Finding Virtual Copies in Smart Collections

Is there any way to find virtual copies in smart collections without using "copy name is not empty" ? Basically I am trying to use copy name as a version number for all images, include the base image which is the original. But this then makes it difficult to find the actual copies themselves. Any ideas?
Thanks

Is Andy? wrote:
I'll see whether a smart collection can work from a saved filter, which can identify the real VCs correctly.
Not sure what this means, but if you want "Is Virtual Copy" metadata available for (standard Lr native) smart collections, it is available via
Metadata Extensions
The only caveat is that the metadata is not updated immediately, so you need to "manage" the metadata updating and/or your expectations.
Funny - I just ran into the need for this last night - I solved by making sure all virtual copy names were distinguishable from master copy names, still: because of Lightroom's text metadata processing shortcomings (e.g. space handling and "Big Mallard Ducks" bug), It really is best to have a yes/no rule.
Cheers,
Rob

Similar Messages

Virtual copies and smart collections

Previous answer not satisfactory.
Are virtual copies considered by LR to be the same image. Then why have them. They are different especially after I add more processing.
Therefore when i make a smart collection of aspect = square and rating is 3
all versions should show up. Not the way it seems to work LR5.7 on Mac 10.9
Then I sort at top for 2014 and select to go into a regular collection Best squares of 2014.
As it works now it is useless because I have to rely on memory to know I made a different version based on a virtual copy.
I consider this a bug... Again read my other post today.
If all you can do in collection is just the easy filters what is the point. I can do it manually.
If this take rocket scientist to code an algorithm to figure out virtual copies are different than originals then get them on it ASAP.
This is what gets me. If you know they don't work put it right out front on the help page what IT DOESN"T DO. BE HONEST
YOU are getting paid for that. Why should a customer have to waste his time when feature is obviously deficient.

Disclaimer: I have no idea what you're talking about, nor did I read your other post today. That said, here are a couple of points which may be pertinent:
* Virtual copies are 100% different photos (in the catalog database, in collections, etc..).
* Internally, the main difference between a virtual copy and a real copy is that the virtual copy omits the associated file and records the associated (master) photo instead.
PS - I recommend understanding how it works before jumping to conclusions about how it doesn't..
Note: be aware that there are master-photo/virtual-copy attribute filters in the library module (which remain active in develop module..).

Can not find virtual copies in Windows folder.

I can not remember to have encountered this before, so here I go: I just created a virtual copy of some photos from my summer holiday, and all works well. But when I needed to access these photos going the Windows' way (Windows/My Pictures that is), the virtual copies do not appear in my YYYYMM folder. Going back to LR though, they will appear there with a /Copy 1 extension. RIghtclicking the VC, then "Show in Explorer" will highlight the original in the folder, the VC still not being there. Part of the frustration is that I can not remember this happening before (or maybe it has), so I'm wondering if I by accident have changed any settings.
Running LR 4.1 on Windows 7 64-bit.
Thanks in advance.

Andrew Rodney wrote:
richardplondon wrote:
My only point, was an observation that there is very little actual practical difference between a virtual copy and a "master" ANYWAY.
So you have 1 master (an actual raw) and 10 VC’s. What happens to the VC’s if the master gets corrupted?
If your master has say Adobe Standard as the DNG Profile but the VC has a custom DNG profile, what happens to the VC if that profie goes missing or gets corrupted? Try it.
If by "master", you mean the Raw file on disk, then if that is corrupted (something I have never yet experienced IIRC; although I still backup against this possibility) then certainly, all images derived from that will suffer. However adding VCs does not increase the absolute risk of that. The way I was using "master", was to refer to the one LR metadata set which, unlike a VC metadata set, currently asserts a functional link to the source file. If that LR metadata set were to get corrupted, (something I have never yet experienced either IIRC, although I still backup against that possibility too) then I might be glad of a VC which I could immediately promote to that role and status instead.
Certainly bad things may happen to a VC if a required external file is lost or changed - but these are exactly the same bad things, as if the exact same events had happened for the "master" version alongside. I do take the point that there is protection in redundancy - no question - and also that instantly written-out metadata is a useful separate backup of one's work (as I mentioned, I'd be glad if VCs could get the same thing too somehow, someday).
One-to-many dependency on a single source file can make some good things happen too,though, which may be judged worth any potential added risks. Say deliberate changes are newly made to a Photoshop edit on which several LR image versions are based. These updates will ripple through all virtual versions automatically; whereas if these versions had instead been fully independent, the same changes would need to be made repeatedly to get the same result; assuming one wants all these versions to reflect the changes; which is (should be; needs to be) the realistic expectation, when one has opted to use a cluster of VCs in the first place.

