Export developed images in original folders

[24kw]

Hello.

In LR 6 is there a way to export all/only edited images into their original folders?

[richardplondon]

NOT so as to replace the files that you imported. I suggest you put this idea out of your mind, if considering it: LrC is going to strongly prevent that from happening.

For export, into the same folder as the original is one of the destination types you can choose. Often people opt to have their exports go automatically into a named subfolder of that (defined in the same export settings) to separate these out from their source originals. Otherwise literally into the same folder would require imposing a file naming template in the export settings, that resulted in naming that differs from the originals. For example prefixed with a date or suffixed with something.

Of course if your originals are Raws and you export TIFFs, the file names must differ in their extensions anyway regardless of the rest of the name matching, so that would be OK. But if exporting new JPGs, those might easily conflict with prior existing camera JPGs or with the JPG member of Raw+JPG pairings: a big old mess could rapidly result.  

So for example, if each such folder were to automatically gain a new subfolder called "developed", containing a new JPG version (showing your edits) for each photo, would that be the sort of thing you have in mind? 

In selecting the photos that you wanted to include in this export, you could if you want filter that to exclude those you have not yet applied any Develop changes to - since the Catalog tracks "edited" / "unedited" status, as an image attribute.

[24kw]

Thank you for the immediate help. And yes I would like to export them in exactly the same folders as the originals but with another (extended) file name (for examle [filename]_ed.ext). Most of the original files are RAW, some are JPG.

[JohanElzenga]

Question is of course why you would want to do this in the first place. The idea behind Lightroom's non-destructive editing is that you don't have to save edited images. You can simply export an image if and when you need it, with the specifications (like image size and file format) that you need for that specific occasion.

[24kw]

I want to do this because I only use LR 6. In case it will not be supported any more by a future Windows version or I switch to another photo software I want to have all my images (the ones I have not changed and the ones where I have made changes) as TIF-files.