How I use Lightroom’s Collections
Last week when I ran my “10 Things I wish I Could Tell New Lightroom Users” post (link), one of the 10 things I talked about was using Collections rather than Folders, and I had a number of follow-up questions on my collections workflow, so I thought I’d break it out a bit here. Here’s what I do:
STEP ONE: Make a Collection Set
Immediately after importing my photos into Lightroom, I go to the Collections panel and from the pop-out menu I choose “New Collection Set”, as shown above (which is kind of like a big folder I can put other collections inside to stay organized. It’s empty at this point, just like when you create a new folder on your computer). I’ll name this Collection Set “Tuscany.”
STEP TWO: Deleting the obvious mistakes
Before I do anything else, I quickly scroll through the images I just imported and delete any images that are obviously mistakes (Ones that are totally out of focus, or solid black, or shots where I accidentally took a shot of my foot, or the ground, or anything that so bad that even as a small thumbnail I can tell—-this needs to be deleted now).
STEP THREE: Create a “Full Shoot” Collection
Now that the obviously bad ones have been deleted (from Lightroom, and from my hard disc), I Select All, then press Command-N (PC: Ctrl-N) to put all the photos into a new collection (as shown above). When the New Collection dialog appears, I make sure this new collection appears within the Collection Set I created in the previous step.
STEP FOUR: Find the Winners and Losers
I double-click on the first image (to enlarge the size), then I press Shift-Tab (to hide all the panels), then I press the letter “L” twice. This puts my photo center screen, with a black background around my photo, so all the distractions are out of the way. Now I use the right arrow keys to move through the images to mark just two things: (1) Which ones are so bad that they should be deleted [really bad ones I missed when just looking at small thumbnails), and (2) The really good shots from the shoot----ones the client might actually see.
STEP FIVE: Separate the Best Shots
I turn on the filter so only the ones I marked as really good are showing. Now I do a "Select All" and put those in their own collection called "Picks." At this point, inside my main Tuscany Collection Set I have two Collections:
(1) The Full Shoot (minus the really bad ones)
(2) Picks (the keepers---the ones that could possibly wind up being seen by the client)
STEP SIX: Narrow it down to just the very Best Shots
I don't want to send my client 80 or 90 photos-----I'd rather do the photo editing and edit things down to the best of the best. Maybe 15 or 20 shots max (more likely, less). So, I go through the Picks collection and find the very best ones, and mark them as so.
STEP SEVEN: One Last Collection of "The best of the Best"
Then I turn the filter on again to just show those I marked as the best. I Select All and put them into a Collection, and name it "Selects." These are the ones I email to the client, or post in a Web gallery for them to proof. Now I have three collections inside my Collection Set (as seen above).
How this works for me:
(1) If I want to see all the shots from this shoot, I'm one click away---I click "Full Shoot"
(2) If I want to see just the good shots---the keepers--I click "Picks"
(3) But most of the time, all I really care about in the future are the very best shots from that day----so I click "Selects"
MORE COMPLEX SHOOTS
If I'm shooting an event, like a Wedding, or Sporting Event, I use the same basic idea, but I use more Collections inside my Collection Set (as shown below).
Now, you could actually break these groups of three info their own Collection Sets inside the Collection Set, which I sometimes do, but since they all appear together (thanks to the magic of alphabetizing), I don't have to (but again, sometimes I still do. If things gets crazy [lots of collections] then I usually do).
Well, there you have it—a look at how I arrange my own Collections in Lightroom. This obviously won’t work for everybody, but I’ve tried a number of different options, and for me this way is quick, simple, and consistent. Also, using this method is much, much faster than it looks here in print—the whole process moves along really quickly, and gets you down to the ones you’ll actually show the client (or your friends) very quickly.
I hope that answers at least some of the questions from last week. 
-Scott
P.S. I’m teaching my “Photoshop for Digital Photographers” tour today in Tampa, so I won’t be able to answer any questions until later this evening, but during the lunch break I will take at look at your comments.
great post! i love reading about workflow tips like this, thanks scott!
Thanks for this tip, Scott. I like you write your books and the way you share your tips: straight to the point, with simple English that everybody will understand. You’re easily the best writer I know. Thank you.
Hey Scott, the thumbnail after the “More Complex Shoots” is not showing. Thanks again.
