Lightroom Classic: Best Practice for Keeping Edits Separate

In Adobe Lightroom Classic, when you copy a Collection, the edits and adjustments made to images in the original Collection are also applied to the copied Collection. This means that changes made to a photo in either Collection will update in both. Unfortunately, there is no direct way to create a complete copy of the Collection that maintains separate edits from the original image directly within Lightroom. However, there is a way to work around that by creating a Collection from another Collection.

1. Create Virtual Copies

Right-click on the image you want to edit and select “Create Virtual Copy.” Virtual Copies let you make different edits to the same image without altering the original. In turn, this lets you edit each Virtual Copy independently, and allows separate output (as a JPEG, TIFF file, etc). Note, don’t sync them, or they’ll end up the same, which defeats the purpose.

2. Use Collections

After creating the Virtual Copies, you can add them to a new Collection for organisation. Collections mean you can have different edits side by side without affecting the original image, as each virtual copy retains its own set of adjustments. Then, create a new Collection from those final edits and name it appropriately.

3. Export as JPEG (or TIFF, etc)

After making your desired edits on the Virtual Copies, you can export them as JPEGs (or TIFF, etc) by selecting the edited Virtual Copy and choosing File > Export.

4. Snapshots (Optional)

If you want to save specific states of your edits without creating multiple Virtual Copies, you can use the Snapshots feature in the Develop module.

Create a Snapshot after significant edits, then continue editing. You can revert to previous Snapshots easily while keeping your current edits intact. Although a useful option, I still prefer to use multiple Virtual Copies, but it will depend on personal preference.

Recap

Using Virtual Copies and Collections is the most effective way to keep edited images organised and separate for output while working in Lightroom. This method preserves the original Lightroom settings (tonality and colour, density, sharpening, etc) of the RAW file while allowing you to create multiple edited variations, finetuning the files to your particular requirements, ready for output.