diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index db12bf4..310c4f4 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,12 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+## [0.5.4] - 2026-06-14
+
+### Fixed
+
+- **Quality replacement slot floor used wrong score**: when a blur-score replacement deleted a low-quality Frigate file but the subsequent upload failed, `min_quality_score_for_slot` was set to the failed candidate's score rather than the deleted file's score. This caused subsequent candidates that were better than the deleted file (but worse than the failed upload) to be skipped, leaving the freed slot unfilled for the rest of that run. Fixed by using `target_score` (deleted file's score) as the floor, matching the documented intent in the surrounding comment.
+
 ## [0.5.3] - 2026-06-14
 
 ### Fixed
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index d5422e0..02f785b 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [project]
 name = "winnow"
-version = "0.5.3"
+version = "0.5.4"
 description = "Selects diverse, high-quality photos from Immich as training data for Frigate face recognition."
 license = "AGPL-3.0-or-later"
 requires-python = ">=3.13"
diff --git a/winnow/executor.py b/winnow/executor.py
index 23c8186..ef77331 100644
--- a/winnow/executor.py
+++ b/winnow/executor.py
@@ -464,7 +464,7 @@ def upload_to_frigate(jobs: list[dict]) -> None:
                         remove_frigate_file(name, target_frigate_file)
                         person_has_fscores = has_frigate_scores(name)
                         effective_count -= 1
-                        min_quality_score_for_slot = None if using_fscore else candidate_score
+                        min_quality_score_for_slot = None if using_fscore else target_score
                     else:
                         logger.warning("Failed to delete %s for %s, skipping replacement", target_frigate_file, name)
                         failed_deletes.add(target_frigate_file)