XMP sidecars and Lightroom Classic: how a cull lands in your catalog
A cull that lives inside a culling app is a cull you have to redo. The handoff into Lightroom Classic is where a tool earns its place, and the honest way to do it is the boring way: XMP sidecars beside your files, read by Lightroom, Capture One and Bridge without any vendor in the loop. Here is how that handoff works with Kepla, field by field.
A text file beside each RAW
An XMP sidecar is a small text file with the same name as the RAW and an .xmp extension. Lightroom Classic already uses it to store develop settings, ratings, labels and keywords for RAW files it cannot write into. Because it is a documented standard rather than a vendor format, anything that reads metadata can read it.
Kepla writes its decisions there and nowhere else. It never writes to the card, never renames a file, never deletes a file, and never writes the reject flag. Everything it worked out sits beside the file on your drive, in a format that outlives the app.
The mapping
| Kepla decision | In Lightroom Classic | Your options |
|---|---|---|
| ♥ Favourite | Five stars and a red label | A colour label or a keyword instead, if you prefer |
| Clean | Untouched | These are the frames you choose from. The app has no opinion. |
| Set aside, with a reason | A keyword naming the reason | Filter on it. Never a reject flag. |
| Uncertain | Marked until you answer | One key each, in the app, before or after import |
| Moments | Collections, built by the plugin | Two frames of one instant, side by side |
The reject flag is deliberately absent. In Lightroom, a rejected frame is one keystroke from deleted from disk, and you would have to trust the flag blind. A keyword you can filter on is the same convenience without the cliff edge. See nothing deleted, no reject flag for the reasoning.
What it adds on top of the sidecar
Sidecars carry the per frame decisions. The Lightroom Classic plugin carries the structure: it rebuilds the shoot's moments as collections, so the portraits arrive as a set of two and nine frame groups with the favourite already marked, instead of 1,880 frames in a grid. The plugin reads the same sidecars, so if you never install it you lose the collections and nothing else.
The lock in question, answered plainly
Your decisions are XMP files on your own drives. Lightroom Classic, Capture One and Bridge read them without Kepla installed. If Kepla folded tomorrow, every cull you ever ran would still open exactly as it did the day you ran it, because nothing was held in a service you could lose. That is the point of choosing the boring format.
Change your mind, run again
Because every decision is a sidecar, a second run touches only what changed. Add a second shooter's card, bring a cleared frame back with one key, answer the uncertain frames tomorrow: each of those is seconds, not another full pass, and none of it requires a re import. Kepla for Mac is free through the private preview and the first hundred photographers keep it at $99 a year. Request Founding Access.
FAQ
Does Kepla write into my Lightroom catalog?
No. It writes XMP sidecars beside your RAW files. Lightroom Classic reads them on import or on Read Metadata from File. The plugin adds collections; it does not edit your catalog's develop settings.
Can I use a colour label instead of five stars for favourites?
Yes. Favourites land as five stars and a red label by default, or a colour label or keyword of your choice.
Do Capture One and Bridge read the same files?
Yes. XMP sidecars are a documented standard and both read them. The moments as collections feature is Lightroom Classic only, through the plugin.
Will it ever write a reject flag?
No. Set aside frames get a keyword naming the reason, which you can filter on. A reject flag is one keystroke from deletion, so Kepla does not use it.
Never cull alone at 1 AM again.
Kepla for Mac clears the obvious misses from a card, names the reason on every frame it sets aside, and leaves the choosing to you. Nothing is ever deleted, moved or renamed. Free through the private preview · the first hundred photographers keep it at $99 a year.