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RzzB
RzzB
Inspiring
March 16, 2017
Question

Virtual copies

  • March 16, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 337 views

In Lightroom the Virtual Copy mechanism is very useful.

Is there anything similar in Elements?

Thanks,

Roy

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    MichelBParis
    MichelBParis
    Legend
    March 16, 2017

    RzzB  wrote

    In Lightroom the Virtual Copy mechanism is very useful.

    Is there anything similar in Elements?

    Thanks,

    Roy

    Simple answer: No, unfortunately.

    The idea of virtual copies is to avoid duplicating the file by keeping the original image and storing various editing 'recipes' by saving the settings of the Lightroom or ACR sliders in different versions, say a copy in color and another in black and white.

    With the Elements organizer, the classical way is to save in different versions with the following drawbacks:

    - waste of disk space

    - the 'recipe' is not saved

    The nearest trick in Elements would be to use the 'Save' to DNG option in the ACR module with the 'lossy' option, keeping the image size.

    You can create as many versions as you want, then you stack them together in the catalog.

    The loss in disk space is acceptable and your recipes are kept. And don't be scared by the 'lossy' word: just try to see a difference! .

    You can process jpegs as well as raws in the Elements ACR, but obviously, the above trick may be worth the trouble with big raw files, less so with relatively small jpegs where version sets are the obvious solution.

    RzzB
    RzzBAuthor
    Inspiring
    March 16, 2017

    Michel,

    Many thanks for your response. Very helpful.

    Re Version Sets with jpeg files... If they have to be saved to disk each time doesn't that mean the image quality gets worse and worse?

    Thanks,

    Roy

    MichelBParis
    MichelBParis
    Legend
    March 16, 2017

    RzzB  wrote

    Michel,

    Many thanks for your response. Very helpful.

    Re Version Sets with jpeg files... If they have to be saved to disk each time doesn't that mean the image quality gets worse and worse?

    Thanks,

    Roy

    If you open your jpegs normally in the editor (not in the ACR dialog), you nearly always start with the original image, not from an already edited version, so there is no such risk.

    If you choose to process your jpegs in the Elements ACR dialog, there is no risk with the Save as DNG method in the previous post.

    If you start from a jpeg already edited in ACR, you open in the editor and save as a version set, you are still working from the original plus raw adjustments: still no quality loss.

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