My workflow is to develop my photo optimally without considering any output device, and then when I am ready to output, I will turn on soft proofing, select my profile or color space, and if this changes my photo, apply output-specific develop adjustments to get it as close as possible to where it was just before soft proofing.
I would agree that we do want to edit the master to look as good as possible in a non output agnostic way.
You then want to apply edits to the soft proofed VC presumably to make it look closer to the master. The Y key gives you that before and after.
The VC is then a specific edited iteration with a fixed output profile and rendering intent (the later nicely carried over to the Print module for you).
It is interesting that Adobe allows you to edit the master as a master with a soft proof. I suspect that might be a tad dangerous...
If you choose to do this on the master rather than a proof copy, as far as I can tell, there is no direct way to make this step in your Develop history your "Before" in the Before/After (Y) comparison. You have to right click on it and choose Copy History Step Settings to Before. Otherwise you are comparing your soft proofing adjustments to the photo as it was originally imported.
Still a wee confused but I think I’m closer to seeing what you are after. At least by the use of the Option Click History step part. I’d think you would want to compare your soft proofing adjustments to the photo as it was originally edited prior to the initial soft proof editing. I think the fundamental disconnect here is what we end up with and see asking for
Before. As you state, when you ask for this, you get the image as it appeared
from import, you lose any subsequent edits you applied up to this point prior going into Soft Proof right?
That is a problem. And a Snapshot doesn’t appear to help us here.
What I did was make a soft proof. When I cranked up Tint to make the image look vastly different (Magenta), I got the dialog asking if I wanted a VC or to edit on the Master. While I think it may not be a good idea, I selected
Master. Then I clicked on the Y key. I see the before and after. I think what you might be saying (?) is that using the Option Click History bit, the Before would now show the magenta Tint Edit right? Because when I do this, the Before gets magenta due to the move on the Tint slider. The problem is, both before and after look identical to me. I don’t think that one shows us the edit without the soft proof. That is what I think we’d want here. This seems to suggest we make a VC when asked for a before and after, as the before is the before
with the edits.
Here is yet another problem I’d like you to consider. Say you setup a soft proof and edit (Master). You make some edits. You then change the profile (not smart but doable). Apply more edits. Should LR not ask you if you wish to make a VC or continue to edit this Master? Applying a profile for a soft proof doesn’t track in History. If it did, we’d see what profile we selected (assuming this was written in the history) and, if we alter the profile, LR could probably ask us if we wanted to do this (and we could back out of it with History).