How to create a secondary black & white batch and preserve original color batch in Lightroom

Question

I recently did photography for a wedding and offered to do both color-processed and b&w. I have post-produced the best shots within my color batch. Now I simply need to create a secondary set that I can process in b&w while also preserving the original color batch.

Should the first step be to preserve my color photos as a Photoset, a Smart Photoset or a Collection?

After they are tucked away, should I then create Virtual Copies of all the photos or is there a way to duplicate my color set for the purposes of b&w conversion? Thank you.

Answer 1

I think the best way is to select all the photos that you want to duplicate, and then in the Library view, create a new collection. On creating a collection, you can choose to add selected items to the collection. Under that I think you can then also tick an option to create virtual copies. By doing this it leaves the originals (with edits) intact, and creates a virtual copy for each of them with edits you've made so far, and groups them into the new collection.

I believe it actually puts the virtual copies in the original folder, so they should be grouped there.

you can then work while ensuring you are working within the collection

Answer 2

My solution is as follows:

(1) Create a Smart Collection where the criteria is "Copy Name" from the pulldown - that means you'll only get Virtual Copies in your Smart Collection. Then use the filter 'contains' and in the text box enter 'a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t,u,v,w,x,y,z,1,2,4,5,6,7,8,9,0' which means than any copy of any name will be included (2) select all the images in the folder (and subfolders if required) that you wish to convert and create the virtual copies in one go. (3) go to the smart collection and all your VC's will be there. Select them all (4) apply the required B&W preset.

Voila - all your B&W images will be in a single Smart Collection.