Virtual Copies And Collections Issue

I created a few virtual copies for the purpose of having B&W versions of images. Then I added a new collection named B+W and added these virtual copies to the collection. The counter for the collection incremented correctly but when I selected the collection, none of the virtual copies appeared there even thought they were counted in the collection.
Any one else experience this or can corroborate that this is a bug?
Jim

Similar problem, Jim. I asked about it twice in this self-inflicted thread:
http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3bc36332/0
Got no response. Which is one reason I mentioned in the "Split This Forum?" thread that I'd be grateful for a stepped-up Adobe presence in the U-to-U. Because for all their generosity of time and spirit, even the most helpful users sometimes don't know the answer, and having somebody like George or Jeff jump in a say, "It's a bug; we're working on it," would save precious time.
Mac OS 10.4.9

Create several virtual copies at once. Looking for a workflow of exporting 650 photo's in two versions

Hello,
i have photographed a wedding and i have 650 finished photo's. All came from a 5Dm3 of 5Dm2. All are in raw. The color versions are ready. I have created a preset to convert all 650 edited version to B/W. The key is i will not edit the curve and other light and contrast sliders because, and cropping for that sense since these are all done already. So to make it more simple, i need to silver 650 photo;s in color and B/W. The color versions are done.
I am looking at three workflows:
1 create virtual copies of the 650 photo's, filter them out, apply the b/w preset/ make some small tweakes and export the B/W version
2 export the color version to a 16 bit tiff, import those and the apply the b/w preset/ make some small tweakes and export the B/W version
3 make an extra copy of the lightroom library and then apply the b/w preset/ make some small tweakes and export the B/W version
In option one i do not know how to create 650 virtual copies at once. It seems i can do this only one photo at a time which is to time consuming
In option 2 this is an extra batch and consuming me much more hard disk space
in option three this is workable but i rather stick to one library
Any help in this?
Thanks!!
Ronald

Go to the library module, grid view. Highlight all your images and create a new collection. One of the options when you create the new collection is to make new virtual copies. The collection will consist of virtual copies of all your original files. Then, just work with the collection and create your black-and-white images. The virtual copies can be exported just like the regular images. So you can export color and black-and-white versions.

LR 5.4, smart collection folder?

I can't find the location of Smart collections. When using "Preferences" do I find the location but the changes done in LR are not showing in the folder. And Adding new Smart Collections via drag and drop are not synced with LR
Development folder for example is no issue so far.
yours sincerely
Oliver

Hej
My question was misunderstood.
I know how these folders work inside LR. And I normally think to know where or how I can find the preset folders LR creates on the HD. I have selected that all catalogues use the same location for the preset folders (development/ export/ smart collection etc).
But somehow is LR 5.4 not using the smart collection presets I bought and placed in that folder. Nor do I see changes (for testing the issue) such as creating new smart collections, inside that main folder? Any ideas? Bug?
Oh this happens on my iMac no issue on my windows 7. There everything works the way I expect.
mvh
OlléS
On the move

Virtual Copies not written to files?

