Help & Documentation

Everything you need to know about uploading, editing, and delivering photos with ShutterShield.

Getting Started

How to Upload Photos

Navigate to Dashboard > Upload and drag your files into the upload zone, or click to browse. You can upload up to 100 files at once, with a maximum of 100 MB per file.

After uploading, your photos appear in your Photos library where you can view, edit, export, and organize them.

Supported File Formats

RAW Formats (all major camera brands)

CR2, CR3 (Canon) -- NEF (Nikon) -- ARW (Sony) -- ORF (Olympus) -- RW2 (Panasonic) -- DNG (Adobe) -- RAF (Fujifilm) -- PEF (Pentax) -- SRW (Samsung) -- X3F (Sigma) -- 3FR (Hasselblad) -- MEF (Mamiya) -- MRW (Minolta) -- NRW (Nikon)

Standard Formats

JPEG, PNG, TIFF, WebP, HEIC/HEIF, BMP, GIF

Understanding the Dashboard

Your dashboard sidebar gives you quick access to everything:

  • Overview -- Your usage stats and quick actions
  • Upload -- Drag and drop photos to upload
  • Editor -- Apply AI edits, filters, and manual adjustments
  • Photos -- Browse and manage your photo library
  • Galleries -- Create and manage client galleries
  • Deliver -- Share galleries and track delivery status
  • Settings -- Account, billing, and preferences

Editing Guide

One-Click Perfect

Our most powerful single-click enhancement. One-Click Perfect applies four AI operations in sequence:

  1. CLAHE contrast enhancement -- Adaptive histogram equalization for natural-looking contrast
  2. AI noise reduction -- Advanced noise reduction that preserves detail
  3. Unsharp mask sharpening -- Crisp, print-ready output
  4. Vignette -- Subtle darkening at edges to draw the eye

Best for: Wedding photos, portraits, event photography.

Film Filters

Eight classic film stock emulations trained on real film scans:

  • Portra 400 -- Warm tones, beautiful skin rendering
  • Ektar 100 -- Vivid colors, high saturation
  • Tri-X 400 -- Classic B&W, rich grain
  • Velvia 50 -- Ultra-vivid landscapes
  • Superia 400 -- Natural everyday tones
  • CineStill 800T -- Tungsten cinema look with halation
  • Gold 200 -- Warm, nostalgic tones
  • HP5+ -- Fine-grain B&W with rich midtones

Pro Tools

  • Skin Enhancement -- Smooth skin texture while preserving pores and detail. Uses frequency separation.
  • Smart Wire Detection -- Detects dark thin structures against bright sky regions using local contrast analysis. Works best on clear sky. For complex scenes or non-sky wires, use Paint-to-Remove for manual mask refinement and LaMa inpainting.
  • AI Bokeh -- Depth-aware background blur using MiDaS neural network. Adjustable blur strength.
  • Paint to Remove -- Brush over any object to remove it using LaMa neural inpainting. Press P to activate.
  • Style Matching -- Upload 5-10 reference photos to extract a style profile, then apply it to your entire shoot.

Wire & Object Removal -- Best Practices

ShutterShield offers two complementary tools for removing distractions from your photos:

  • Smart Wire Detection -- Automated detection of power lines and wires in sky regions. Uses local contrast analysis to find dark thin structures against bright backgrounds. Best for clear sky shots with visible power lines.
  • Paint-to-Remove (P key) -- Brush over any distraction -- wires, signs, people, blemishes -- and LaMa AI fills the area naturally. This is the recommended approach for complex scenes, wires against trees or buildings, and any non-sky object removal.

For best results with power lines:

  1. Try Smart Wire Detection first (it handles clear sky wires automatically)
  2. If any wires are missed, press P to activate Paint-to-Remove
  3. Brush over the remaining wires -- keep strokes thin and follow the wire path
  4. Click Remove and LaMa AI fills the area seamlessly

Curves & HSL

For precise control, use the Curves editor to adjust tone mapping and the HSL panel to fine-tune individual color channels. These tools are available in the Editor sidebar.

Curves: Click to add control points, drag to adjust. Supports RGB, Red, Green, and Blue channels individually.

HSL: Adjust Hue, Saturation, and Lightness for 8 color ranges independently (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Aqua, Blue, Purple, Magenta).

Keyboard Shortcuts

Before/After comparison (toggle original vs edited)\
Paint to Remove mode (brush over objects to remove)P
Toggle Auto EnhanceA
Undo last editCtrl+Z
Save current editsCtrl+S
Export current photoCtrl+E
Navigate between photos (in FlowMode)Arrow Left/Right
Exit current mode / close modalEsc

Account & Billing

Plan Comparison

FeatureFreeSolo $29Pro $59Studio $119
Photos/month501,0005,000Unlimited
Galleries310UnlimitedUnlimited
Storage1 GB50 GB250 GBUnlimited
Film filters8888
Paint-to-Remove (LaMa AI)----YesYes
Custom branding--YesYesYes
ZIP delivery------Yes
Priority processing----YesYes

Managing Your Subscription

Go to Settings to view your current plan, upgrade, or manage your subscription through the Stripe customer portal.

30-day money-back guarantee: If you are not satisfied within 30 days of your purchase, contact us for a full refund. No questions asked.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does GPU processing take?

The first edit after a period of inactivity takes approximately 45 seconds while the GPU instance warms up (cold start). After that, each edit typically completes in 1-5 seconds depending on the operations and image size.

What AI models power ShutterShield?

ShutterShield uses several AI technologies: advanced noise reduction, Real-ESRGAN for upscaling, MiDaS for depth estimation (bokeh), LaMa for inpainting (object removal), CLAHE for adaptive contrast, custom color science for film emulations, and a frequency separation pipeline for skin enhancement.

Are my photos private?

Yes. Your photos are stored securely in Cloudflare R2 cloud storage with encryption at rest. Only you can access your photos through your authenticated account. Gallery photos are only visible to people you share the gallery link with (and they need the password if you set one).

Can I use ShutterShield offline?

No. ShutterShield requires an internet connection because GPU processing happens in the cloud on dedicated L4 GPU instances. This keeps the desktop app lightweight and ensures you always have access to the latest AI models.

What is FlowMode?

FlowMode is a batch editing feature that automatically advances to the next photo in your queue after you apply an edit. This lets you edit an entire shoot without stopping to click 'next' -- perfect for culling and quick-editing wedding or event shoots.

Can I download all photos at once?

Yes. Both gallery owners and clients can download all gallery photos as a ZIP archive. You can customize the export format (JPEG, PNG, TIFF, WebP), quality, max resolution, DPI, and even add watermarks before downloading.

What happens when I hit my monthly limit?

You will see a notification that your monthly photo limit has been reached. You can upgrade your plan at any time to increase your limit. Your existing photos remain accessible -- you just cannot process new ones until the next billing cycle or an upgrade.

Still need help?

Reach out and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Contact Support