Work with photo collections

Collections are a way to group photos in one place for easy viewing or for performing a variety of tasks. For example, you can assemble photos in a collection into a slideshow, contact sheet, or a web photo gallery. Once created, collections are listed in the Collections panel of every module. They can be selected anytime you need them. You can create as many collections as you need.

Regular collection A group of any photos you choose to put in a group.

Smart collection Collections based on rules that you define. For example, you can create a smart collection of all photos that have a five-star rating and a red color label. Photos that meet the criteria are automatically added to the smart collection.

Quick collection You can temporarily group photos for certain tasks into the Quick Collection. Unlike regular or smart collections, there can be only one Quick Collection at a time in the catalog.

Here are some things to keep in mind about working with collections:

• Make sure that you understand the difference between catalogs and collections: Collections are groups of photos within a catalog.

• Photos can belong to more than one collection.

• You can stack photos in a collection but you cannot stack photos from different collections, or from collections and folders. A stack created in a collection is visible only when viewing that single collection.

• You can change the sort order of the photos in a regular collection, but you cannot sort by User Order or drag photos to rearrange them in a smart collection.

• Removing a photo from a collection doesn’t remove the photo from the catalog or send it to the Recycle Bin (Windows) or Trash (Mac OS).

• You can create collection sets to organize your collections.

• You can explicitly save Slideshow, Print, and Web module settings as output collections. See Save slide show settings as a slide show collection, Save print settings as a print collection, and Save web settings as a web collection.

The collection appears in the Collections panel with a photo-print icon . Photos that are part of a collection display a Photo Is In Collection badge  in the Grid view and the Filmstrip.

A collection set is a container that includes one or more collections. Collection sets give you flexibility in organizing and managing your photos. A collection set does not actually contain photos; it only contains collections, including regular collections, smart collections, and output creations. A collection set has a filing box icon .

When you delete a collection, no photos are removed from the catalog or deleted from disk.

• Photos in a collection display the Photo Is In Collection badge  in the Grid view and the Filmstrip. Click the badge to see which collections the photo is in.

  Note: Smart collections are not listed.

• In a collection, Ctrl-click (Mac OS) or right-click (Windows) a photo and choose Go To Folder In Library to go to the folder that contains the photo.

• In the Collections panel, click the Plus icon (+) and do one of the following:

  • Choose Sort By Name to sort collections alphabetically.

  • Choose Sort By Kind to sort collections by type.

A target collection allows you to override the temporary Quick Collection. A target collection lets you make any permanent collection behave as a Quick Collection for as long as it is targeted. Targeted collections are an easy way to quickly group photos together for further processing.

Use the Quick Collection to assemble a temporary group of photos to work with in any module. You can view the Quick Collection in the Filmstrip or in the Grid view, and you can convert the Quick Collection to a permanent collection.

• In the Library module, select Quick Collection in the Catalog panel.
• In the Filmstrip Source Indicator menu, choose Quick Collection.

A Quick Collection can be saved as a collection. You have the option of clearing the Quick Collection after saving it.

A smart collection is a collection based on metadata criteria that you specify. Smart collections automatically include all photos that meet the criteria. You don’t manually add or remove photos from a smart collection.

Lightroom Classic includes a set of five default smart collections: Colored Red, Five Stars, Past Month, Recently Modified, and Without Keywords.

Lightroom Classic adds the smart collection to the Collections panel and adds all the photos in the catalog that meet the specified rules. Smart collections have a photo-print icon with a gear in the lower-right corner .

You can change the criteria and rules for a smart collection at any time.

You can share smart collections by exporting smart collection settings and then importing those settings into a different catalog. Lightroom Classic applies a .lrsmcol filename extension to smart collection settings files.

Exporting a smart collection exports the rules for the smart collection. It does not export the photos that are in the smart collection.

When you import smart collection rules, Lightroom Classic creates the smart collection to the Collections panel and adds any photos in the catalog that meet the smart collection criteria.

• To export a smart collection, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) it in the Collections panel and choose Export Smart Collection Settings. Specify the name and location of the exported smart collection settings file and then click Save.
• To import a smart collection, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) it in the Collections panel and choose Import Smart Collection Settings. Navigate to and select a smart collection .lrsmcol settings file and click Import.

In the Collections panel of the Library module, you can organize your images by assigning a color label to Collections, Smart Collections, and Collections Sets.

Select one or more collections that have a color label. Right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) and choose Add Color Label to Collection > None from the context menu.

To filter all the collections that have been assigned to a color label:

In the Library module, the All Synced Photographs collection in the Catalog panel displays all the Lightroom Classic photos (including the ones that are not a part of any Collection) that are synced to the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom mobile clients. Therefore, the photos that appear in the All Photos view in Lightroom web, All Photos view in Lightroom mobile (iOS), and Lightroom Photos view in Lightroom mobile (Android) are same as the All Synced Photographs collection in Lightroom Classic desktop.

You can drag a photo directly into the All Synced Photographs collection in the Catalog panel (Library module) to sync that photo with all your Adobe Photoshop Lightroom mobile clients — even if that photo is not a part of any synced collection.

Deleting photos from the All Synced Photographs collection removes them from all your Adobe Photoshop Lightroom mobile clients, but not from Lightroom Classic desktop.

You can export a collection of photos as a new catalog. When you create a catalog from a collection of photos, the settings in the photos are exported to the new catalog.