I’ll call it KILO (because it lifts your entire workflow).
1) Product thesis
Photography platforms today are “file managers with sliders.”
KILO is a creative operating system where AI is not a feature — it’s the default interface.
Core promise:
- Turn a shoot into a publish-ready story in minutes
- Make your style consistent across years
- Search your life’s archive like Google
- Deliver to clients like a luxury brand
- Never lose ownership of your work or your identity
2) Who it’s for
Primary users (in order):
- Working photographers (wedding, portrait, event, street, editorial)
- Content creators (IG/YouTube, personal brand)
- Studios (teams, assistants, editors)
- Clients (proofing + selects + payments)
3) The killer workflows
A. Ingest → Cull → Edit → Deliver (the “4-minute pipeline”)
- Ingest from SD card / camera / phone / Lightroom catalog
- AI Culling (duplicates, blink, blur, near-identical) + “best-of burst”
- AI Edit (your style) + one-click global fixes
- Deliver (proof gallery + selects + invoice + print store)
B. “Ask your archive” (chat as the UI)
Instead of hunting folders:
- “Show me all photos of Eric shot at night on a 35mm look.”
- “Find my sharpest 12 frames from Tokyo crosswalks.”
- “Build a portfolio grid for my website with high variety + strongest composition.”
C. Style consistency across time (“Style DNA”)
KILO learns:
- your contrast curve tendencies
- how you treat skin
- your blacks/whites rolloff
- your color bias (warm highlights? cyan shadows?)
Then it applies that across projects without you babysitting sliders.
4) Core product modules
4.1 Library (AI-native DAM)
Everything searchable. Everything smart.
- Auto-organization by:
- people (with consent + opt-in)
- locations
- events/projects
- camera/lens/settings
- aesthetics (“cinematic,” “gritty B&W,” “soft pastel”)
- semantic content (“bicycles,” “neon signs,” “laughing,” “rain reflections”)
- Vector search + classic metadata filters
- Smart Collections:
- “Best street portraits”
- “Sharp + clean backgrounds”
- “High emotion moments”
- “Portfolio candidates”
- Versioning: RAW stays sacred; edits are non-destructive
4.2 Shoot (capture + tether + notes)
- Camera tethering (desktop) + mobile companion
- Live AI flags (optional):
- focus confidence
- blink detection
- exposure warnings
- Voice notes → auto-attached to sequence (“client wants brighter, warm skin”)
4.3 Cull (the “Savage Mode”)
Culling is where photographers bleed time. KILO makes it violent (in a good way).
Culling stack:
- Duplicate clustering (perceptual hashing + embeddings)
- Burst analysis:
- expression scoring (smiles, eyes open, micro-expression)
- motion blur + focus confidence
- face angle + eye visibility
- Composition heuristics:
- horizon alignment
- subject separation (foreground/background segmentation)
- clutter detection
- Aesthetic preference ranking (trained to your taste)
UI concept:
- Left: “Cluster Stack” (one stack per moment/burst)
- Center: “Best pick” is pre-selected
- Right: “Why this wins” (focus, expression, composition, uniqueness)
- One key: F = accept winner, D = reject stack, 1–5 rating
Hardcore feature: “One-breath Cull”
You select your top 5 images → AI infers your taste for this shoot → re-ranks the rest instantly.
4.4 Edit (AI-first, manual-friendly)
KILO edits like a top assistant, but you stay the author.
Edit modes:
- Fix (objective): exposure, white balance, lens corrections, denoise, straighten
- Style (subjective): apply your Style DNA or a preset pack
- Local (smart masks):
- subject/skin/sky/background separation
- dodge/burn suggestions
- eye enhancement with restraint (no plastic faces)
- Series sync: “Make this whole set feel like this hero frame”
Signature move: “Reference Match”
Drop in 1–3 reference images (your own work).
AI matches tone + color + contrast while respecting scene lighting.
4.5 Story (turn photos into publish-ready narratives)
This is the differentiator: photographers don’t just deliver photos — they ship stories.
- AI generates:
- captions in your voice
- sequence order (opening/peak/close)
- IG carousel layouts
- blog post drafts
- contact sheet PDFs
- “Best 12” → auto creates:
- square carousel crop suggestions
- vertical story crops
- headline + short copy
4.6 Publish (web + social + portfolio)
- Hosted portfolio builder:
- minimal templates
- SEO
- fast
- client-safe sharing
- Export packs:
- Instagram, TikTok, YouTube thumbnails, website hero
- Brand kit:
- font/color rules for caption overlays (optional)
4.7 Client (proofing + selects + payments)
The client side should feel premium and effortless.
