page will link to it the day it’s live.
Version 1.0.0
Questions? Support
Questions
Questions, answered.
Does it change my files?
No. Culling only records decisions in the app’s library. Your originals are never renamed, moved, or edited while you sort. Files are copied (the default) or moved only when you click Export, and only the way you chose.
Does it open RAW?
Yes. CR2, CR3, NEF, NRW, ARW, SRF, SR2, DNG, RAF, ORF, RW2, PEF, RAW, 3FR, ERF, KDC, MRW, and X3F, plus JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF, TIFF, BMP, HEIC, and HEIF (including Sony .HIF). Decoding is done by macOS itself, so support matches what Preview and Photos can open on your Mac.
Where do my picks go when I export?
By default into a folder named selected inside the shoot folder, as copies. You can pick any destination, switch to Move, and optionally send eliminated photos to a rejected subfolder. Sidecar files (.xmp, .aae) go with their photo, and if a name already exists the copy is renamed rather than overwritten.
What is the Brackets.delecto file next to my photos?
A small JSON file that mirrors your brackets for that folder: the shuffled order and every decision. It lets the sorting travel with the folder. Double-click it, or drag it onto the Library, to import. You can turn it off in Settings if you’d rather the app never wrote into your photo folders.
What does the app store on my Mac?
One JSON file per bracket and a small preview thumbnail per photo, in the app’s own library folder on your Mac. Settings › Show in Finder opens it, and Settings can also clear the previews. Delete that folder and the app forgets everything.
Does Apple Intelligence culling send my photos anywhere?
No. Each photo is measured on your Mac with Apple’s Vision framework, and the on-device Foundation Model judges each match from those measurements. The app contains no networking code. There is no account and no API key.
How fast is Apple Intelligence culling?
Slow enough to leave running. About 8 to 20 seconds per match on an M1 Pro; a 100-photo bracket takes roughly 10 to 20 minutes unattended. Clear-cut quality mismatches are settled without the model, which saves time. You can Take over at any point and finish by hand.
What do I need for Apple Intelligence?
A Mac with Apple silicon, macOS 26, and Apple Intelligence turned on in System Settings › Apple Intelligence & Siri. If it is off, the app opens the right pane for you. The first run after enabling it may wait a few minutes while macOS downloads the model. Without it, everything else in the app works normally.
What are the requirements?
macOS 26 or newer. Apple Intelligence culling additionally needs Apple silicon.
How much does it cost?
Nothing. It is free, with no upgrades, subscriptions, or accounts.
Can I stop before there’s a single winner?
Yes. Stop & keep survivors ends the bracket with everyone still standing as your picks. You can also continue a stopped bracket later from the Results screen.
Is it on the Mac App Store?
Coming soon. Delecto is on its way to the Mac App Store, free. This page will link to it the day it’s live.