Copy edits to another photo

When a series of photos need the same treatment, edit one, copy its edits and paste them on the rest.

Copy and paste edits

1. Open the photo you edited in Loupe or Edit and choose Image › Copy Edits. By default the key is Ctrl+Shift+C.
2. Open another photo and choose Image › Paste Edits (Ctrl+Shift+V by default).

You can also right-click the photo and choose these from the menu. Paste Edits is grayed out until you have copied something.

Paste replaces everything on the photo it lands on: all adjustments, layers and masks, the crop, the Profile and Look, and the RAW Process settings. It does not merge with what was there. It is one undo step.

DarkRay remembers the copied edits until you copy again or quit. They aren’t saved with the catalog.

What a paste keeps

The photo you paste onto keeps two things of its own:

• Its as-shot white balance. If the source photo’s white balance was untouched, the pasted photo keeps its own as-shot white too. If you had set a white balance on the source, that setting is pasted as you set it.
• Its rotation. A portrait pasted onto a landscape stays upright. See Rotate 90°.

AI masks (Subject, Sky, Select and Depth Range) belong to the photo they were made on. When you paste onto a different photo, DarkRay makes them again on the new one. Smart Select masks can’t be remade automatically, so redo them by hand.

If the pasted edits include RAW Process settings, the new photo is prepared again with them.

Paste on many photos

Paste works on the photo on screen, one at a time. Step to the next photo with the Left and Right arrow keys and paste again. To paste on a whole selection at once, an AI assistant or a script can do it; see Scripting & MCP.

Reset a photo

Image › Reset Edits (Ctrl+Shift+R by default) clears every edit and layer on the photo and returns it to as shot, including turning it upright. It is one undo step, and the photo no longer counts as edited. A RAW starts again with Sharpen on, as it did when you first opened it.

Tip

Paste applies a whole edit. To reuse only one section, such as a color grade, save it as a preset instead.

Technical details: what happens to the white balance

Every layer’s white balance is a shift from the photo’s as-shot color temperature. When you paste, the target’s as-shot temperature replaces the source’s, so a white balance that was neutral on the source stays neutral on the target. A white balance you moved is a deliberate choice, so it goes across as it is.