Narrative's Biggest Update of the Year

Post-production has a way of eating the best part of your day. This release is about giving more of it back.

In this update:

• People Filter (Beta)

• Smarter Ranking

• Key Element Detection in Close-Ups

• HEIC Support

• Batch Apply Crop

• Full Screen Mode

Find People Easier with People Filter (Beta)

Every wedding and event photographer asks the same question mid-cull: do I have enough of the groom? Do I have enough of the two of them together? Until now, answering that meant scrolling, mentally tallying, and hoping you hadn't missed anything.

People Filter changes that. Filter your shoot by one person, or any combination of people, and see coverage at a glance. Build sneak peeks in minutes. Make selections with full confidence rather than best guesses.

Every face detected in the shoot can be named and filtered. Filter for each person to see every photo they appear in, and how many photos that is.

People Filter works across all shoot types: weddings, families, headshots, and events.

This feature is currently in Beta. Please let us know how you find it.

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Smarter Ranking

Getting the sharpest detail shot has always meant zooming in, comparing manually, and second-guessing yourself.

With this update, Narrative now identifies the most visually significant point in any image and assesses whether it's in sharp focus, giving every scene a proper rank regardless of subject matter. Ring shots, florals, flat lays, sports gear, wildlife. Every scene, ranked.

The sharpest image surfaces first. A color gradient in the Scenes View shows you at a glance: blue (Best in scene) for the most focused, darkening to red (Undesirable) as focus drops.

Coming to macOS 14 first. Available on Standard plans and above.

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Key Element Detection in Close-Ups

The Close-Ups panel also works for more than faces. When no human face is detected, Narrative identifies the key element of the image and locks focus assessment onto it, even if that element moves across the frame.

It works for objects, animal faces, distant figures, and people whose faces are partially obscured by helmets, masks, or glasses. The most important part of the frame is surfaced automatically, with a sharpness score across the scene. Scan in rank order instead of pixel-peeping every frame.

Coming to macOS 14 first. Available on Standard plans and above.

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Shoot in HEIC or HEIF? Narrative's Got You

The newest cameras increasingly write HEIF instead of other formats, and sometimes you're culling casual shots straight from your iPhone. Either way, Narrative now supports HEIC and HEIF files. Import directly from your iPhone or your cards and start culling right away.

Supported across newer cameras from Canon, Sony, Nikon, and Fujifilm.

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Batch Apply Crop

Batch Apply Crop is a straightforward addition, and a useful one. Set a crop, choose your scope (current scene, a specific orientation, or all photos) and apply.

When applying across orientations, Narrative handles the flip automatically. A 9:16 crop applied to a landscape image becomes 16:9.

Built for shoots where consistent cropping across dozens or hundreds of images is essential: corporate headshots, school formals, bridal parties, and group shots.

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Full Screen Mode

Sometimes all you want is to focus on the image, so our Full Screen Mode removes everything else from view. Press F to enter; press F, Escape, or click the dark area to exit. Face Assessments stay on by default and can be turned off in preferences if you want the most minimal experience possible. 

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Other Improvements

• Faster imports.

  Your shoots load and start analysing noticeably quicker.

• Smoother previews.

  Thumbnails render faster as you move through a shoot.

• Lighter updates.

  App downloads and updates are smaller and quicker.

• Polish.

  Clearer scene tooltips, more consistent pop-up dialogs, and a "Preview" label on preset cards.

Ready to see these in your workflow? Launch Narrative and run them on your next shoot.

Important notes:

• Make sure you're up-to-date with our newest version, and create a new project for the full experience.

• Some features may not be immediately available depending on your rollout timeline, device, or plan. If you run into any issues, head to our customer support page and click the chat bubble in the bottom right.