# virtual copies, how to move them to their own folder



## focusedfast (Aug 18, 2010)

Hi, I am making virtual copies of a set of 1''+ photos of an event. I would like to play around with one set in color and the other in black and white. I just highlighted the entire set and right clicked to make virtual copies. Maybe I need to start over, but how do I put the virtual copies in one folder and the "originals" in another so that I can do separate things with each set. Thank you.


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## johnbeardy (Aug 18, 2010)

You need to put each group of images in its own Collection. 

John


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## Brad Snyder (Aug 19, 2010)

And to help you get started with John's advice, if you enable the top Filter Bar, ('\' backslash if it's not visible), then 'Attribute', at the far right under the lock icon, you'll see 3 icons, which will let you filter on Master, Virtual Copy, or Video.

One key thing to adapt to with Lr is to begin to deprecate the Folder habit, and begin to think in terms of collections. Treat collections as akin to playlists in your music library.

And welcome to the forums .......


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## Mark Sirota (Aug 19, 2010)

To answer your question directly -- you can't move virtual copies to another folder. Folders are a mirror of your folders on disk. Since virtual copies don't exist as separate files on the disk, they can't be moved; they always sit alongside the master file in the folder.

However, virtual copies can be on their own in collections, which is why John and Brad suggested collections as a reasonable approximation of what you're asking to do.

Another possibility would be to name each virtual copy (name one set "Color" and one "B&W", perhaps) and set a filter or create a smart collection to match those names. Or just filter on masters and virtual copies. Or just filter on color/B&W. Lots of ways to accomplish this separation.


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## Brad Snyder (Aug 19, 2010)

Good point, Mark. That very important info was glossed over.


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