I have lightroom on both my office mac and my laptop. They both have their own catalogues but share the photo's other network.
They both have "Automatically write changes to XMP" set. And I right click on the folder and synchronize when changing between comps.
I seem to have run into a problem though. I used the create virtual copy function on the laptop to do some black and white version of some photo's. But coming back to my office comp, I've synchronized the folder but the virtual copies don't appear to have made the leap.
Is this to be expected, a bug or a lack of foresight?

Virtual Copies, Stacks and Collections are not exported to XMP.
To share such you need to export a Catologue and import on the other machine. Since they share the actual images you can just export the folders or collecions you are working with that have change without the "negatives" and previews.
THis will then share everything you have down nti just the normal stuff that gets exported to XMP.
Don
Don Ricklin, MacBook 1.83Ghz Duo 2 Core running 10.4.10 & Win XP, Pentax *ist D
http://donricklin.blogspot.com/

(Finding and) deleting virtual copies

Hi.
Somehow I have managed to create virtual copies of 1000 or so photos. This happened (I believe) while trying to clean up a collection folder. So what I want to do now, is to sort out - and isolate? - the virtual copies created accidently. I tried using Library Filter/Virtual Copies and the sorting by edit time, but still it seems it will take some time to find the ones that were made virtual copies by intent and those which weren't. As I also have done quite a lot of editing work prior to this accident, I'd rather not go back to a previous back-up.
So, to sum it up: what is the best way to find only the virtual copies created since, let's say 10 o'clock this morning?
Thanks in advance,
ole k

I may be a bit slow, but I still don't quite get this: LR is able to sort (in Smart Collection) by Added Order, but there is no way of seeing when the VC was actually created?
Please also see my last question rgd. what I should put in the box next to "Contains". (o or 0 or nothing?). Whenever I make a VC, in the metadata list i t will be called "Copy 1". This means that my smart collection will include both the VCs that I've made intentionally and those made by mistake, right - I mean as long as it's got "Copy #" in the name box? In case, I can't quite make the number of files listed match with what I'd expect to find there, but if you suggest that using this method and then sort descending (why not ascending?) and then deleting, I'll trust you and do just that.
BTW, you (John) were absolutely right about the source of this confusion, I had - of some reason - checked the box next to Create Virtual Copy in the Create Collection menu. Needless to say, it is no longer checked . . . . .
ole k

Virtual copy in a smart collection does not show up in that collection

LR5; When I make a virtual copy in a smart collection it does not show up in that collection but in the original folder...
All of the metadata and custom fields are identical....

The screenshot was very helpful. The problem is with the Custom 05 custom metadata field. Which plugin defined that?
It appears that smart collections don't properly search the custom metadata fields of virtual copies. I filed a bug report in the official Adobe feedback forum: Lightroom: Smart collections don't correctly search custom metadata fields.
You could work around this by using a filter preset in the Library Filter bar. Perhaps not as convenient, but it would get the job done.

Find and export Virtual Copies: Easy to add and ( i would argue) Necessary

I haven't found an easy way to go back and easily select all virtual copies in a library in order to export them.
A virtual copy is easy to miss and sometimes its hard to remember where you made changes in a large collection.
There needs to be a search option for file types in LightRoom that can find the virtual copies and allow them to be collectively exported as real copies.
If not a search function, then please simply insert a "save all virtual copies" option in the export area. Perhaps it could have the option to export all to their respective original file's folder OR to a designated edits folder with some tag to refer to the original location.
I would very much appreciate an official adobe contact if at all possible :-/

You can filter out Virtual Copies using a button on the filter bar located in the bottom right corner of the Lr application window (just above the filmstrip). Click a folder (folder panel) to narrow the filter to a specific folder or subfolders or the top most folder to show all virtual copies. You'll also find the second button will show only Master photos.

Published virtual copies show up in Grid View of Collection

I'm a bit frustrated at something that has only recently begun happening to me. I am using Lightroom 3. I'll have a collection that I will publish to flickr. when I do, I later look at the collection and it'll not only show my photos, but also a virtual copy that is published to flickr. I don't want that. It's not necessary to see and I didn't have to see them before. If I want to see what is published, I can go to the published collection and look. On my local collection, I don't want to see virtual copies unless they were virtual copies that I purposely made for some reason. I don't want Lighroom to be automatically creating a duplicate of every image that I publish to flickr.