Hi Scott — just one question then, what is going on behind the scenes with your folders? Are you putting them all in one big folder and then using Collections to sift out different shoots and events (i.e. do you have any folder structure as you import?)?
thanks for the post, making me think more about Collections….
Ken, what I do, based on my interpretation of the Gospel according to Scott, is import everything into folders by date (ex. 2009-11-17). Every import folder is imported into a single main folder titled Photos. Collections are done after the fact, either manually or using Smart Collections to automatically filter and collect photos based on criteria I specify. Hope that helps.
Ken,I am new at LR and wondered how Scott answered you re; Folders. When I first. Started LR, I followed his book suggestions but my folders seem scattered. It seemed so much simpler when I used PS CS3 when all I had to do was to go to Browse to find what Iwas looking for. I do not know if I should go back into LR and set up my folders again or not. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Bob
Hey Scott,
Thx for the further details on your Collections workflow. I totally get your way. I’ve even tried it once. But how do you handle similiar or even same events, like Birthdays, Christmas, where the Collection Name would be same.
Also with a lot of Collections, I kind of lose oversight over them, even if they are sorted alphabetically. Do you split your Catalogs for every year?
I’m kind of trying to create a Collection Set for every year and put every Event into the 2009er Collection Set.
Why not have a folder titled Birthdays with subfolders for each person. You could even have subfolders within the subfolders, like Billy 2008, Billy 2009. Do something similar for Weddings and Christmasses.
Thanks Scott, great tips there!
Scott, I see most of your thumbnails in LR are nicely and almost uniformly Vignetted. Do you have a regular preset setting for Vignetting?
Dang! The more complex diagram is not showing. Always interesting to read about your workflows, Scott!
Should be fixed now
Thank you very much, Brad!
How do you actually mark the photos as picks or selects? Do you use flags, star ratings or colors?
Would also be interested in the underlying folder structure. I tend to use geographical folders, e.g. Europe / France or USA / California as that is how I tend to think of my photos
Thanks
Mike
As outlined in his book, Photoshop Lightroom 2, Scott simply uses the P key to flag his “picks” (white flag) and the X key for “rejects” (black flag). Once this is done, simply apply the flag filter to view your picks. Move all your picks into your Picks collection, select all and hut the U key to remove the flag from all images within the Picks collection. Then go through these images, using the same flagging process to choose your Selects. Once that’s done, filter your picks again and drag those into your Selects collection. All done!
Banks Trev, that makes sense. I do actually have Scott’s LR2 book, I just haven’t got around to reading it yet
The correct link to the complex shoot (lr4a) seems to be:
http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/lr4a.jpg
Thanks for all your help!
John
Now that Lightroom 3.0 will have collection accessibility in all modules it makes sense to go this route so we don’t have to keep going back to the Library Module to go from folder to folder. I have only been using collections for prints and slideshows up until now.
ahh, good point Carolyn — thanks for that tip, I have not taken the time to try Beta 3.0…but if this is true, then I need to make the switch because having Collection access in all modules is a huge help!
Hi Scott,
Again, wonderful information and in the Scott Kelby easy to understand format! Is there a process to take a “Folders” work flow and change it to a “Collections” work flow or do you just have to plug through all the Folders individually? I will definitely give this a go on my next photo shoot. I’ll be doing a Wedding in January and will set up the work flow accordingly.
Thanks again for sharing your work flow! Also, I’m anxious to hear about your seminar in Tampa today! Hope all goes well!
Dennis
If you’ve keyworded your photos, titled them by location or added relevant metadata (location, subject, etc), you can easily apply filters and create collections based on those criteria. Unless you want to get into a pile of hurt, you’re probably best not to start moving everything from folder to folder. Photos in collections are only “virtual,” i.e. Lightroom doesn’t physically move them, so really no harm leaving your pics where they are. If you do decide to start rearranging your photos and folders, BE SURE to do it from within Lightroom, not by shuffling them around yourself on the hard drive.
I should add that you can create smart collections so your photos automagically get put into the appropriate collection. Very cool feature!
TrevJ,
Hey thanks for taking the time to answer my questions! Yes, I’ve learned the hard way not to move stuff from folder to folder without using lightroom.
What you mentioned makes a lot of sense to me now. I do have my photos keyworded. I’ll give it a try! Thanks again. – Dennis
That’s it. I’m getting organized–again.
