How to create Duplicate/Copy files in the finder.

Question

I'm still learning LRC Mac. Is it possible to have LRC DUPLICATE files with a select rating to another Finder folder?

My workflowis this: I copy all the raw camera cards onto a hard drive in folders marked "Raw". I import (Add) the raw folder to my LRC library. I go through the shots and rate them.

When I'm done I'd like to Copy/Duplicate (not export) all the "5 star" files to a new finder folder called "Selects". That way I leave the Raw files untouched and can move only my 5 star selects to a different area to be worked on in Photoshop /etc.

If not, is there a function like "show all 5 star files in finder" where I can copy and paste the selection at the finder level?

What would the workflow look like for this?

Thanks for any direction.

Per Berntsen · Accepted Answer

Lightroom cannot duplicate files, but you can export as Original, which will export a copy of the raw file. This will not include edits, since all the edits are written as text to the catalog. (parametric editing)

So the raw files are always "untouched", in that LrC never touches the image part of the file.

You can optionally write metadata (which includes edits) to file, which is written to the header of the file. The edits will only be visible in Adobe applications.

When I'm done I'd like to Copy/Duplicate (not export) all the "5 star" files to a new finder folder called "Selects". That way I leave the Raw files untouched and can move only my 5 star selects to a different area to be worked on in Photoshop /etc.

You should do as much editing as you can in LrC, and only use Photoshop for things that are impossible in LrC.

You can send raw files from LrC to PS for editing, but this will create a new file (PSD or Tiff, depending on what you have set up in Preferences > External editing.

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