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Stop Retyping Client Photo Filenames Into Lightroom

The client picked 40 frames. Somewhere between their browser and your catalog, those 40 turn into text you retype or paste. Here is what that step costs, in the vendors' own documentation, and what replaces it.

Updated 5 September 2026

Nobody markets the retyping step. It is not on a pricing page and it is not in a feature list, but it is in almost every documented workflow: the client finishes choosing, and what reaches you is a list of filenames. In an email, in a clipboard, in a spreadsheet. You then reproduce that list inside Lightroom Classic by hand.

This page does two things. It shows, with each platform's own words, that the filename paste is the standard return path rather than an edge case. Then it shows what the alternative looks like when the picks are written into the catalog as ratings, flags and labels instead of being retyped as text.

What each platform actually hands you

Four of the well known client gallery products document their Lightroom return path. Three of them hand you names. One writes back, with conditions. The table below uses each vendor's own wording, fetched on 5 September 2026.

PlatformHow the picks reach youDoes anything land in the catalog?
PixiesetA copy list that will "create a list of all images in a Favorite List, formatted perfectly for Lightroom's search function", pasted into Find with Any Searchable Field and ContainsNo. The plugin uploads only, and Pixieset states that "Your photos from Pixieset will not be imported into Lightroom"
ShootProofThe clipboard. "Highlight and copy the filenames from the Filenames box"No. The plugin is a Publish Service that pushes "directly from Lightroom to ShootProof"
CloudSpotThe clipboard, via "Copy Filenames"No. "The best way to describe the Lightroom and CloudSpot connection is that it is a one-way sync"
Pic-TimeA .csv of the favorites, and a documented route that ends "Paste the CSV list in the Search Bar"Partly. A sync puts Selections and Favorites lists under a Selections folder. Not flags, not star ratings
clientgallery.ioOne command in the Library menu, Plug-in Extras, Import ClientGallery PicksYes. Star ratings, a Pick flag on the strongest level, the client's color labels, and a collection

Read the middle column again. On three of the four, the documented unit of exchange between the gallery and your catalog is a string of characters that you move by hand. That is the step this page is about.

Why the paste is lossy, in Adobe's own words

It is tempting to treat the paste as harmless. The problem is what Lightroom Classic does with a pasted list, and Adobe documents it plainly.

The Library Filter bar has three modes, Text, Attribute and Metadata. The Text mode "allows you to search any indexed metadata text field, including filename", with rules that include Contains, Contains All, Contains Words, Doesn't Contain, Starts With and Ends With. Under Contains with several terms, Adobe states that "Lightroom Classic finds photos that contain any of the individual sequences".

Any, not all. That is an OR match on substrings. So a pasted list of 40 names does not select 40 photos. It selects every photo whose filename contains any fragment in the list, which on sequential filenames means near matches come along for the ride. You then remove them by eye, without a reliable way to know whether the count you are looking at is right.

This matters more than it sounds, because of what Lightroom Classic does not have. There is no documented way to filter Lightroom Classic by a pasted list of filenames. The Contains rule above is the closest documented behaviour, and it is a different thing. Capture One does have a dedicated command for this, Select then Select By then Filename List, which is covered in the Capture One filename list guide. Lightroom Classic has no equivalent, so anyone telling you to paste a list into Lightroom is telling you to use a fuzzy match and check the result yourself.

Note that the vendors are not hiding this. Pic-Time's own instructions for its CSV end with selecting Filename, then Contains, then "Paste the CSV list in the Search Bar". Pixieset's copy list is documented for the same Find field with the same Contains rule. They are documenting the only route Lightroom Classic gives them.

The email version of the same problem

A large share of studios never get as far as an export. The picks arrive as an email: a client listing names in the body, or a screenshot, or a spreadsheet attached. The mechanics are the same as the paste and every failure mode is worse.

  • The list is not machine written. A client typing names introduces typos, missing leading zeros and skipped frames. A filter cannot find what was never written correctly.
  • The weighting is prose. "Love the first three, the beach ones are maybes" is real information about what to edit first, and it does not survive into any filter.
  • It is not re-runnable. When the client adds four more on Thursday, you repeat the entire exercise and reconcile two mails by hand.
  • The record lives in your inbox. Six months later, the only proof of what the client asked for is a thread you have to search for.

The fix for the email route is not a better email. It is to stop the picks from ever being reduced to text.

What one command writes instead

The clientgallery.io plugin for Lightroom Classic adds one menu item: Library, Plug-in Extras, Import ClientGallery Picks. It installs through the Plug-in Manager, which is Adobe's documented route for adding a third-party plugin: File, Plug-In Manager, Add, then select the plugin. You paste the gallery link you already sent the client, and the plugin matches the picks by filename against the open catalog.

What it writes is deliberately made of things Lightroom photographers already filter on. Flags designate whether a photo is a pick, ratings run from zero to five stars, and color labels are Adobe's documented way of marking a group of photos. The client's two levels map onto those.

In the gallery, the clientIn your catalog, after the import
Loves a photo5 stars, plus a Pick flag
Stars a photo3 stars, no flag
Applies a color labelThe same Lightroom color label on that photo
Leaves a commentNothing, unless you tick the box that writes comments into the IPTC caption. It is off by default
Everything they pickedA collection named after the gallery, inside a collection set named ClientGallery

The practical difference is not the seconds saved. It is that the client's ranking survives. Filtering at five stars or on the flag gives you the definite yeses. Filtering at three stars and above gives you the whole shortlist. Neither of those exists in a list of names, because a list of names has no levels in it.