Thanks for the time and effort you put into these blogs.
Andrew
Scott,
How is lunch?
Nice post though really enjoyed this! I have a jewelry shoot on schedule will be using these pointers…any new post for products shoots or interior?
Your Photography Friend,
Dwayne D.C. Tucker II
Nassau, Bahamas
I like how your explanations are straight forward and simple. This helps me understand the power of LR better.
Interesting post. Thank-you. The question I have is how do you backup the photos in the collection?
Thanks, Linda Quinn
Linda, I believe you have to back up your photos seperatly no matter where you put it in lightroom. Lightroom just manages your photos for you. However, if you backup the lightroom catalogue file, it should backup all your “collection structures” for you.
Putting images in collections really only places “virtual” copies into the Collection folders. The photos aren’t being physically moved anywhere on your hard drive, so you don’t need to do anything differently from your current method of backing up. This also enables you to have the same photo shared among multiple Collections without having to physically duplicate the file for each collection. Hope that helps.
Scott, so I take it that you don’t use “ratings” in LR? Is that still slower and less efficient to you comparing to the use of collections? Just wondering.
Tim,
I’ll let Scott answer for himself, but I wanted to share my own experience with regard to your Q. I used to use the flag/star/rate method to organize my shoots inside of a single collection, as I imagined this to be more efficient.
Problem is, after I had my picks flagged, and filtered to show only those flagged photos, if i exported one to Photoshop finish it up, and saved it out of PS, it sends it back to Lightroom automatically, but it does NOT flag it, so I would have to “unfilter” my collection long enough to find the finished photo, and flag it as well.
By using the collections in exactly the manner that Scott described, I have been able to avoid that problem.
This is a really good point. I never thought of this because I haven’t encountered this situation but I can see how inefficient it can be if one just depends on “ratings/flags”. Thanks!
Very good point Bryan. I have that very same problem and frustrated that PSD copies lose their rating and get lost with filters.
Scotts use of collections now makes more sense.
I don’t want to steal all of the thunder from Scott’s book, but unless he’s changed his approach to Lightroom, he really doesn’t make much use of the star rating system. If you were going to compare how Scott uses picks and selects to the rating system, you could say that the Picks would be only four and five star images and the Selects would be only the five star photos. Why bother rating anything with a 1, 2 or 3 star rating?
Hi Scott. I was just wondering how you might organize smaller imports of photos. For example, if I am just playing around the house with my daughter and grab the camera only to come away with 3-4 shots, do I want a bunch of folders or collections with that few photos? Obvious I have built up a lot of these over time. In this case, is it just better to forget about the folders created and have a collection set according to keywords, using my daughter’s name?
Thank you!
I’ve found what is useful is to have several subfolders/collections for miscellaneous photos. I use four each year — one for each quarter — called “Q1 Miscellaneous (2009)” or the equivalent. I then put the little shoots into those subfolders.
Tony,
The way I do it, and the way I think Scott recommends is to import your photos into folders by date (ex. 2009-11-17), then put the photos into whatever Collection is appropriate. Have a collection dedicated to photos of your daughter. It really doesn’t matter to Lightroom or your organizational system whether you’ve shot 2 photos or 2,000 photos on any given day.
Hi Scott- Is there anyway to import directly into a collection? I have been looking for a smooth transition from studio shoot > computer > presentation , quickly all while my client is there. Ideally I would love to have shots wirelessly imported as I shoot into a collection (clients named), and be able to walk my client directly over to their shots. Is that possible, or am I barking up the wrong lightroom tree?
Thanks, I love your new lightroom posts, keep them coming!
Tether, and watch folders. Then use a smart collection. Kinda brief, but that should
get you on the right path.
Thanks for the tutorial Scott. I have one question – how are you saving these collections once you are finished with them? To an external hardrive with the collections intact? Oops two questions lol!
Cheers,
Mike.
Collections are only virtual. No need to save them. They become part of your Lightroom catalog and are saved automatically.
thanks TrevJ!
Hi Scott, I have been using collections more since I attended your Detroit Lightroom seminar – it really does work better and I don’t have billions of nested folders.
My question is a bit more generic. I have installed LR 3 beta but I’m hesitant to use it because I don’t know what will happen when it expires in April and I have to revert back to LR 2 if I’m not ready to upgrade (read: funds not available). Would I be able to import my LR3 beta files backwards into LR2 without losing all that work?
