# Moving photos between collections



## pgman (Apr 1, 2011)

Hi,

LR 3.3. Is there a way of moving photos between collections? Not copy from one collection to another and delete from the first one?

Flow:

Imports > Pick/Rejects... > Copy picks into temp collection for further processing (sometimes the quick collection+, some times to temp+).

In the temp collection I do my Develop, then as I process I want to move the photos to the "final" collection.

Thanks


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## dj_paige (Apr 1, 2011)

The idea of moving a photo from one collection doesn't really compute in Lightroom. You would have to assign the photo from the grid to the new collection, and then remove the photo from the other collection.

Or you could use one of our Lightroom Guru's Workflow, if it meets your needs. http://www.beardsworth.co.uk/lightroom/workflow-smart-collections/


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## Mark Sirota (Apr 1, 2011)

You could do this with smart collections -- you could key the smart collection off something like a color label, then just change the label to move from one smart collection to another.


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## pgman (Apr 1, 2011)

dj_paige said:


> Or you could use one of our Lightroom Guru's Workflow, if it meets your needs. http://www.beardsworth.co.uk/lightroom/workflow-smart-collections/


 
I use something similar to Beardsworth's, but even with his, the problem remains, how to move a photo from one collection to the another.


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## clee01l (Apr 2, 2011)

As Mark has stated, "The idea of moving a photo from one collection doesn't really compute in Lightroom."  Collections are virtual creatures.  They don't really exist as a physical location.  Images don't exists in collections, they are 'members' of a collection.  You join a Club and become a member. You can join another club without resigning from the first.  Static Collections behave this way. Lightroom has no way of knowing when an image joins a collection that it should or should not do something with the other collections that an image might also belong to.  Smart Collections are like clubs with annual dues.  As long as you pay your dues you are a member Stop paying your dues and you get dropped from membership.  In Smart Collections, the 'dues' are the criteria that define the Collection ( An image with a 'red' label automatically becomes a member of the Smart Collection {Label color}{is}{red})  Change the label color and the image is no longer a member of the "Red Label Smart Collection".

In summary, you can not 'move' an image with respect to collections like you can with 'real' locations like Folders.  An image can be assigned to a (static) collection or is can become a member by virtue of meeting the criteria for a  particular smart collection.   To use your word "move'  you need to operations  "Add" an image to a new collection  and "remove" the image from the old collectiion.


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## smahn (Apr 9, 2011)

T'would make a good feature request, for instance, to hold down the option/alt key while dragging from one collection to another to "move" the items rather than copy them.


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## Victoria Bampton (Apr 9, 2011)

I like that idea smahn.  Make sure you put in a post at the Official Feature Request/Bug Report Forum so the engineers consider it.


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