Matching is by filename here too, which is worth saying plainly. The difference is where the match happens: inside the catalog, against exact names, rather than in a search field that matches any substring. The full round trip, publishing proofs and pulling picks back, is covered in the two-way Lightroom workflow guide, and the import itself is documented step by step in getting client picks back into Lightroom.

If you do not edit in Lightroom: the text file

Plenty of studios cull somewhere else. For them there is a button labelled Export picks (.txt), and it is worth being exact about what it is, because a vague description would set you up for a surprise.

  • It appears only after the client has sent their picks, in the completed gallery banner. It is not a button sitting on every gallery.
  • The file is filenames only, one per line, with no header and no level column.
  • Loves are listed first, then stars, but the file does not label which is which. If you want a two pass workflow, you need to know where the split is before you split it.

That is a filename list, and everything said above about pasting a filename list into Lightroom Classic applies to it as well. It exists for people working outside Lightroom, not as a substitute for the import. If you are in Lightroom Classic, use the command.

When you should stay exactly where you are

This page argues about one step in one workflow. It is not an argument about your whole business, and for some studios the answer is to keep what you have.

Your store, print lab and client management already live inside your gallery platform. If orders, pricing, fulfilment and your client records all run through Pixieset or Pic-Time, a faster pick import is not a reason to dismantle any of that. clientgallery.io has no print store and no commissions, which is what keeps it at one flat price of $10 a month or $100 a year, and it is also exactly why it is the wrong tool for a print led studio.

You are a Pic-Time customer on Professional or Advanced. Say this plainly: Pic-Time is the one competitor here with a real write back path. Its sync puts Selections and Favorites lists under a Selections folder in Lightroom. It is imperfect, since it is not flags and not star ratings, the sync is "only available on paid plans", and Pic-Time states that "Automatically syncing the favorites lists is currently unavailable in Pic-Time 2.0 galleries". But it is real, it is documented, and if you already pay for it you are not retyping anything.

You deliver RAW files or master video. clientgallery.io hosts JPEGs and does not warehouse RAW or video masters. That limit is part of why the price is flat, and it makes the product wrong for a RAW delivery service.

You shoot four times a year with tidy sequential filenames. The paste works. Two minutes a gallery, four times a year, is not the constraint in your business.

Sources

Product behaviour was verified in the clientgallery.io codebase and Lightroom Classic plugin source on 5 September 2026. All external pages were fetched on 5 September 2026.

Frequently asked

How do I stop retyping client photo filenames into Lightroom?

Use a gallery whose plugin writes into the catalog instead of handing you names. With clientgallery.io it is Library, Plug-in Extras, Import ClientGallery Picks: you paste the gallery link you already sent the client, and the plugin matches the picks by filename and writes 5 stars plus a Pick flag for loves, 3 stars for stars, the client's color labels, and a collection named after the gallery.

Can Lightroom Classic filter by a list of filenames?

There is no documented way to filter Lightroom Classic by a pasted list of filenames. The closest documented behaviour is the Library Filter bar's Text mode with the Contains rule, and Adobe states that with several terms Lightroom Classic finds photos that contain any of the individual sequences. That is an OR match on substrings, so a pasted list pulls in near matches you then remove by eye.

Do Pixieset, ShootProof or CloudSpot import client favorites into Lightroom?

No. Pixieset's plugin uploads only and states that your photos from Pixieset will not be imported into Lightroom; its documented return path is a copy list of filenames pasted into the Find field. ShootProof documents copying the filenames from the Filenames box, and its plugin pushes directly from Lightroom to ShootProof. CloudSpot describes the Lightroom and CloudSpot connection as a one-way sync.

Does Pic-Time write client picks back into Lightroom?

Yes, with two caveats worth knowing. Pic-Time's sync shows Selections and Favorites lists under a Selections folder in Lightroom, not as flags or star ratings. Pic-Time also states that the Sync feature is only available on paid plans, and that automatically syncing the favorites lists is currently unavailable in Pic-Time 2.0 galleries. If you are on Professional or Advanced and it works for your galleries, you already have a write back path.

What if the client sends their picks by email instead of using the gallery?

The mechanics are the same as pasting an exported list, with worse inputs. A hand typed list carries typos and missing digits that no filter can recover, the client's own weighting stays as prose, and nothing is re-runnable when they add more picks later. Having the picks recorded in the gallery is what removes the retyping, not a better email.

What is in the Export picks (.txt) file?

Filenames only, one per line, with no header and no level column. Loves are listed first and stars after, but the file does not label which is which. The button appears only after the client has sent their picks, in the completed gallery banner. It exists for photographers who do not edit in Lightroom Classic, since inside Lightroom Classic the import command is the better route.

Does Capture One handle a filename list better than Lightroom?

For selecting by a list, yes. Capture One documents a dedicated command, Select then Select By then Filename List, where you paste the names and choose a delimiter, with an option to ignore the file extension. It selects the images rather than filtering the browser. Lightroom Classic has no documented equivalent, which is why the paste there relies on the fuzzy Contains rule.

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