Every photographer knows that batch editing photos is necessary for staying sane. And sure, the current tools work. But our team of photo, design, and AI nerds at Facet wasn't satisfied with this status quo. We felt photo editing tools should do more, and should make it easy to edit 100s or 1000s of photos, not just barely tolerable.

And so, as opposed to editing a single jpeg, we’ve designed Facet so you edit elements across your photo collection simultaneously. Of course, this will save you a lot of headache. And of course, you will still end up with polished photos. But with Facet, your workspace edits are also a product in and of themselves. We call them a pattern.

So what is a pattern anyway?

Your edits are the pattern. In a single photo collection, your pattern lets you apply your edits across all your photos automatically (goodbye, batch edit!). You can also clone your pattern to use on other photo collections, or to send to a friend. By making your edits a product, Facet flips the paradigm of a workspace on its head. We think of your workspace and its edits as a verb (the pattern) instead of a noun (the inert yet omnipresent ‘file’).

Facet patterns are a “genius lovechild of automasking and batch editing”

So a pattern is your set of edits. But it’s also more powerful than that. It’s kinda like a supercharged preset, kinda like harvesting all the layer states in your Photoshop file. Not to bore you, (though is computer learning ever boring?) but a pattern is also kinda like a series of computer commands, if/then statements, layer masks, slider settings, and even mood boards. Your pattern could be as basic as “adjust the exposure up two clicks on all these photos.” Or it could be as complex as you can possibly imagine, such as “Make it moodier. Adjust exposure here. Remove all the tattoos. Change the background color. Oh! Actually make the foreground more playful.”

Working in Facet will feel like a conversation with a trusted collaborator.

How to use a pattern

Here’s how it works: Upload your photo collection to Facet. It will show up in a single workspace, so you can easily view changes across all your images without having to flip between a thousand tabs (score!). During the upload, our AI-enabled tech will automatically create and name layer masks for each element of your images—foreground, background, people, skintones, tattoos, animals, objects, and so forth. Because of this, Facet can automatically apply edits you make to one photo across the entire set. Want to erase all the tattoos in a single click? Bump up the background exposure in each image? Color Match all the clothing? Or try out a LUT from our collaboration with FilterGrade? Easy.

You can then clone the pattern to use on another project, adjusting the settings as your artistic vision (or Creative Director) demands. You can also open source your pattern by sharing the link on your gallery.

The Future of Patterns, Photography, and AI

In the future, we’re planning to make patterns even more powerful. Today, photo editing is exacting with selection of colors, exposures, etc. We’re training our AI to learn concepts and approximate images, so it will know what “moody” and “ethereal” look like, and so that it can make a sophisticated preset by blending a collection of inspiration photos (read: Color Match beyond compare). This means you’ll be able to use human terms and visual cues to quickly and easily get the look you’re striving for. Working in Facet will feel like a conversation with a trusted collaborator.

With our present-day AI making the cumbersome parts of your work simple, you’ll have more time to explore. Thanks to that “genius lovechild of automasking and batch editing” we call patterns, you’ll be able to dabble with different visual vibes for each part of your image. With your freed-up time and the ability to easily try out multiple creative directions, you can let your creativity run loose. In doing so, you may discover a new signature style or unplanned effect that really takes your work to the next level.

Too good to be true? Experience the power of the pattern today when you batch edit on Facet. Existing users of Facet can log on here to try out patterns. And if you’ve yet to make your creative life easier by using Facet, you can try Facet Pro & Enterprise for free. After the first 7 days, your subscription begins and auto-renews at 50% off our regular rate. Happy creating!