So, you processed an image and you like it. . .today. A couple months down the road, you think, maybe I could do better, as maybe I have learned new and better techniques, but I don't want to lose what I have already done. So, you want to start from the base image, make new adjustments, and not lose the first version you already processed.

How do you do that? When the image is brought back to LR, it has the adjustments already applied. I don't want to alter those. How do you get 'do-overs'?

I'm guessing it is pretty simple, but could use some direction, as I am just seeing the forest right now.

Thanks.
Dennis

Right click, create virtual copy. Easy peasy...

Rob

what rob said.

also helpful in this regard is using the snapshot feature, which is in the left panel of the develop module. you can save your progress on an image as you go, and you can create multiple snapshots. so say you do 10 steps of adjustment on an image and you're happy... create a snapshot, then proceed with further steps. if you screw up badly you just click on the snapshot you created and it reverts you to that point in your processing without wiping everything out.

not the same as a virtual copy, but good for when you want the ability to jump to different states in your editing process.

Great,
Thanks for the snapshot tip. I had forgotten all about that, when I was trying to learn the basics. Good tip indeed. The Virtual copy thing though. . .what happens if you like the first way, and the virtual copy? I guess I don't really "Get" the virtual copy thing. What if I just want a second version or even a third version of an image?

How do you get the base image, without your adjustments, still keep your adjustments in the catalog from the firs time you PP'd the image, and start with a base image again and take a different path?

Check out Julieanne Kost's tutorial on snapshots and virtual copies. It should help you out.

The virtual copies are just as if you had different copies of the original raw file and worked on them separately. So long as you don't delete the original file they can be edited at any time independently of each other. You can keep as many virtual copies as you like and the file space overhead is minimal because there is only one original raw file shared by them all.

Virtual copies might typically be used to let you develop a colour version and a black & white version from the same original file, each without affecting the other.

How to create them?
From the History list in the left panel of the Develop Module click on whichever stage you want to duplicate. Then click on the menu Photo > Create Virtual Copy. There will be a keyboard shortcut for this too but it varies with operating system. The virtual copy that is created has no individual history steps other than "create virtual copy..." but that one step includes all of the history steps up to the selected step in the first image that you started with, all rolled into one. So if you want to go back to the original then be sure to click on the "imported" step before making the virtual copy.

I don't know how to tell which history steps are included in the virtual copy. The virtual copy knows the date and time that it was created but none of the history steps are timestamped. If you knew in advance at which stage in the history you would make a virtual copy then you could create a snapshot in the original before making the virtual copy. You can't do that after you have made more edits in the original. (Sorry, you can do it but it will not be listed or identified at the right point in the history list).

- Alan

You rock Alan! Thanks. Got it!

Snapshots and virtual copies are very useful but you said "When the image is brought back to LR". If you are sending the image out of LR to PS or another editor, it automatically comes back in as a different file "filename-edit". In that case you do not need to do anything to keep the original.

They could just be in lightroom, and put in a catalog. After other imports, and what not, they no longer sit in LR. I think what was happening was I was trying to "Copy" them back in, instead of using "Add". It would also explain all of my duplicate files.

Hopefully I am on the right track now, but bound to be a bumpy ride.