3 Awesome Ways to Use Lightroom Snapshots

How to Use Lightroom Snapshots

Snapshots are this ingenious little feature in Lightroom (that is often overlooked and unused), which allows you to take a snapshop or "bookmark" an editing moment-in-time so you can quickly and easily get back to that point, either to continue editing, or use as your primary edit.

After explaining the basics of snapshots, I will share 3 cool ways you can use them.

How to Create a Snapshot in Lightroom

The snapshot panel is just after the Presets panel and will be empty until YOU create a snapshot.  There are two ways to make a snapshot:

• Click on the + sign that is at the top-right corner of the snapshot panel.

• Use the CTRL+N (PC) or CMD+N (MAC) keyboard shortcut.

The box that pops up will allow you to rename it or leave it as the current date/time. I like to rename my snapshots to things like "clean edit," and/or whatever preset I used, like "Blackthorn."

Now that you know how to create a snapshot, here are 3 awesome ways to utilize them in your Lightroom editing workflow:

1. You Can Update a Snapshot

Once you’ve made a snapshot, you can easily keep it updated as you edit by right-clicking on the snapshot and choosing “Update with Current Settings.”

2. You Can Use Snapshots for Comparison Purposes

You can use snapshots to compare your edit to the original image or to compare two different edits to see which one you prefer.

This can be done right inside the Develop Module by right clicking on the snapshot and choosing “Copy Snapshot Settings to Before.”  You be able to view one edit right next to the other. How cool!

I often use this to compare different edits of an image using different presets to see which one I like best.

3. You Can Use Snapshots to Export Multiple Versions of the Same Image

You can export multiple versions of the same image by creating virtual copies AFTER making snapshots.

I prefer to keep all my edits in one place via snapshots on the main image until I'm ready to export.  Then I create two or more virtual copies (right click and choose virtual copy), and click on the snapshot of my choice BECAUSE the snapshots were copied over along with the virtual copy.  Isn't that fantastic?

More Helpful Tutorials

Here are some other very helpful tutorials related to snapshots and virtual copies:

• How to Use Snapshots and Virtual Copies in Lightroom
• How & Why You Should Remove Virtual Copies in Lightroom

Do you have any questions or comments about Lightroom Snapshots?  Just leave us a comment below - we would LOVE to hear from you! And PLEASE SHARE this post using the social sharing buttons (we really appreciate it)!