rbmitch123

How do I move a photo into a another folder but keep it in the original folder?

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Create a collection.

rbmitch123

Aren’t collections just for ‘special’ photos?

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

The beauty of utilizing Digital Asset Management (DAM) software is that you don't have to have multiple copies of the same asset strewn around your computer. The best way to explain is to use an example.

If you have an image of 'Uncle Joe' standing next to his beautiful red 'Corvette' under that majestic 'oak tree', you would be remiss making 3 copies of the image. One for the 'Uncle Joe' folder, one for the 'beautiful auto' folder and one for the 'majestic trees' folder.

Instead (and in Lightroom), you would import the images into their 'home' folder for that shoot. Then, create three Collections (virtual folders that don't physically exist). One for 'Uncle Joe', one for 'beautiful autos' and one for 'majestic trees'. Now, assign that image to each of these three Collections and you have obtained your desired result.

You can also assign to the 'majestic trees' Collection those pics you took 2 years ago of the redwoods in California. You can assign to 'beautiful autos' those images from the car show you went to last June. And, since Uncle Joe is old, I'm confident you have taken several pics of him through the years, all of which can be assigned to the 'Uncle Joe' Collection.

Lightroom is very powerful in this regard, and I would encourage you to become knowledgeable of all that it can do. A good learning tool, and reference for the future, is a book titled Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classroom in a Book, available from Amazon and others. You will love it.

Good luck.

rbmitch123

I have many many many ‘home’ folders. It sounds like I need to recreate that organization in collections.
When I make adjustments in develop to a photo in one collection, will the adjustments be made to the photo in all the collections?

rbmitch123

Thanks Bruce.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

I have a folder for each shoot (home folders) and LR shows me that structure on the left side of the screen. I have no need to replicate that structure in Collections.

Another real-life example. As the wife works in her garden, starting early in the spring, I will walk around capturing images of the results of her labor. As the year ensues, about every two weeks, I’ll repeat that walk. Every one of these shoots get assigned to the Collection titled “2017 Garden”. So, at any point during the year, looking at the images in that Collection shows the progress of everything she nurtures. And, gives her bragging rights! In my mind, this is the expected use of Collections, but there are many more examples I could give you. Think of a Collection as an album of associated images, despite the day they were captured.

Finally, you’ve hit on another major benefit of Collections. If you place an image in multiple Collections, then edit the original, those edits automatically get propagated to all those Collections.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

You don't put the same image with the same name in two folders, it's that simple. You can, however, do an export of the image and then import the image back into the catalog, using a different name, and then you can put that photo in a different folder. You don't say why you want the same image in more than one folder? This would seem to be something that might create confusion at some point in time. Are you aware of collections? You can create a collection and drop any photo into a collection; the original image will stay put in the original folder but a virtual copy will be put in the collection. Not being sure what your intent is, I would say do not make many, many collections as this, too, can become confusing, but instead simply keyword for the most part. Use collections for some very specific things, including those times where you are putting together a collection of photos for exporting or using for a slide show or book and the collection is temporary, you can delete it when the project is completed.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

SusanFromVermont Loc: Southwest corner of Vermont

From your posts, it sounds like you must be using LightRoom. If that is the case, then you can make a virtual copy of the photo, export that to the folder you want to put it into, using the dialogue to convert it to whatever format you want [.jpg, .tiff, etc.], and make sure the file name is different. Change the file name by adding a number or letter to the original file name. Then, once you are sure the photo is where you want it, you can go back to that virtual copy and repeat the process for another folder. Then the virtual copy can be deleted. However, this is going to create a lot of actual images which will take up more space on your hard drive. This is why "collections" are recommended, because no new images are created.


There are various ways to use collections. You can set them up for special groups of photos, but you can also use "Smart Collections" as temporary groupings. For instance, all images with a white flag in one group: this can be images you are planning on printing, but they are from different folders and it is easier to have them together. Then you can remove the flags and use that same smart collection later for the same or some other purpose. Another use is for showing your "best" photos from a shoot, or from forever, so that you don't have to hunt around in different folders. When going through a group of images, I will mark the "keepers" with a white flag, and that will put them into that smart collection for further sorting. If I need more than one smart collection, they can be set up for multiple combinations of flags, stars, borders.


If you have given each photo a different file name, then adjustments will only be made to that version. Otherwise, it will show up on all copies of that photo.

Reorganization should be done in a way to make the best use of LR's capabilities. When you say you have many "home" folders, it sounds like you have photos grouped together that relate to a specific day or subject. Are these folders separate or grouped within a "master" folder? The reason I ask is because any images that are in LR will also be on your hard drive. Having multiple separate folders makes it harder for LR to create its Catalog. I have all my folders in LR within a master folder, LR Photos, and also have a folder with that same name on my hard drive. [Creating a folder in LR should put that same folder on your hard drive.] ALL images will be placed in that master folder when imported into LR. You can choose a destination during import, or let all images be grouped together - they can be seen under "Previous Import" - and then you can either make a new sub-folder for all of them, or choose an existing primary sub-folder to put them into. These sub-folders represent the ones you are calling "home" folders.

There are multiple ways to set up your Catalog organization. Some people do it by date, others by photo shoot, by topic, etc. LR is very flexible and lets you decide. My Catalog is set up in what I call a "filing cabinet" arrangement. First primary sub-folder: Main topic with appropriate sub-folders inside that, which can be by event, by date, or a combination. Second primary sub-folder: Next main topic with sub-folders inside. Etc.

For example one of my primaries is "Maine Pictures" with sub-folders for Harbors in Maine, Lighthouses in Maine, Rivers and Lakes in Maine, and more. Each of these is further divided as well. For instance, Lighthouses in Maine is divided into headings that are the names of lighthouses and then that is divided by year if I went back in different years.

You may have a different set-up in mind, but the key is to choose a way to organize and stick to it. Then adhere to the LR rules regarding moving and editing of images: All must be done from within LR, NOT in the folders on your hard drive. Whatever you do in LR will be done in the folders on your hard drive. This is because that is where the images actually are located, LR only "locates" them and provides a place to organize and edit. If you move or edit images directly on your hard drive, LR loses its connection to them and will tell you that your photos are "missing".

Hope this helps.
Susan