Today’s Question: I had a folder that contained JPEG versions of a series of images separate from the folder with the raw files. I mistakenly imported the JPEGs into Lightroom Classic and then used the Develop module on those JPEGs. Is there a way to get Lightroom Classic to take the adjustments I made to the JPEGs and then use them to continue working with the Raw files?
Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can synchronize the adjustments from the JPEG images to the associated raw captures using the Sync feature in the Develop module in Lightroom Classic.
More Detail: Lightroom Classic enables you to synchronize the adjustments from one image to one or more other images in a variety of ways. This could be used to apply the same adjustments to multiple images captured under similar conditions, or in this case to synchronize adjustments from a JPEG image to a related raw capture that was part of a Raw+JPEG pair.
Since the adjustments are likely unique to each image pair, that does unfortunately mean that you’ll need to work with one pair of images at a time, which means applying the adjustments to a large number of images could be a little bit time consuming.
The first thing you’ll need to do is make sure all the images are in your Lightroom Classic catalog. So, if you haven’t already imported the raw captures I suggest importing them into the same folder as the JPEG images.
You can then select the pair of photos you want to synchronize. You can simply click on the first image and then hold the Shift key on the keyboard while clicking on the second image, for example. Then make sure the image you already applied the adjustments to is the active image, which you can do by clicking on the thumbnail (not the frame around the thumbnail) for that photo.
In the Develop module you can then click the Sync button at the bottom of the right panel. In the dialog that appears turn on the checkboxes for the adjustments you want to sync. You can synchronize all adjustments by clicking the Check All button in the Synchronize Settings dialog. Then click the Synchronize button, and the adjustments will synchronize to the selected images.
