New exposure-triage tools for the desktop app, much more reliable sign-in, and a wave of updates across Perch and Cloud Compute. This release adds precise control over how Kestrel previews exposure compensation, a highlight-clipping mask for spotting blown-out RAW highlights, and rock-solid sign-in on Windows — alongside expressive new storytelling tools in Perch and flexible new ways to pay for Cloud Compute.
Desktop App — Major Changes
- Exposure-compensation preview overhaul. A single Preview Exposure Compensation slider (0–100%, default 70%) — in both the scene viewer and Settings — replaces the old "Disable RAW Exposure Correction" and "Exposure-corrected thumbnails" checkboxes. It controls exactly how much of Kestrel's automatic exposure correction is shown in your full-image and RAW previews. (Preview only — your analysis and exported crops are untouched.)
- Highlight clipping mask & "% clipped" readout. A new readout beside RAW Zoom shows what percentage of the frame is blowing out, computed from the uncorrected source. Click it to paint clipped highlights in orange over the preview — in both the flat image and the live RAW zoom — so over-exposed areas are obvious at a glance. Especially handy when shooting with exposure bracketing.
- More reliable sign-in. Sign-in no longer fails intermittently on Windows. Kestrel now chooses from a list of candidate loopback ports instead of one fixed port (fixing
bind_failed/ WinError 10013 caused by Hyper-V, WSL2, Docker, or WinNAT), recovers cleanly if you close the sign-in tab and try again, and gives clearer errors when a VPN or firewall is in the way. - Perch sharing improvements. "Share with Perch" is now disabled while a folder is still analyzing (so partial timelines can't be uploaded) and re-enables automatically when analysis finishes. The ðŠķ Perch marker now appears in the folder tree immediately after upload instead of only after a restart.
Desktop App — Bug Fixes
- Fixed crashes related to the tutorial sample sets (now mirrored to a per-session temporary folder).
- Improved performance on some macOS systems where the segmentation model's batch-decoding step repeatedly failed.
- Fixed a build-attestation signing issue so crash and bug reports are more reliable.
- Fixed valid image reads being rejected on mapped network drives mounted under a UNC root.
- Filtered out benign pywebview "orphan callback" exceptions so they no longer surface as crashes.
- Moved the folder-tree status markers (Perch feather, in-progress hourglass) to the right edge so they no longer crowd the folder name.
Perch — New Storytelling Tools
Perch gained expressive new timeline notes: emphasize a favorite photo so readers can't miss it, upload your own edited or environment photos to embed in your timeline, and drop in YouTube video embeds. Perch Groups also graduated from beta — merge timelines with everyone you birded with to relive one trip through many lenses. There's also a new dark theme and stronger privacy and moderation controls. Read the full Perch update →
Cloud Compute — Flexible New Options
Cloud Compute now offers Backlog Packs: one-time, non-expiring credits with no subscription (10,000 photos for $15 or 25,000 for $30). Monthly allowances on both plans went up too — Blue Jay to 15,000 photos/mo and Sandpiper to 50,000 photos/mo. Read the full Cloud Compute update →
Feedback? Please visit projectkestrel.org/contact or use the in-app feedback feature!