Trying to save "missing" photos

[mardicar]

Lightroom Version Number

Lightroom version: CC 2015.1.1 [ 1032027 ]

Operating System

1. macOS 10.13 High Sierra

I recently lost my daughter to cancer and am now working on her computer trying to organize her photos. She was lacking in organizational tactics, but a good photographer. She had several Lr Catalogs and I have sorted most of them out. However, I found one catalog where she shot photos for other people as well as many from a trip to Europe. They are all missing and I have not located them on her computer. I don't think she understood how Lr works. I can take screen shots of each photo knowing that the quality will be compromised, but am wondering if there is any better, less tedious way to save what is left without the original photos being available. All suggestions will be appreciated.

 

[Rob_Cullen]

Without the originals, there is really only one option, and that is to recover images from the Previews that you see in the Catalog library. This is akin to making screen-clips, but if 1:1 previews were made the quality may be better with the 'Extraction' of the Previews with a Plugin.
See the blog by Victoria here-
EXTRACT JPGs FROM PREVIEWS

 

[Philippe Coudé du Foresto]

The best you can do if you cannot find the original is to extract the previews. Here is a script to do so :
https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/extract-previews-for-lost-images-lightroom.html
Of course, the image retrieved will be of the size of the preview. But better than nothing.