My Lightroom Mode of Operation

I want to share an important element of my work on images in Lightroom (Classic CC - whatever the current version). It was greatly influenced by Peter Krogh in his book The DAM Book Guide to Organizing Your Photos with Lightroom 5. The fact that the book was written when Lightroom 5 was current is irrelevant with regard to the latest version because his concepts absolutely apply to the current versions as well. He may not be as strict as the process I describe below, but he was my influence.

 

What I want to share is how I minimize the risk of editing an image unintentionally. I now only edit virtual copies of an original image. Editing is only done from a collection and not from the folder where the original image is stored. The virtual copy only exists in the folder with the original image, and in the collection. There could be multiple virtual copies with different edits of the same original image, but these virtual copies would reside in separate collections.

 

After I have completed edits to the image, I update the metadata Copy Name to match the collection name. The only place where this virtual copy can be accessed is from the folder where the original image is stored or in the collection. If I restrict edits to collections only, the risk of unintentional edits is minimized (but not guaranteed). All of the virtual copies of a single image can be found in the folder where the original is saved, but the only other location for those virtual images would be in separate collections.

When posting images for the post-processing challenge, I often have to hit the 'reset' button so people can work on what came out of the camera. Of course, this is done on a virtual copy; but, if i had really wanted to process an image, I would have progressed to .PSD or other file formats in the software that I used. So, If I had reset the original image in LR, no big deal.

When posting images for the post-processing challenge, I often have to hit the 'reset' button so people can work on what came out of the camera. Of course, this is done on a virtual copy; but, if i had really wanted to process an image, I would have progressed to .PSD or other file formats in the software that I used. So, If I had reset the original image in LR, no big deal.

Good idea. So the copy does not have to be virtual.

When posting images for the post-processing challenge, I often have to hit the 'reset' button so people can work on what came out of the camera. Of course, this is done on a virtual copy; but, if i had really wanted to process an image, I would have progressed to .PSD or other file formats in the software that I used. So, If I had reset the original image in LR, no big deal.

Also, if someone utilizes and add-in to Lightroom for edits, virtual copies will not work, but the concept will still apply.

What you can do is save a VC as a DNG at any point to hand off as raw plus your LR settings/preview.

RAW images can't be changed permanently in Lightroom. After editing, I commit the results to a TIFF or JPEG file for permanence. Lightroom catalogs are not very robust, so I would be reluctant to assume multiple versions could be saved without making multiple copies of the image. Multiple copies lead to difficulty maintaining a relational data base, and quickly grow the poorly scalable Lightroom system.

 

I compromise by making an edited master version in TIFF format, then cropping or altering copies of that master to suit various applications. Copies have a unique name, which can be as simple as a named subdirectory under the master.