Sets

Sets group related photographs, such as bursts, bracketed exposures or several attempts at a composition.

Use these shortcuts in Browse or Choose, in Grid or Loupe’s filmstrip:

Action	Shortcut
Stack two or more selected photographs into a set	⌘K
Fold or unfold the current photograph’s set	⇧K
Use the current photograph as the cover	⌥K

Bare K still controls focus peaking.

Create and edit sets. The Photo menu has Stack into Set, Use as Cover and Dissolve Set. The grid context menu also has Split from Strip and Merge with Next when applicable. The status bar reports each change, and ⌘Z restores membership and cover choices.

A set must belong to one source. Stacking also requires a selection without unrelated photographs between its members. Invalid selections show an explanation in the status bar. Sets have no ratings, verdicts or treatments of their own; those belong to individual photographs.

Folding. Click a set’s top band or press ⇧K to fold it into one cell. Repeat to unfold. No set folds automatically. Fold state is shared across Browse, Choose, the filmstrip and Develop’s tray, and persists across sessions.

Clicking a folded photograph selects its cover; double-clicking opens the cover while preserving the fold. Folding a selected member moves the selection to the cover. Below 96 pt, the band is hidden; use ⇧K.

Folding changes the display only. Counts, search results, exports and rawctl still include all matching members. The status counter counts photographs.

Cover selection. A pinned cover takes priority. Otherwise, Frames chooses a kept photograph, then the highest rating, then the earliest exposure. Rating or keeping a member can change the cover. Use as Cover pins it, with ⌘Z to undo. A cover removed from the set is ignored. Pinned covers have no additional badge.

Appearance. Members have the same image size and spacing as other photographs. A warm background groups them, with a stacked-frame icon and count above. A set split across grid rows continues on the next row with a dimmed icon and ellipsis. Folded sets add offset layers behind the cover where space allows. The top-right D and treatment count still describe the cover’s development.

Opening and closing sets moves neighbouring cells into place. Reduce Motion makes the transition immediate. Filmstrip changes are always immediate; its set header appears only when tall enough.

Sort and filters. Set members appear together at the position of their earliest member. This does not change underlying sort, counts or exports. In Sweep, a matching member includes its scene’s other members. Collection, source, camera and scene-search filters still exclude photographs outside their scope. Other phases and Browse apply their filters to individual members.

Compare. Press ⌘3 on a set member to compare the set. More than six members are limited to the cover and capture order, always including the starting photograph. Photographs outside sets use capture-time grouping instead.

Automatic grouping. Sync groups photographs by capture time and scene similarity. A gap of 15 seconds ends a run, while visually dissimilar photographs form separate scenes. The pass uses the local catalogue and analysis index without downloads. It skips photographs missing a capture date or analysis result until that data becomes available.

The activity row shows Gathering sets. Click ✕ to stop it. Automatic grouping cannot be undone with ⌘Z. Manual stacking, splitting and dissolving protect affected photographs from regrouping. Dissolve an incorrect automatic set to keep its members separate.

Drag to change membership. Drag an adjacent photograph to a set’s first or last edge to add it. Valid targets highlight the members in amber. Non-adjacent photographs cannot be added by dragging. Drop an unfolded member on empty grid space to remove it from the set. Drop one folded set onto an adjacent set to merge them; the target set keeps its identity. Other merges are rejected.

Each membership change supports ⌘Z. Dropping a folded set on empty space does nothing; use Dissolve Set to separate all members. Joining flashes the group background and updates its count; leaving shortens the group background.