To Copy Or Not To Copy - That Is The Question !

[Graham M H]

I have just spent the last week and weekend studying the LR 3 Tutorial and testing LR3. I must say I am more than pleased with both and I am starting to feel comfortable with LR3 bearing in mind trhat this is the first time I have used LR at all I have for years used PS.

My dilema is that once I have finished working on an image I usualy want to do two things with it - First print it and hopefully have to re-print it in the future for sales so I am thinking that in PS I would have saved this as a master file which I could open in the future to re-print just resizing and sharpening to print. In LR I am thinking that I do not need to save as a master as once it is rated and or colour coded I can import the image using the filter and just print.
The second situation is I sometimes would email an image to a friend or even put it on my web site. In PS I would open the master and duplicate it to work on the copy and convert to SRGB and re size for the web and then save to a file (email folder) which I could open later a send emails from.
I suppose in both these cases I feel comfortable because I was working on copies. In the first case I feel comfortable that when I import the catalogue back I have the image with all the history but if I use this to convert to the web will I be adding to the history therefore losing my Print Version.
Any imput would be appreciated
Thank You
Graham

[NikoJorj]

when I import the catalogue back I have the image with all the history but if I use this to convert to the web will I be adding to the history therefore losing my Print Version.

You just export it to mail it, that doesn't make any change in LR (you just add a line "export on..." to history, but your file remains in the same Master state).

I see Virtual copy more as a way to have several versions of one image, ie a color version, a B&W one, etc...

[Graham M H]

You just export it to mail it, that doesn't make any change in LR (you just add a line "export on..." to history, but your file remains in the same Master state).

Thank you for the very quick response. When you say "export to mail it" export it to where! Do you mean to another folder where you can get it later to email.

I will try the Virtual Copy idea later today I must be honest I have not tried out that feature at all.

Thank you
Graham

[dchew]

For printing you can use the "Snapshot" feature to save an image state.  Call it "Print-2010_10_11-P" or something like that.  I use "P" at the end to remind me which rendering intent.  The one wrench in all this is softproofing.  If you softproof and make a change in PS as a result, the only way to save that change is to make an edited copy.  Many people do that.  Another way is to leave yourself a clue of what you did in the snapshot name.  Depends on how often you print the same image and how much tweaking was done in PS...

As Nicolas pointed out, you have to think of "Print" and "Export" as completely different pipelines that don't affect the image at all.  When I export images for web or email, I export it to some folder outside of LR that is a temporary house for the image.  After I've then attached it to an email or uploaded it, there is really no reason to keep it, so I frequently purge that folder.  It is so easy to export, I can often find and export an image in LR faster than hunting for a previously-exporter version in some other program...

Dave

[JRSmit]

When exporting using LR, one can choose the colorspace to be used for the export, and size and quality. This does not affect the image chosen for export. Aka the chosen image is a "master" in this context. As a side note: You can save particular export settings as a preset.

If for given reason you want to have a "derived" master, f.i. you want to modify saturation to better suit the sRGB output in JPG format, a virtual copy is a good practice.
A vc does not physically copy the originating file, it is just a database(catalog) record copy, which still points to the same physicalfile and keeps a link with the originating image  (it becomes an entry in the stack of the originating image).
You can do all the LR development things with the vc, without affecting the "master". In LR a vc is just another image.

Personally i use some fields in the metadata to identify its role (master, forproof, job-id, etc) and collections to group images for a purpose, f.i. send to a friend via email.

Just as a side-note: in LR you do not work on the physical image file, but on a database record with linked previews (catalog mode) or an ACR cache (in Develop mode) of the physical image. This is a significant difference with Photoshop. In oher words, you have to think more in the logical sense when thinking about how to use LR for image development and output.