Photo import and culling for Mac. Fast, private, offline.
Browse, import and cull your shoots in one window. RayTask copies the card safely, flags blurry shots and closed eyes, groups people by face and finds photos by what is in them. All on your Mac, no internet needed.
How It Works
One window, no catalogs, no cloud. Works on a card you just shot or on folders already on your Mac.
Import from the card
Insert a card and import right in the main window. The card is only read, never written. RayTask checks free space with a 2 GB margin, copies and verifies every file into a shoot folder, and skips shots you have already imported.
Review with AI hints
Analysis starts on its own after import. Possibly blurry shots and closed eyes get a hint, similar frames are stacked with the best one marked, and sideways shots are shown upright. Keep or reject, add stars and colour labels from the keyboard.
Find people and search
Faces are grouped into people. Click a face to see only that person's photos. Or type what you are looking for: “dog”, “beach”, “2 people”, or a word written on a sign.
Apply changes
Nothing on disk changes while you review. When you apply, rejects move to Rejected/, turns are written, and files can be renamed by a pattern with RAW+JPEG pairs kept together. Every change can be undone. Then drag the folder into Lightroom or Capture One.
What RayTask Does
All analysis runs on your Mac with Apple Vision. Photos, faces and text never leave it.
Search by what is in the photo
RayTask recognises more than 1,300 things: objects, animals, places, food and scenes. Search in English or Ukrainian; word forms are understood, so “dogs” finds “dog”.
The side panel lists what is in the selected photo. Click a tag to find every shot with it. People counts work too: “2 people”, “group”, “no people”.
Text on photos is searchable
Signs, documents, labels and numbers are read on your Mac. Type a word you remember from a shop sign or a race number and RayTask finds the photo.
A browser for the folders you already have
Library folders sit in the sidebar. Browse them in a fast grid or a list, open the viewer with a filmstrip, press Space to look closer and zoom in.
Copy or move photos and whole folders with progress and a Stop button, or simply drag and drop.
On-device AI hints
Possibly blurry shots and closed eyes are marked, similar shots are stacked with the best frame on top. About 50 ms per photo on an M3 Mac: roughly 8 minutes for 5,000 photos, in the background.
People
Faces are grouped into people in each folder, and profiles or turned heads are matched by the same clothes at the same moment. Click a face to filter, ⇧/⌘ to combine people. Name, merge, or mark “Not this person”.
Sideways shots, upright
Turned photos are detected and shown upright right away. Files change only when you apply: JPEG through the EXIF orientation tag, RAW through its XMP sidecar. Nothing is re-encoded.
Safe import
The card stays read-only. Every copied file is verified, free space is checked first, and duplicates you already imported are skipped. RAW, JPEG and XMP with the same name stay one photo.
Culling from the keyboard
Keep, reject or leave undecided, 1–5 stars and colour labels. Select many photos with ⇧ and ⌘ and decide for all of them at once. ⌘Z undoes the last step.
Apply when ready, undo any time
Rejects to Rejected/, pending turns and renames are applied in one step that you review first. Every change can be undone.
RayTask and Alternatives
| Feature | RayTask for Mac | Finder | Cloud Services | Lightroom Classic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Card Ingest | Verified copy, duplicates skipped | Manual, unverified | Upload to cloud first | Catalog import dialog |
| Card Protection | Strict read-only | Risk of accidental deletion | — | Depends on settings |
| Sideways Shots | Found automatically, turned losslessly (EXIF for JPEG, XMP for RAW) | Risk of recompression | — | Inside catalog only |
| RAW + JPEG + XMP | Kept together | Easy to orphan files | Depends on service | Linked in catalog |
| Blur & Closed Eyes | On your Mac | Manual | On external servers | Manual |
| People by Face | On your Mac | — | On external servers | People view in the catalog |
| Search by Content | Objects, scenes and text on photos, offline | File names and metadata | On external servers | Keywords you add |
| Privacy | 100% on your Mac | Local | Photos uploaded to cloud | Local |
| Pricing | From $12/mo or $199 once · 7-day trial | Free | $15–$30/mo subscription | Creative Cloud subscription |
Built to Be Fast and Reliable
Tested with 5,000+ RAWs
The grid instantly reads embedded thumbnails directly from files, keeping scrolling fluid even on huge shoots.
Light and Fast
Built with native Rust and Tauri, not Electron, so it leaves memory for Lightroom.
100% Offline & Private
Not a single photo leaves your Mac, and neither do faces or recognised text. No accounts, no tracking, works fully offline in the field.
Updates Inside the App
New versions install from inside RayTask. No need to download the DMG again.
Popular Camera RAW Formats
Sony, Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Panasonic, Olympus, and Apple ProRAW (ARW, CR2/CR3, NEF, RAF, RW2, ORF, DNG).
Pricing
Free while RayTask is in beta. Paid plans start at launch. Prices in USD; sales tax or VAT is added at checkout where it applies.
Monthly · $12/month
7-day free trial, then billed monthly. Cancel any time before the trial ends and you pay nothing.
Yearly · $99/year
About $8.25 a month. 7-day free trial, then billed yearly. Cancel any time.
One-time · $199
Pay once, use RayTask 1.x with all its updates. 14-day money-back guarantee.
One licence per Mac. Refunds within 14 days, see the Refund Policy. By buying you accept the Terms.
Frequently Asked Questions
Short answers about culling, RAW, and Mac compatibility.
What is photo culling?
It's the first triage step after a shoot: filtering thousands of shots down to the keepers and setting aside rejects (blinks, blur, duplicates) before importing into Lightroom or Capture One.
Does RayTask replace Lightroom?
No, it complements it. RayTask handles the first pass: safe copy from the card, culling with AI hints, finding people and shots, turning and renaming. You import only clean keeper shots into Lightroom, keeping catalogs small and fast.
Does RayTask upload photos to the cloud?
No. Everything runs strictly on your Mac, no internet connection required. Apple Vision inspects photos, faces and text locally.
What about RAW + JPEG pairs?
Companion RAW, JPEG, and XMP files with the same name show up as one photo. Renaming, rotation, or moving to rejects applies to the whole set at once.
Does RayTask delete photos from the card?
Never. The memory card is strictly read-only: RayTask copies files to your Mac and leaves the card completely untouched.
Does face recognition send data anywhere?
No. Faces are found and grouped on your Mac, and face data stays there. Nothing is uploaded and no account is needed.
Can I search my photos by what is in them?
Yes, offline. Type “dog”, “beach” or “2 people”, click a tag in the side panel, or search for words written on signs and documents in your photos.
Does RayTask change my files while I review?
No. Decisions, turns and new names wait until you apply changes, and every applied change can be undone.
Which Macs are supported?
macOS 12 Monterey or newer, on Apple Silicon (M-series) Macs. Intel Macs are not supported.
Download RayTask for macOS
Version 0.6.0 · .dmg · Apple Silicon · macOS 12+
First launch: RayTask is not notarized by Apple yet. If macOS says it cannot check the app, open System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway. You do this once; updates then install from inside the app. Step-by-step guide.