Lightroom: Remember the Why of a Virtual Copy

Lightroom has this wonderful concept of the virtual copy. A virtual copy is just a set of adjustments that is stored in the catalog, it’s not an actual file. The beauty of the virtual copies is that it’s possible to have hundreds of virtual copies of the same photo but with different adjustments, crops, colours, black and white…

Some people are amazing, years later, they remember every single detail of why they did… and then, there’s me. I need to see some notes, then I can remember the tiny details. That’s why I need to keep track of why I created the virtual copy.

I use the Copy Name to type in my explanation of what I did and/or why. For me, a large number of the virtual copy are the black and whites and that’s obvious. But I also do virtual copies for printing the different sizes that forces me to crop such as 8½ by 11 vs 11 by 17 vs … That way I know what’s what.