- Proof gallery with:
- hearts / stars / comments
- “AI recommends” picks for client (optional)
- compare mode (two frames side-by-side)
- “Selects lock” + auto invoice
- Delivery:
- full-res download
- print store
- album builder
4.8 Shop (prints + licensing + digital products)
- Print-on-demand integrations
- Licensing requests (editorial/commercial)
- Sell presets / Style DNA packs
- Marketplace:
- photographers can sell looks
- editors can sell services
5) AI capabilities (what models do what)
Core model types
- Embedding model (search + clustering)
- image embeddings for semantic search
- text embeddings for captions/queries
- Quality model
- sharpness/focus confidence
- noise level
- motion blur
- Aesthetic ranker
- personalized ranking from your past selects/ratings
- Face + person grouping
- opt-in only; local processing preferred
- Segmentation + masks
- subject/skin/sky/background/objects
- Edit suggestion model
- predicts edit parameters (tone curve, WB, HSL, etc.)
- Language model
- chat interface (“ask your archive”)
- story/caption/blog generation
Personalization: “Style DNA”
Two approaches (support both):
- Lightweight: learn parameter distributions from your edits (fast, safe)
- Heavy: fine-tune a style model on your before/after pairs (optional, more compute)
6) UX: the screens that matter
Home
- Big buttons: Ingest / Cull / Edit / Deliver
- Current projects with progress rings (e.g., “Cull 80% done”)
Project view
Tabs:
- Moments (AI clusters)
- Selects (top picks)
- Edits (versions + style)
- Story (sequence + publish packs)
- Client (gallery + invoice)
Chat (always present)
A persistent command bar:
- “/find neon rain umbrellas”
- “Make a portfolio for street”
- “Export 20 for Instagram, cinematic B&W, add subtle grain”
- “Which shots are redundant?”
7) Trust, privacy, and creator ownership (non-negotiable)
This is where platforms win or die.
- User owns all images and edits
- Default: no training on user data
- opt-in only, project-by-project or account-wide
- On-device first for:
- face clustering
- sensitive recognition
- quick embedding caching
- Watermark + licensing metadata preserved
- Audit log: what AI changed, and when
- Safety filters:
- flag CSAM (mandatory reporting + industry standard handling)
- prevent non-consensual sexual content generation workflows
- block requests for identity deception (“make this person nude,” “swap faces”)
8) Technical architecture (real build plan)
Frontend
- Web app (React/Next.js)
- Desktop app (Electron or native) for:
- ingest speed
- tethering
- local caching + on-device models
- Mobile companion (iOS/Android)
Backend
- API gateway (REST/GraphQL)
- Auth + permissions (RBAC for studios, client roles)
- Storage:
- RAW originals: object storage (S3-style)
- previews/thumbnails: CDN
- Database:
- relational (Postgres) for projects/users/payments
- vector DB (pgvector, Pinecone, Weaviate) for embeddings
- Queue/event bus:
- ingest triggers (generate previews, embeddings, masks)
- asynchronous pipelines (denoise, exports)
- AI service layer:
- model router (choose local/cloud)
- policy layer (safety + consent)
- inference caching
Data model (simplified)
- User
- Team / Studio
- Project
- Asset (RAW + previews + metadata)
- EditVersion (non-destructive params)
- Embedding (vector + model version)
- Cluster (moment/burst groups)
- Rating / Pick / Reject
- PersonEntity (opt-in)
- ClientGallery + Selects + Invoice
Performance tricks (so it feels instant)
- Generate previews + embeddings during ingest
- Local cache of thumbnails + vectors
- Progressive rendering:
- show thumbnails immediately
- refine ranking as models finish
9) Monetization (clean, creator-friendly)
Tiers
Free
- limited storage
- basic search
- manual edits
Pro ($)
- unlimited projects
- AI culling + AI search
- Style DNA lite
- client galleries
Studio ($$)
- team roles
- approvals
- editor workflow
- advanced analytics + SLA
Commerce take-rate
- prints + album sales
- licensing requests
- marketplace presets/styles
10) MVP scope (launch something lethal fast)
MVP = “Cull + Style + Client Delivery”
Ship the loop that saves time and makes money.
- Ingest (card upload + folder watch)
- AI clustering + duplicate detection
- AI ranking + pick/reject workflow
- Style DNA lite + batch edit
- Client proof gallery + selects
- Exports (web + social packs)
- Semantic search (basic)
Everything else can follow.
11) Roadmap (power-ups)
Phase 2
- Story module (carousel/blog drafts)
- Portfolio builder
- Print store integration
Phase 3
- Tethering
- Team editing workflow
- Marketplace (presets/styles/editors)
Phase 4
- Advanced personalization (heavy Style DNA)
- Brand collaboration tools (campaign boards, licensing)
12) What makes KILO “AI-first” instead of “AI-added”
Most tools bolt AI onto a file browser. KILO flips the interface:
- Your default view is moments + best picks, not folders
- Your default action is ask, not scroll
- Your default output is a story + delivery, not “export selected”
- Your default edit is your style, not neutral correction
If you want, I can also produce:
- a full PRD (requirements, edge cases, metrics)
- a database schema + API map
- wireframe-level screen specs
- a model evaluation plan (how we measure culling quality + style fidelity)
- a name/branding system that goes insanely hard (and doesn’t sound like every SaaS on earth)