Today’s Question: In the Develop module in Lightroom I find myself sometimes developing my pictures from within a (smart) collection. Sometimes I make virtual copies to try another develop setting to see if that also could work. After deciding it is not a keeper, I cannot delete this virtual copy since I’m working in a collection. Is there a way to automatically find the folder the image is in so I can delete the virtual copy?
Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can right-click on the virtual copy in question and choose “Go to Folder in Library” to be automatically taken to the folder that contains the virtual copy. The selected virtual copy will remain selected, so you can then right-click on that virtual copy and choose the “Remove Photo” command to delete the copy.
More Detail: As noted in a previous “Ask Tim Grey”, you aren’t able to delete a photo when you are browsing a collection. When browsing a collection your only option is to remove the image from the collection. If you want to actually delete the image, you’ll need to navigate to the folder that contains the image.
When you are browsing a collection (or viewing a wide variety of images based on a filter after choosing the “All Photographs” option) you may not always know which folder a given image is actually stored in. By right-clicking on the image in question and then choosing “Go to Folder in Library” from the popup menu, you’ll be taken directly to the folder in question with the selected image still selected.
Once you have navigated to the source folder, you can right-click on the image and choose “Remove Photo” in order to delete the image.
Note, by the way, that users of Adobe Bridge have the same basic feature, which can be employed by right-clicking on an image and choosing “Reveal in Bridge” from the popup menu.