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Hello,
New LR user, first time poster here. I spent 20 minutes today editing a photo that I imported into LR. I am pretty happy with the results but would like to see if editing with different settings produces a more desirable final photo. Is there a way to start with the original photo a 2nd time without resetting it and losing all the changes I have already made? I don't want to delete, reset or revert back to the original photo and lose the editing I have already done. I would like to keep the edited photo the way it is, but also be able to start over with the original photo. I tried to re-import the same photo so I could have the original unedited version again but LR is telling me it has already been imported. Thanks!
It is possible to create as many virtual copies as you want. The easiest way to create a virtual copy is to press Ctrl/' (that's apostrophe) On Windows or the equivalent on Mac, and that will create a virtual copy of the highlighted image within the catalog. Or you can right-click on an image and choose to create a virtual copy. Then you can reset that virtual copy and do whatever you want to it. The Virtual copy only exists within the catalog, but you can export it just like you would any othe
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It is possible to create as many virtual copies as you want. The easiest way to create a virtual copy is to press Ctrl/' (that's apostrophe) On Windows or the equivalent on Mac, and that will create a virtual copy of the highlighted image within the catalog. Or you can right-click on an image and choose to create a virtual copy. Then you can reset that virtual copy and do whatever you want to it. The Virtual copy only exists within the catalog, but you can export it just like you would any other "real" image.
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Thank you Jim. That's exactly what I was trying to figure out. And each virtual copy I make is the same quality as the original? In theory, I could present 3 edited versions of the same photo and let the receiver pick which one they would like to use for printing/display?
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The virtual copy is just an additional set of metadata replicating the original image. So the quality is identical. If you study the virtual copy features you'll find you can swap the virtual copy with the master copy if you find that you like the virtual copy results better. So it's ideal for what you are proposing to use it for because all of the virtual copies are referring back to the one set of raw image data.
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Great! Thanks!