Inspiring

Question

Is there any way to copy/duplicate a photo? NOT a virtual copy.

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
February 24, 2024
3 replies
2971 views

I have a new folder which I am adding photographs from years of shoots (on multiple drives) and I want copies of the photos there (not virtual copies). I need to be able to access that folder in InDesign, Illustrator, etc., and want a single place that has this group of photos.

Is there any way to do this? You'd think it would be super simple, but I can't find this anywhere.

Windows

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

Is there any way to copy/duplicate a photo? NOT a virtual copy.

I have a new folder which I am adding photographs from years of shoots (on multiple drives) and I want copies of the photos there (not virtual copies). I need to be able to access that folder in InDesign, Illustrator, etc., and want a single place that has this group of photos.

By @displaced7

If you want to use photos in InDesign, then I assume that you will want to use edited photos, not unedited originals. Because Lightroom Classic is a non-destructive editor, copies of your originals will be unedited. The best way to do this is to create a publishing service to your hard disk, because then Lightroom Classic can keep the exported photos in sync with any new edits. https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/export-hard-drive-using-publish.html

-- Johan W. Elzenga

D

displaced7Author

Inspiring

I want to copy edited images to another drive and folder. I don't want to be linking across drives (it'll just be a headache in a year when the links break).

I was just hoping there was a simple way, like Windows Explorer, that I was missing. Doesn't seem to be, but not a big deal.

D

displaced7Author

Inspiring

I am following you and I do understand what you ask and why you asked it. I just tried to explain that if you could make a copy of the image, you would get an unedited copy because of how Lightroom operates. You must make that copy by exporting in order to get what you want. Exporting is not a 'workaround' because Lightroom lacks the functionality to copy images, it is because copying images would be useless because they would be unedited copies.

My process: Edit image, bring into Ps if necessary (and sync with Lr), export final edit to a separate folder. It's that final, exported JPG that I want to copy. There aren't any Lr edits attached to it.

Yeah, that seems to be the only option. Thanks.

D Fosse

Community Expert

You can make a copy of the raw file - or any other format - in the operating system. Just copy/paste in the folder.

But no such function in LrC.

dj_paige

Legend

There is no COPY in Lightroom Classic, other than virtual copies.

You could export the photo to the folder you desire.

B

Bill Sprague

Community Expert

Hoping to add to dj_paige's post, is that the Export routine has an "Image Format" choice of "Original". Along with controls for folder choice, renaming and batch processing it should make what you want to do very easy.

dj_paige

Legend

It isn't clear to me if @displaced7 wants to export a JPG with whatever edits he has made, or if the desire is to have the unedited photos in which case Image Format should be set to Original.

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