I really love LR, but I just haven’t played with LR3 because of this fear, as silly as it may be.
Thanks for your time and all your great knowledge.
~S
>Would I be able to import my LR3 beta files backwards into LR2 without losing all that work?
Documents (images) yes. Proprietary stuff like collections, virtual copies, flags and any of the new processing (Develop module) work, no. And you can’t bring all these collections from 2.X into 3beta. So all the work you do with said collections will have to be rebuilt manually in 3.b. So be cautious here!
Smart collections transfer better since they are built using actual metadata like keywords or captions. Dumb collections don’t.
Now when the final release of 3 comes out, it will import from your 2.X catalog.
For some reason I have a terrible time with Lightroom. I can’t even get them imported, sorted or put in catalogs. This is the reason I’ve shied away from using it at all. Another problematic program. I’ll continue to search the web for help………David
David,
To save Scott from having to shamelessly plug his own book, that’s your guaranteed best solution to all your lightroom woes: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2. I’m sure a Version 3 book can’t be too far off.
Great post. Always appreciate tutorials like this.
Scott you guys rock,I love lightroom and now I love it more with this tutorials
Scott, I think I’ve only been tapping into the minimal strengths of Lightroom. My workflow consists of creating a new catalog for each shoot. I did this initially because I photograph 11 different baseball teams and just started working on each shoot individually. The one problem with this method is that each time I create a new catalog I have to set up new import parameters. I am now thinking that I need to change my workflow. I am assuming you import all photos from every shoot into one large catalog and then create collections from here. Is this correct? Thanks!
I find what a lot of people are doing is creating a master catalog for all of their images and also an individual catalog for each import for editing.
I use a similar system. It seems the most logical way to do it to me.
Follow up question: to go back and start using your method, would it be best to import all my individual catalogs into one main catalog?
Great tip Scott but I have one question. If the entire shoot already exist in a folder in your catalog what would be the benefit of creating a collection called “Full Shoot”?
I’ll assume you won’t need a ride to the airport today.
Great post. Glad to read that I’m doing a similar workflow. I use one catalog per year because otherwise, the computer start crawling!!
But I like Davids’ idea : ““Q1 Miscellaneous (2009)” or the equivalent” thanks for the tip. Will start to use it instead of using Metadata. That will simplify things. I hated to remember how I name the small shoots or the learning shoots that I practice.
Scott, I’ve been writing a series of posts about my Lightroom workflow, and today is my “collections” day as well! I use smart collections instead of the filter-and-select method you use, but I end up at the same place in the end.
Collections are a great way to easily focus on your best shots.
Yep, smart collections are the way to go. They are easy to set-up and use.
i have played around with smart collections as well. however it seems to take ALL photos of the catalog as input and not just the ones from the current collection set.
basicly i created a collection set, created a set with all images underneath and then tried to create a smart collection which has all flagged images in it. unfortunately this straight out of the box did not work. it would be great if there would be a checkbox which draws inputs only from the current collection set or so. this would make it so easy to use smart collections.
I have not used collections because I have not seen a compelling reason. Then I saw the screenshot of your wedding layout. Now that makes sense! I will definitely adopt this.
But may I offer an improvement? For the wedding collections, use your main collection (the client). Now, make the next level down the full, picks, and best. Finally, put the scene (reception, ceremony, etc) under the quality level.
This way you can click on the quality level you want to view and see all the images underneath. It makes more sense to me that way. Client -> quality -> scene gets progressively narrower.
Thanks for the convincing reason to use collections!
Thanks so much for this post! It’s a huge help! I have been wondering just how to organize my collections and this seems to make so much sense and will totally work for me. I figure it’s better to find someone who has already found a great, easy way of doing things and follow then rather than re-inventing the wheel, so to speak. Thanks again!
Creepy Scott…almost like you were reading my mind. I was setting out this morning to find a better way to use my Collections, and, viola, here it is!!
Thanks a Million!
By the way, thanks for the book signings in Denver. It really meant a lot that you came out and took care of the previous bungle.
Thanks,
Thomas
Great post!
