Developing a selection

Copy a treatment and review how its recipe will be applied to one photograph or a selection.

1. In Develop, copy a treatment with ⇧⌘C.
2. Select target photographs in Browse or Choose, or stay on the photograph in Develop.
3. Press ⇧⌘V or choose Paste Treatment… to open Apply recipe.
4. Check the source, target count and version outcome; press Apply to 1 frame or Apply to N frames.

A clipboard indicator appears in every mode while a treatment is copied. Hover to see its source photograph; VoiceOver reads it too. Click ✕ to discard the copied treatment.

The copied recipe stays on this device across restarts and is shared by its windows. Copying another recipe replaces it; later edits or deletion of the source do not change the copy. Clearing it removes the saved copy too. It is independent of Library Sync and the system clipboard.

New versions by default. Apply creates and selects a new version for every eligible photograph. Previous versions and ORIGINAL remain available. The review names the copied photograph and version, the selected-frame count, and how many versions will be created or updated. Reviewing or cancelling creates nothing. Pending edits must save before review opens.

Version options also offers updating existing versions for the whole selection; a photograph on ORIGINAL still receives a new version. On the Mac, Apply recipe… in a version’s menu uses that version as the base; review names it, and it is selected only when application succeeds.

Adjustments. Open this section to choose white balance, light and colour, detail and noise, lens correction, masks or the look carried by the copy. Unchosen parts remain as they were. Crop and repairs stay with each destination; they can be chosen when applying to another version of the same photograph. A lens profile crosses only to a matching lens. The review reports exceptions and the originals that must download; byte estimates use camera-model averages.

Subject and Background masks are detected again on each destination. Across different photographs, brushes, gradients, selected regions and older seeded masks require Include manual mask layers. Their positions are copied in place, so check every destination. A mixed layer containing a manual component is omitted whole unless included; removing just its subtraction could broaden the adjustment. Unrecognized layers are always omitted across photographs. A frame with no chosen transferable adjustment stays untouched.

Only selected photographs are changed. A folded set includes its cover alone; unfold it to select other members. An empty selection never means all photographs. The committing button names the actual number eligible for application.

Progress and cancellation. One batch runs at a time. The activity row reports progress; ✕ stops after the photograph in flight. Completed changes remain. Originals are fetched one ahead of rendering and previews update as work finishes. Repeating Apply creates another version by default, even when the recipe matches; matching preview pixels can be reused.

Undo and failures. ⌘Z restores the run’s recipes, selections, previews and badges, and removes versions the run created. A later change to an applied recipe or selection refuses undo instead of overwriting it. A changed target requires selecting it and reviewing again. Download and catalogue failures retain the captured recipe and options for Try again. A preview retry renders the version already applied; it creates neither another version nor another undo step. Decode failures leave the applied recipe without an edited preview. A catalogue that cannot be written stops the run; earlier successful applications remain undoable.

On iPhone and iPad. Use Copy Treatment and Paste Treatment in Develop’s … menu, or select photographs in Browse or Choose and use Paste Treatment… in the view menu. The same review opens for one or many photographs. Expand Adjustments or Version options when needed. Apply runs in the sheet, with progress, Stop, Try again for eligible failures, and Undo. Closing the completed sheet reloads an affected photograph open in Develop. Hardware keyboards use the same ⇧⌘C and ⇧⌘V shortcuts.

Command line. rawctl batch keeps its existing replacement behaviour: it updates selected versions and creates one for ORIGINAL. It uses --from for the source and requires --collection or --rating for targets. --limit defaults to 200; --dry-run prints counts without changes. Command-line batches cannot be undone. rawctl refresh-previews rebuilds edited previews; --limit defaults to 200 and --dry-run prints counts only.