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Lightroom multiple Exports

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b_gossweiler

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This is a post created from a PM I received from Photographyfreak, and I think this is the better place to discuss it than via PMs:

Photographyfreak said:
Hi, I am new to the forums. I did some editing last night, and when I would export each photo, for some reason it was exporting the last 12-15 over and over, not sure if I clicked something by accident or not. But now I have all these pictures in a folder, how do I get rid of all those extras, and save just the one I wanted? Also is there a way to be in Lightroom and just save the ones that were edited, without clicking on each picture?
Thank you so much for your help :D

When exporting, all the images that you select are exported. I suspect that you wanted to export one image each in several separate exports, but had one image active as the most selected and several additional images selected to go with it each time exporting.

In LR, you can have two sorts of selected images, which is a kind of unique to this program:
  • The so called most selected image is the one shown with a light gray border in the grid
  • The rest of the selected images are the ones shwon with a medium gray border in the grid
This is necessary to be able to Sync/Copy settings from one image to others, but not all images (the settings of the most selected are propagated to the rest of the selected images).

To change the most selected image within a group of selected images, click into the center of the thumbnail (it will get a light gray border). To de-select all but one images, click into the gray border of an image (it will get a light gray border for being the most selected, but all others will be de-selected).

Before going further, can you try to answer a few questions for me:
  • Did you export into a different folder than where your originals reside?
  • Did you add the exported images to your catalog?
  • What filenames do the exported images carry?
  • Can you provide an Explorer screenshot of the folder where your exported images reside?
  • What file-type (Raw/JPEG) are your originals?

There is actually no problem deleting superfluous exports, but I'd like to make sure we don't delete any originals in your case.

As far as "saving" just the images you edited:

Be aware of the fact that saving your edits does not involve exporting images. The edits you've applied to your images are recorded in the LR catalog, which you should backup on a regular basis, besides backing up your originals.

If you want to export just recently edited images, I can see two ways of doing that:
  • Establish a smart collection with criteria "Edit Date is in the last ....." and export all members of this smart collection
  • Establish a (smart) publish service to harddisk with all your potential exports, publish it once and then republish after editing some images
If you need advice on how to achieve these, feel free to ask back, but I'd suggest we clear your primary problem out of the way first.

Beat
 
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-Yes, different folders.
-Yes, I did add the images to my catalog.
-I use numbers for the file names.
-An explorer screen shot? Not sure?I can try, when I get home to my computer.
-This time it was jpeg's.

Ok sounds good, I do need to get this done, but I also want to beable to back up what I edit, which I think I did do that the other night when it asked.
I sure hope I can figure this out, lol
 
-Yes, different folders.
-Yes, I did add the images to my catalog.
-I use numbers for the file names.

In this case the easiest thing to do is select the folder you exported to in Lightroom (Library Module, Grid View), select all the images you want to delete and hit Del. If asked, choose "Delete from Disk".

Did my explanation about having more than one image selected in more than one export make sense as an explanation for what happened to you?

Beat
 
Yes I believe that's what happen. Ok, tell me how can I do this?
If you want to export just recently edited images, I can see two ways of doing that:
  • Establish a smart collection with criteria "Edit Date is in the last ....." and export all members of this smart collection
  • Establish a (smart) publish service to harddisk with all your potential exports, publish it once and then republish after editing some images
If you need advice on how to achieve these, feel free to ask back, but I'd suggest we clear your primary problem out of the way first.
 
1) Smart Collection

You can create a smart collection (by clicking on the + next to the title "Collections"), and enter a desired period for Edit Date:
capture_20111214_003121.png

The smart collection established like this will automatically contain all images edited (which includes metadata changes) within the time period you specify. You can then - at the end of an edit day - select all images in the smart collection and export them.


2) Using Publish Service to HardDrive

Under PublishServices, in the HardDrive section, click on "Set Up". You can then specify a target folder and other publish options like FileNaming, FileSettings etc. like you do in Export. This establishes a so called "Published Folder to Hard Drive".

You then drag all the images to be controlled into a the published folder and initially publish, when you're ready to "export". From then on, all changes to images within the collection will mark the images for re-publish, which you can then do whenever you want, resulting in re-"exporting" of just the changed images.

You can also create published smart folders, into which you don't have to drag the images, but can specify metadata criteria of what's to control the content (i.e. all images > ***). These published smart folders react the same as published folders in that all images contained in the smart folder are marked for re-publish when changed. A re-publish will then re-"export" the changed images.

Beat
 
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