But things get messy once I start tweaking things using photoshop, Nik pluggins etc as I get multiple copies of the same picture. Do you have any tips on how I can use collections to sort out the mess? For example, having a separate collection for the TIFF files, putting the RAW and TIFF files in the same collection, or deleting the RAW file from the collection altogether, or etc etc.. Arrgh! Help!
Great post Scott – I have only just started using Lightroom and so far I am loving it! I will follow your workflow and see how it goes. Thanks again.
I really like this idea, but I can’t shake the fear that I might someday use something other than Lightroom. At that point, all that organization is lost. Unless I’m missing something.
You’re not.
To retain the organization, you could do one of the following (which would be simple to do once the collections were finalized).
Add keywords (e.g., TuscanyFull + TuscanySelect + TuscanyPick, or, to keep things shorter, TuscanyF | TuscanyFS | TuscanyFSP). These could be used by other Adobe products or other products that support XMP metadata.
Alternatively, rename your photos such that their filenames reflect their respective collections.
I agree Dave and I do use a file naming convention based on the folder name (that Folder Name Token is great for this). That way, even outside of LR, you can view your organized folder structure and know “what’s inside” and if something somehow moves, you can tell by the file name. As for keywords, spot on. But instead of using dumb collections, add the keywords first (they travel with the file forever) and build Smart Collections based on said keywords or other embedded metadata. Now you have Scotts collection strategy but its based on metadata and can’t break later on like a regular collection. Even if you build a collection with a name, drag all the images you want inside it and place that name in say the Caption field if not used, you could now turn that collection into a smart collection and never have to worry about losing the images from the collection if you move to another product or just move from say LR 2 to LR3 beta (which at this time, can’t access the dumb collections). Personally, I do both (Keywords and file names) to burn in the organizing strategy into the documents so no matter what happens down the road, I can always easily restructure the DAM in the future.
Crap, I need to take two tylenol.
Thanks for sharing that great workflow tip, I’ll put it to good use.
Scott,
I really enjoyed yesterdays seminar in Tampa. Good to have you home.
Now on to two questions regarding collections: 1) Picks or Flags are “local” (in other words they only show up in that collection in which they were chosen- as opposed to “global” like stars and colors) SO, as you sort through the initial shoot to get to your “Picks” collection I assume you use the Flags/Picks for that sort. If my assumption is correct, then I will assume within that “Picks” collection you again use Flags/Picks to narrow that down to your “Selects” collection – here are the questions: 1) do you have a system for marking say “client picks” ie the images you sent to the client? would you create one more collection or simply mark an image in the collection with a color or stars AND 2) have you ever opened up your catalogue > then opened a collection set to reveal the “sub” collections and watched as the # of images in said collection goes from say 91 to 0 right before your eyes?
I have found that using smart collections with the same layout works – almost…
Because the minute I have edited my selects and want to make different color versions or variations of a selected image using virtual copies, the smart collections won’t update. I mean they won’t update. It doesn’t matter if I make the virtual copy in the smart folder or the original media folder.
The ONLY way to update the smart folders with the newly created virtual copy(ies) is to manually close Lightroom. When I then open Lightroom my virtual copies are updated in my smart folders.
This must be a serious design flaw in Lightroom 2… right?
What criteria are you using for the VC Smart Collection?
The one I’ve used that appears to work is “Copy name” isn’t empty.
It updates the Smart Collection with the new VC immediately for me.
Andrew. Yes, I have tried that option with “Copy name”-> isn’t empty, but that gives the same result.
Here is my Smart Collection criteria:
“Folder” -> contains all -> (Folder name)
“Pick Flag” -> is -> flagged
“Rating” -> is greater than or equal to -> *****
The problem is the following:
Whether the Virtual Copy (VC) is created when one is located in the original import folder or one is situated in the smart folder itself – the new VC is not automatically updated in the Smart Collection. Only a close and open of Lightroom will update the Smart Collection.
I have tried almost all possible combinations of criteria, so if someone smarter than me has this figured out, thank you for the help!
>Andrew. Yes, I have tried that option with “Copy name”-> isn’t empty, but that gives the same result.
Mac or Windows? Very odd, I tested it again, it updates as it should (I’m running a Mac, 64 bit on, Snow Leopard).
So you have to quit the application for the Smart Collection to update?
Yes, it’s a Mac also. White iMac Core2Duo 2.16Ghz, 3GB RAM, 250 GB HDD. Running Tiger 10.4.11 – 32 bit.
