FilterPixel to Client Gallery: Culling, Proofing and Picks in Lightroom Classic

Here is the full round trip, with who does each step.

Steps 2 and 5 both write to the same fields. The rest of this guide is about that overlap.

FilterPixel documents two routes into Lightroom Classic.

Export as .XMP. FilterPixel describes this option as writing each image's metadata from your culling and editing results, star ratings, colour labels and edit data, as XMP sidecar information. It also states: "Your RAW files stay untouched; any app that reads XMP (like Lightroom or Bridge) picks the results up automatically."

Quick Export to Apps. FilterPixel lists Adobe Lightroom Classic as a destination, and says the photos arrive with the culling results attached.

If the photos are already in your catalog, FilterPixel has a dedicated article for that case. Its steps, in short:

1. Point FilterPixel at the same folder on disk that your Lightroom photos live in.
2. Cull, then review the results and change any call you disagree with.
3. Click Export and choose Export as .XMP. FilterPixel writes sidecar files next to your images.
4. In Lightroom Classic, select the photos and run Metadata, then Read Metadata from Files.

FilterPixel notes that nothing is duplicated, because it worked on the same source files the catalog already knows.

That detail matters later. The client's picks come back by filename, so a catalog without duplicate copies of the shoot is a catalog where picks land in one place.

FilterPixel states that your rating style in Preferences, stars, colors or tags, determines how results are written.

The client's picks will also write stars, and colour labels when labels are switched on for that gallery. So think about which fields you want to keep for yourself.

Neither choice is wrong. Pick the one where the field you care about most is the one the client does not write.

The clientgallery.io plugin shows up in Lightroom Classic as ClientGallery. It works in Lightroom Classic only, not the cloud Lightroom app.

It publishes proof JPEGs from the catalog into a gallery. Each proof is stored under the catalog photo's own filename, so a RAW published as a JPEG proof keeps the RAW's name in the gallery.

That is what lets picks find their way home. The full publishing walk-through is in how to publish a gallery from Lightroom Classic.

A few plugin behaviours worth knowing at this step:

• Location metadata is removed from every photo the plugin exports.
• Re-exporting a photo with the same filename to the same gallery replaces it in place and keeps its picks.
• Changing a star or label in the catalog does not queue the photo for re-upload. The pick import in step 5 therefore does not trigger a republish.

When the client has sent picks, you run Import ClientGallery Picks from the Library menu's Plug-in Extras. You give it your studio key and the gallery link.

Everything found also goes into a collection named after the gallery, inside a collection set called ClientGallery. Running the import again reuses that collection and adds to it.

Develop settings, keywords and every other field are never touched. Your FilterPixel edit data and your own Lightroom edits stay as they are.

For the plugin side in more depth, read how to get client picks back into Lightroom.

This is the behaviour to plan around.

On a matched frame, the import sets the rating, and the label when there is one, without looking at the old value. There is no averaging and no "keep the higher one".

The import never clears anything either.

• It never sets Rejected.
• A re-run does not remove a rating, flag or label from a frame the client later un-picked.
• A love later downgraded to a like keeps its Pick flag, because a like never sets the flag.

Our advice: before you run the import, put your FilterPixel selects into a collection of your own. The collection keeps the membership of your cull even after the stars change.

If the FilterPixel sidecars are still next to the files, you can also read them again. Be aware that doing so would bring the FilterPixel values back over the client's picks on those frames.

The import searches the open catalog by filename. The match is a contains match, not an exact one.

Every catalog photo whose filename contains the picked name gets written. That includes the same filename sitting in two different folders of the catalog, and any longer name that contains the picked one.

FilterPixel's in-place route helps here, because it works on the files the catalog already has and creates no duplicates.

If nothing matches, the plugin says so and tells you to import the shoot folder first, then run it again.

The import only sees the catalog that is open. If you edit in a second catalog, run it there too.

FilterPixel can also convert RAW files to JPEGs with its edits baked in, which it describes as ready-to-deliver files for a gallery or a client preview.

You can drop those JPEGs into a gallery through the browser uploader. The gallery then stores each JPEG's own filename, with its .jpg extension.

Pulling picks back into Lightroom Classic only works if those names line up with the catalog photos. A JPEG named differently from its RAW, or carrying a different extension, will not be found.

There is another way out that does not need Lightroom at all. Once the client has sent picks, the studio can press Export picks (.txt). It downloads a plain text file with one filename per line, loves first, then likes.

The file does not mark which line is a love and which is a like. It carries no colour labels and no comments.

Be honest about whether you need a client gallery in the chain at all.

• If your clients do not choose photos, and you only deliver the finished set, FilterPixel plus a JPEG export may be all you need.
• If you edit in the cloud Lightroom app, the pick import is not available to you. Clients can still pick in the gallery, and you read the picks there.
• If you edit in Capture One, which FilterPixel also lists as an export target, the round trip runs through the .txt list instead. See the Capture One client proofing workflow.

The plugin is a free download, and a free account holds one gallery with 5 GB of proofs. The pick import works on the free account too. Unlimited galleries are one plan at 10 $ a month or 100 $ a year.

FilterPixel steps and quotes come from the two help-centre articles below. clientgallery.io behaviour comes from the Lightroom Classic plugin (version 3.2.0) and the studio dashboard as they ship. No FilterPixel price is quoted, because none was verified.

• FilterPixel Help, "Exporting Your Culled Images from Filterpixel" (Export as .XMP, Quick Export to Apps with Lightroom Classic and Capture One, rating style in Preferences, JPG export), article updated 25 July 2026, fetched 18 September 2026, https://filterpixel.crisp.help/en/article/exporting-your-culled-images-from-filterpixel-1ui8d65/
• FilterPixel Help, "I have already imported photos into Lightroom. How should I use FilterPixel?" (same folder, Export as .XMP, Read Metadata from Files, nothing duplicated), article updated 25 July 2026, fetched 18 September 2026, https://filterpixel.crisp.help/en/article/i-have-already-imported-photos-into-lightroom-how-should-i-use-filterpixel-etjefx/
• clientgallery.io product facts, checked in code 18 September 2026: likes 3 stars, loves 5 stars and Pick flag, labels by colour name, captions opt-in and overwriting, contains filename match in the open catalog, values replaced not merged, untouched frames and develop settings left alone, collection reused, location metadata removed on export, metadata edits do not trigger republish, Export picks (.txt) format, free account of 1 gallery and 5 GB, plan at 10 $ a month or 100 $ a year, https://clientgallery.io/lightroom