One of the advantages of the fact that Lightroom is essentially a database, is that you can use Virtual Copies. As I explained during my presentations at Professional Imaging, Virtual Copies allow you to experiment with alternative versions of your pictures. Contrary to Snapshots, Virtual Copies can lead their own life in the Catalog.
Sometimes, as I explained in this recent blogpost, I use Virtual Copies to lessen the effect of a Lightroom Preset.
Saturday, at Professional Imaging, I accidentally discovered a new use for Virtual Copies: I wanted to do a slideshow with some Before & After pictures. I had set up Lightroom so that each picture was shown 2 seconds, with a transition time of one second. But I also had an introductory text slide (which I had made in Photoshop and imported into Lightroom), and 2 seconds wasn’t enough for people to read all of that. I could of course change the timing for the entire show, but then it would have lasted way too long… So, I just made a Virtual Copy of the text slide which effectively doubled the time it would be shown. As this still wasn’t enough, I made a second VC.
For those of you who did not make it to Professional Imaging, here’s the slideshow.
So how ‘bout you: what do you use Virtual Copies for?
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