Today’s Question: Following up your discussion on collections [in Lightroom Classic], if I pull a selection of pictures from a variety of drivers and folders, is there a way to create a single directory of the images or a copy to provide them to someone else?
Tim’s Quick Answer: In this scenario I would suggest exporting copies of the photos from the collection to a new folder. If needed that folder could also be added to the current catalog.
More Detail: One of the advantages of collections in Lightroom Classic is that they can be used to group photos together from a variety of different storage locations. For example, you can group photos from a number of different folders into a single collection, such as to use the images in a photo project.
If you want to share copies of those photos with someone else, one option would be to export copies of the images. You could select all the photos in the collection, for example, and then click the Export button at the bottom of the left panel. In the export dialog you could then configure the settings for how you want the copies of the photos generated, such as the file type, image resolution, and more.
Note that there is a checkbox in Export Location section of the Export dialog labeled “Add to This Catalog”. You can turn that checkbox on if you want the copies of the photos you’ve exported to be added to the catalog so you can manage them directly from there. In general, however, I don’t recommend using this option because it can lead to confusion between these copies and the original images they were based on.
As a reminder, it is also possible to create a web gallery based on a collection, and to make that gallery public so you can share the images with others. You can get more info on that process in an earlier Ask Tim Grey article here:
https://asktimgrey.com/2024/02/12/public-sharing-of-collections/