Yes, it’s weird if you get it to function with the exact same criteria with Lightroom 2.5. It might be that it’s the Tiger OS I’m running. Thanks for checking this.
Scott, this is a very good and useful tip. I do love your books and have followed your tips and make my own deviations to fit my workflow. I’ll guess this will help me a lot, until now I just created collections for picks/best shots, and always have to get back to folders to add some or see which is left etc. Thanks to this tip my navigation will be less painful. Thanks!
Great tip! Follow-up question:
When exporting a collection for my client (say the “Best of the Best”), where should I put the JPEGs? Should the export versions be in the root “Pictures” folder in the same sub-folder as the RAW files from the shoot, or should I create a separate folder structure just for exports?
Thanks for any advice!
I personally have an “Export” folder into which all my exports go, organized into separate folders. Usually I will name it “Event_date” (though date first would be better)
At first when I read this post, it didn’t make sense to me how this could be useful.
A day later I was still thinking about it and decided to give it a try. Needless to say, 5 minutes later I was hooked and started putting this months pictures into collections. All of a sudden it made sense! So I could find them by date I named the Collections Sets like so, Morning Fog 2009/11/03.
Thanks the excellent tips!
I like that workflow and I use it in a similar way. 1. I create the collection for the shooting holding all images (except those, I delete from my harddrive), than I tag those with 3 stars, which I pick and create a Smart collection for this collection and 3 stars criteria (similar to your pick folder). Then I switch to pick and flag those 5 stars, which are the best of this shooting, creating a new smart collection for 5 stars (similar to your “select” folder).
It’s amazing how many different ways Lightroom gives you to work. This method uses hard collections, but you could also filter for keywords (like Tuscany) or make smart collections to filter keywords for you.
Scott:
I don’t know if you are still reviewing comments on this blog entry. Thanks for posting about how you use collections; this really helped me to revamp the way I process images in Lightroom.
One interesting thing I noted that I had not anticipated. When you move images into a collection, it appears that flags (and I assume ratings and colors, but I haven’t tried this) do NOT move with the images.
Following your approach, I went through the images in a folder following import, and Flagged the first pass selects. I then created a Collection Set, created a Collection in that set for “Picks”, filtered the folder for only flagged images, selected them all and dragged into the “Picks” selection.
I was surprised to note that when I look at the selection, none of the images in the collection are flagged – even though they are still flagged if I go back to the original folder. I can then go through the collection and re-flag images there to further winnow them down.
It appears that at least the Flagged attribute is local to the folder (and I assume to each individual collection as well). I had assumed that these attributes travelled with the images, so a flagged image was flagged regardless of how you get to it (via folder, collection, etc) but obviously that is not the case.
Do you know if this is intentional or unintentional on the part of Lightroom? I haven’t seen anything that describes this behavior previously.
Thanks, and regards.
nl
I was just going to post an observation identical to Neal’s above.
One other similar thing: I have a lot of images that I have edited as TIFFs in Photoshop then put back into LR. I have these stacked with the original dng. Is it possible to move a dng+TIFF stack to a new collection?
Andy S
Hi, I’m looking for some collection advice here as I ran into a problem when I set my wife up with lightroom today to upload pics. Due to the nature of her pics just being snapshots taken over 6 months we set her up with collections spanning the year for different topics (e.g. daughter 09, pets 09 etc). The nature of this means we aren’t dragging a whole flash card of shots into a new collection (which is how I work and I presume most do if working on an assignment or even holiday pics etc), but into various existing collections. Anyway, the problem we hit is that it wasn’t obvious which pics had been assigned to a collection already. So if say I was looking at the previous import group and selected all the pics of my daughter and put them into Daughter 09, I wanted them to them be removed from the last import group so I could just see the ones we hadn’t already assigned to a collection. Is there a way to do this? I know we should be able to work it out, but its actually hard to keep track of and today we actually missed a couple and it was not easy working out which ones we’d missed (i.e. they were in all photos but not in any collection).
What we are looking for is a last import type view that diminishes as we assign the photos to a collection. Is there a way to do this that I’ve missed?
Does anyone know how to get Lightroom to reimport the edited image into the collection it was in after external editing it?
I put my photos into collections and then when I edit the “selects”, I have to manually go into the folder the original was in and move it back into the collection.