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If you’ve been using Virtual Copies in Lightroom Classic, then it’s time to think about using Snapshots instead. Snapshots are one of Lightroom’s most under-appreciated and under-utilized features – a first-rate example of a Lightroom Classic secret. So let’s take a look at them and explore some ways that you can use them to assist with your workflow.
Why photographers use Snapshots in Lightroom Classic
One of the benefits of using Lightroom Classic is that it lets you develop your Raw files in different ways. You can try a variety of developing techniques, apply Develop Presets, experiment with masks and convert photos to black and white. The end result is that you can end up with many versions of the same photo.
Lightroom is the ideal tool for this. You can experiment as much as you like and create multiple copies of the same photo without duplicating the source file. Here’s how it works. Let’s say you have five different versions of the same photo. In Lightroom, there’s one source file (the original Raw) and five entries in the Catalog. Each entry consists of a set of text instructions that tell Lightroom what to do with your photo, plus a preview. Text doesn’t take up much space in the Catalog, so you can create as many extra copies of a photo as you like without worrying about using up your hard drive space. Previews are also much smaller than photo files.
Compare this to the “old way” of making duplicate copies of a photo in Photoshop. Depending on the size of the photo, each copy can require 100 MB plus of hard drive space. Even more if you include layers. Repeat the process over a large number of photos and you’ll blow through your spare hard drive space in no time.
The creative process is messy and unpredictable. I’m constantly tweaking old photos, updating them and using new tools to see if I can improve them. Snapshots give me a way of keeping track of all those copies.
What is a Snapshot?
A Snapshot captures all the work you have done on a photo at a particular point in a time. Lightroom lists them alphabetically in the Snapshots panel in the Develop module.
The Snapshots belonging to this photo are a good example of how I use them. You can see that I created a color version of this photo in February 2026 (Color Feb 2026), a black and white version in the same month (B&W Feb 2026) and a new color version in April (Color April 2026). Using Snapshots means I can switch between versions with a single mouse click. None of them are lost, all of them are preserved forever (unless I delete them).
Snapshots vs. Virtual Copies
You can also use Virtual Copies to create multiple versions of the same photo, and many photographers do. But there’s a disadvantage, and it’s to do with organization. Your Virtual Copies end up scattered over multiple Collections and Folders, and it becomes difficult to keep track of them. Over time, you’ll forget you made Virtual Copies of a photo, and you’ll only find them if you go search for them. That’s not an ideal way to work, especially when you can use Snapshots to keep track of your different versions instead.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t use Virtual Copies. Virtual Copies are useful when you want to compare different versions of the same photo on your screen. You can see Virtual Copies in the Library module, but you can only see Snapshots in the Develop module.
You can get the best of both worlds by turning Virtual Copies into Snapshots. Let’s say you create three different versions of the same photo, using Virtual Copies so you can compare them in the Library module. When you finish developing each Virtual Copy, create a new Snapshot (see below for instructions on how to do this).
One of the benefits of Snapshots is that you can see them across different Virtual Copies. Create a Snapshot on one Virtual Copy, and it’s instantly available across the others (and the original master file). Virtual Copies can be forgotten about and lost, but Snapshots are around forever.
How to create Snapshots in Lightroom Classic
There are two ways to create a Snapshot in Lightroom Classic.
Method 1: Go to Develop > New Snapshot.
Lightroom uses the current Develop module settings to create the Snapshot. You can give it a new name, use the default name (current date and time) or combine the two. I prefer the naming system you’ve already seen. It’s nice to know the month and year I created a Snapshot, but I don’t need to know the exact date or the time.
Method 2: Right-click on an entry in the History panel and choose Create Snapshot. Lightroom creates a Snapshot from the settings applied to the photo at that point in its development history.
How to update and rename Snapshots
Updating or renaming a Snapshot is just as easy. Let’s say you make some minor updates to a photo and decide it’s not worth creating a new Snapshot. All you need to do is right-click on the Snapshot and select Update with Current Settings from the menu. Updating a Snapshot rather than creating a new one helps keeps the number of Snapshots manageable. There’s nothing more frustrating than clicking through a set of similar Snapshots trying to figure out the differences between them.
You can also Rename or Delete a Snapshot using the same right-click menu.
Before and after comparisons using Snapshots
The fourth option in the right-click menu, Copy Snapshot Settings to Before, lets you compare the current version of the photo to a Snapshot.
Let’s say you look at a photo in Lightroom and decide you’d like to improve it. Maybe there’s a masking tool that wasn’t available when you originally developed it. Perhaps you have another idea to test. It’s helpful if you can compare versions to see if your changes have made the photo better. You can do that by right-clicking the Snapshot and clicking the Copy Snapshots to Before option. Then all you have to is press the \ key to see the Before version, or switch to Compare View to see them side by side.
Open for enrollment now…Lightroom Classic Secrets 2026
You can learn more about useful techniques like using Snapshots in my Lightroom Classic Secrets course. This is your chance to learn the tricks, tips and secrets used by the Lightroom Classic masters. Enrollment closes at the end of September, so don’t miss out.
Click here to learn more about the course and enroll
