Comments on: Lightroom Virtual Copies: The Ultimate Guide

By: Chicago Native

Chicago Native — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 20:11:34 +0000

In reply to Johanna. Not sure. When I export from LR, the crop and ratio are retained

By: Johanna

Johanna — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 16:25:16 +0000

In reply to Mr. Ed. I do this, too, but have found that when I export the cropped virtual copy the crops are lost and the whole photo is exported. My work-around is to export to PS, tell it to save changes (none), and close to send it back to LR, then I can export the cropped photo. There must be a better way. What am I missing?

By: Big Fuzzy

Big Fuzzy — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 22:58:00 +0000

To save time, I often process the subject one way, then the BG in another way, select them both and edit them in PS as layers so that I can simply and quickly merge the two.

By: Darlene Hildebrandt

Darlene Hildebrandt — Sat, 05 Dec 2015 19:51:00 +0000

In reply to Mr. Ed. Yup I do that too!

By: kenyongerbrandt

kenyongerbrandt — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 19:28:00 +0000

Sometimes I use virtual copies to create an HDR (if you shoot and import RAW files) especially now that LR has the merge to HDR function built in.

By: Andrew S. Gibson

Andrew S. Gibson — Sat, 21 Nov 2015 20:26:00 +0000

In reply to Dewan Demmer. Thanks for sharing Dewan. Nice photos!

By: Dewan Demmer

Dewan Demmer — Fri, 20 Nov 2015 22:19:00 +0000

Virtual Copies is (are?) your friend, well they mine ate any rate. I use virtual copies to do anything from a Black and white duplicate to creating an alternate result.
As was mentioned in the article it is a great way to test out a different look or extra edit without changing your original finished edit. While you can stack I do find that creating to many virtual copies ( generally of separate images ) can start to make things messy and opens the door for mistakes to creep in.

This made me think of a set of images I have, with this set I really got into the virtual copies. It was also with this set I learned to many virtual copies can be messy. Now With the set of images I created a few varied sets. The Main couple photos I created Virtual copies from the original and used these to create Black and White and a seperate ‘dusty’ version. The nice thing with Virtual Copies is on export all these different versions can be exported with no extra effort.
( http://www.dewandemmer.com/a-trafalgar-tavern-wedding-in-greenwich/ )
If you browser through you will see a few dusty in amongst the clear types. I do not show a direct comparison but I thought it could be a fair ‘real’ example

By: Andrew S. Gibson

Andrew S. Gibson — Fri, 20 Nov 2015 20:29:00 +0000

Glad to help. Will see what we can do about soft proofing!

By: Andrew S. Gibson

Andrew S. Gibson — Fri, 20 Nov 2015 20:28:00 +0000

In reply to Mr. Ed. That's a great use for Virtual Copies! Thanks for sharing.

By: Mr. Ed

Mr. Ed — Thu, 19 Nov 2015 18:24:00 +0000

I frequently use Virtual Copies to create different crop ratios. For example, out of the camera the ratio is 2×3 (which works fine for 4×6 prints), but another virtual copy could be for an 8×10 / 16×20 print, another for 5×7, another for square crop, another for 16×9 ratio for display on monitors or TV, etc.