Most photo tools sort by data you can already see in the file: date, name, location, the faces it recognises. That is useful for finding a picture. It is useless for composing a set. Arranging photographs by visual feel is a different problem, and unlike a date sort, it does not have one answer.
A set of fifty images can be a colour spectrum. It can be a slow climb from dark to light. It can build from quiet frames to loud ones. Same photographs, different logic, different feeling. Cadence lets you switch between five of these readings in a single click, so you can see which one the set wants.
Flow
The smoothest path. Flow is the default. It composes by overall visual similarity, finding the gentlest hand-off from one image to the next - the way a well-made photo book leads you page to page without a jolt. Reach for it when you want a sequence that feels effortless and continuous. It is also the only mode that uses the smoothness and variety controls.
Colour
A spectrum. Colour orders the whole set by hue, so the run moves through the colour wheel: reds into oranges into yellows into greens and on. Reach for it when palette is the story, or when you want a grid that reads as a single gradient sweeping across the page.
Mood
Dark to airy. Mood sorts by brightness, opening in shadow and resolving into light. Moody frames gather at one end, bright and airy ones at the other, giving the set a clean tonal arc - the kind a gallery wall quietly leans on. Reach for it when you want the set to feel like it is moving from night toward morning.
Energy
Calm to busy. Energy reads how much edge and texture each frame carries, then runs from minimal, restful compositions to dense, detailed ones. Reach for it when pacing matters - when you want to let the eye rest before the noise, or build steadily toward a crescendo.
Intensity
Muted to vivid. Intensity sorts by saturation, from faded, filmic tones through to bold and saturated ones. Reach for it when you want the set to build in volume, starting quiet and ending loud, without changing the colours themselves.
Which one to choose
There is no wrong answer, which is the point. The fastest way to find the right arrangement is to try a few. The same photos re-order in seconds, and your eye will tell you which reading the set wants almost immediately. Many photographers run Flow first for a baseline, then test Mood or Colour to see whether a stronger story emerges. The work that took a curator an afternoon now takes the length of this paragraph.
Cadence is free to try - no account required. Upload a set and switch between all five arrangements.
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