I wrote a post recently about making snapshots while you work so that you can explore different versions of your image — for example, a black and white and a color version — with the goal of having just one version in the end.
If you want to end up with two or more versions — to export to share with others, or to use in the output modules, you can do so with virtual copies. Simply right click on your image and select “Create Virtual Copy”. You’ll see in Library Grid view or in your filmstrip that you now have two copies, and that the second one has a bent page corner symbol, indicating that it is a virtual copy.
You can now work on this second one as a completely independent image, converting it to black and white, cropping it differently than the first one, etc, etc.
Why is it called a virtual copy? Because no duplicate of your original file is created. A virtual copy is simply a second set of instructions to be applied to the one original file. The days of having many different copies of your images on your hard drive for different purposes are over!
If you use virtual copies, leave a comment here sharing what you use them for.
i am a wedding photographer. virtual copies make me”virtually” happy… they save my time through my work flow. “the folded corners” images are well attached to the image i liked in first place. there is no need for opening many files, saving them and giving them new names, like i used to do in photoshop. virtual copies just live side by side to the main image and i can be very creative what to make of them; a black and white version of color, sepia, with a vignette or without. really cool feature!
[…] of great Lightroom tips there that our readers may be interested. From the Crop Tool and Color to Virtual Copies and question marks, Laura is busy answering questions submitted by her […]
Your videos, articles and posts are always VERY helpful. And thorough. And clear.
I use virtual copies when I want different treatments of an images. For example, I might want different crops in the same published book, or a black and white image next to a full color image.
I’ve also used virtual copies to a little pseudo-HDR work in which I start with a single RAW image and create two virtual copies — one over-exposed by two stops and one under-exposed — which I can then merge with other programs such as Photomatix.
I’ve also found and really appreciate that a Develop Module snapshot of virtual copy appears in the original’s snapshot panel as well as in all other virtual copies of the same image.
Question: What happens to virtual copies when the original image is deleted or removed from Lightroom. I would assume the VCs would be deleted from the catalog since they would no longer have a reference image. Haven’t tried that yet.
Laura, I’m really loving your video tutorials, thank you so much! Questions on Snapshots vs Virtual Copies:
1) I am having a hard time understanding the ultimate differences between them. In either case, you can quickly return to different versions of the image, so I’m struggling to understand when I would use one over the other. I do see one major difference – the snapshots ALL retain ALL the history of both versions and regardless of the number of snapshots I make, there is only ever one image in my grid.
2) Given that last fact (that all snapshots retain all history of all versions), I’m a bit confused about the effect of the history settings on one snapshot over another. For instance, if I have a B&W and Color version, and increase the red in my B&W version (which shows in the history of the color version), what happens if I go back to a history step prior to that change while in the color version?
3) I did NOT get an automatic 3rd snapshot of the “as imported” version. Does that only occur if the image you are working with had not had any development actions since it was imported?
Thanks, again, for your really wonderful tutorials!
Hi Susan,
I am glad you are enjoying my tutorials.
I would use a virtual copy when I want two different versions that I can enjoy side-by-side in my library, or that I want to be able to easily export. With snapshots you can switch between different looks, but you can only view or export one at a time.
History will just show the application of a snapshot. Applying a snapshot doesn’t change other snapshots – snapshots are settings saved at a fixed point in time.
I am not sure why sometimes there is an import snapshot and sometimes there isn’t. If you want a snapshot reflecting the images original state, you could always hit Reset (bottom right), and save that as a snapshot, and then go to History and click on the step before Reset to undo the Reset.