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Inspiring
December 13, 2020
Question

moving a group of photos

  • December 13, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 1747 views

I am finding that in lightroom I am unable to select  a series of say 10 photos and move them into a new folder that I have made.  In the PC you can select a list by clicking on the first and the last picture while holding down the shift key. This works in lightroom. However the centre button does not allow me to pick up the list, the right button gives a selection of actions that I do not want, and the left button just destroys the list. I have found that trying to move the list with the button held down immediately the list has been selected also does not work.  What am I doing wrong? 

It seems that moving a single photo does work but I need to break up large arrays of photos into component parts. How does one do that?  I have looked at the photos in the underlying directory outside of lightroom but the photos are indistinguishably represented by a standard icon.

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2 replies

Rob_Cullen
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 14, 2020

This is my method-

I do NOT pre-make the 'destination' folders in File-Explorer (Mac Finder).

I make the folders in the Catalog Library using the following method, where I want my groups of images (usually scans of one film ).

This is relatively simple-

1) Select the images you want to Group AND Move into a new folder (ie. make selections in your "large array" using the common methods- Holding [Ctrl] or [Click : Shift-Click] )

2) [Right-Click]  on a 'Parent' folder where you want to create the 'new' sub-folder of selected images,  (***DO NOT SELECT THIS 'PARENT' folder before the [Right-Click]!)

3) Choose from the menu- [Create Folder Inside "the folder you right-clicked"....]

4) Name this new folder AND check the box for [Include selected photos]

5) [Create]

 

The result is your selected photos (from the "large array") are automatically moved to this 'new' folder. No dragging of images required.

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .
dj_paige
Legend
December 13, 2020

Are you using Lightroom Classic? You don't say that.

 

When you want to move photos into a new folder in Lightroom Classic, you must point the mouse at the thumbnail of the image, and then press the left mouse button down and drag. It does not work if you point at the grey area around the image.

 

It seems that moving a single photo does work but I need to break up large arrays of photos into component parts. How does one do that?

 

What do you mean by "large arrays"? What do you mean by breaking them up into component parts?

sockitAuthor
Inspiring
December 13, 2020
Thanks for your  very prompt reply. I am now using Lightroom Classic
having switched about 4 weeks ago.

As a background I am using a Panasonic Lumix DH4 to photograph 35 mm
negatives which I am converting to positives with lightroom and the plug
in "Negative Lab Pro."  I have recently switched to using Raw files for
this which gives really very good results. My work flow is that I
capture 4 to 6 rolls of film into the memory card separating each roll
by a marker image. I then load this into an intermediate file on my
windows 10 computer for transfer to the major picture file that is the
basis for my lightroom catalogue.

The problem in this system is that the  Lumix raw file format is a
proprietary RW2 format. which can be read by Lightroom and the Negative
Lab Pro, but not by windows 10. Thus in the computer each image is
represented by an icon and it is not possible to identify each
individual film. I am therefore compelled to import the whole set of 100
plus images together into a folder which I can easily develop. However
the problem is to separate these rolls back into individual folders. I
seem to be unable to move the images of any particular roll out from the
big collection.I can identify them and the markers in a grid display and
I can select them. However I cannot find a way to drag them to the
folder that I have prepared.  In desperation I have now tried to make a
stack of photos and to try to move the stack. As a result I moved the
first and the last member of the stack, and the intermediate photos have
vanished.

That is my current predicament.   I wonder whether if I moved the two
photographs back into the stack and then moved the stack back to its
original position would I be able to retrieve the missing photos?

Thanks for your kind interest

Sockit
sockitAuthor
Inspiring
December 15, 2020
Wobert

Thanks for this great lead. I knew nothing about it. There is a lot that
I have to learn. I am thinking of hosting it on a NAS that can be
accessed over the web. This is OK for images but more difficult for 2K
and 4K videos because of the upload speed available in my price range.

If you have any other leads I would really like to know them as I expect
to run into this problem in a month of two.

Sockit

Wobert  The technique of making a file and using it to move photos works
really well. This is more reliable than the stacking process I had been
trying as I suddenly found that Lightroom would only move the first file
of a stack which is very unhelpful.   I have also encountered another
problem with stacks... I made a small one but now cannot find it. Is it
possible to search for stacks in the catalogue?

I am now going to investigate key words and collections. I can see that
key words in the metadata would transfer on export but I don't know how
collectiond  would help sort data that has been exported.

Thanks

Sockit