The screenshot was very helpful. The problem is with the Custom 05 custom metadata field. Which plugin defined that?
It appears that smart collections don't properly search the custom metadata fields of virtual copies. I filed a bug report in the official Adobe feedback forum: Lightroom: Smart collections don't correctly search custom metadata fields.
You could work around this by using a filter preset in the Library Filter bar. Perhaps not as convenient, but it would get the job done.

Finding all "virtual copies" in my database

For a couple months now, I have been using virtual copies for certain tasks which I now realize would have been much easier done if I had chosen to use snapshots instead. Now i have dozens of virtual copies of my RAW images scattered all over the place, and I can't seem to find a way to quickly gather them all up into one place so that I can deal with them...Is there a way to do this, or does it really have to be done by manually going through my entire collection of images and keeping an eye out for the page curl icon on each virtual copy's thumbnail? Please advise...Thanks!

Disagree John
I'll pollute my keyword the way i like. I don't use KWords a great deal, but for this situation it would provide the ideal solution, so the user does not have to keep chopping and changing between modules as one edits there images.
That is what keywords are for. To allow the user to filter/view there images according to there own desires. I create a keyword "virtual copy" for all my VC, but it is annoying to have to go back to the library from the develop module to do this for each individual image.
Also, VC and greyscale are 2 particular and unique editing option provided in the develop module within LR, that require DB management in bulk.

Deleting Virtual Copies From Library, Burning Collections & Part of Library

Hello! I am new to this software; I have LR 2.0
From the library, I selected/highlighted the photos that I wanted to put into a new collection, then clicked the plus symbol above "Collections." I was then asked if, when putting the selected photos into that collection, I wanted to make a virtual copy in the library. I wasn't exactly sure what this meant, so I checked the box. Now, obviously, I have duplicates of all of my selected photos in my library. My collections folder turned out just how I wanted. However, I would prefer not to have a cluttered library. Is there a way to delete the virtual copies without removing them from my collection?
Also, I plan on burning a disc for a client. I want to include the entire photoshoot (what's in the library) but I would also like to have a sub-folder on the CDROM of my selected favorites/best (which remain in the collection.) How can I do this? Do I export the collection folder separately?
Thank you!

Hello! I am new to this software; I have LR 2.0
From the library, I selected/highlighted the photos that I wanted to put into a new collection, then clicked the plus symbol above "Collections." I was then asked if, when putting the selected photos into that collection, I wanted to make a virtual copy in the library. I wasn't exactly sure what this meant, so I checked the box. Now, obviously, I have duplicates of all of my selected photos in my library. My collections folder turned out just how I wanted. However, I would prefer not to have a cluttered library. Is there a way to delete the virtual copies without removing them from my collection?
Also, I plan on burning a disc for a client. I want to include the entire photoshoot (what's in the library) but I would also like to have a sub-folder on the CDROM of my selected favorites/best (which remain in the collection.) How can I do this? Do I export the collection folder separately?
Thank you!

Virtual Copies - Unable to add to collections

Virtual copies will not appear in either quick collections or created collections when added although the library panel (for quick collection) or collections panel indicates an image has been added. Anyone notice the problem?

I'm having the same issues.
I select a photo in the Library's grid view, right-click it (I'm running Windows XP) and select "Create Virtual Copy."
The grid's view remains the same (no new 'copy' of the picture with the little earmark appears) and on the Film Strip, I see a new gray box at the end of the strip, but no picture is in the gray box. If I click the gray box, nothing happens.
If I try to create another virtual copy (of same photo or a different photo) the same behavior happens again (no change to the grid, and yet another gray empty placeholder where a new photo should appear).
Am I creating virtual copies incorrectly???

Inconsistent order in grid when creating Virtual Copies.

When I create a virtual copy of a photo and look at it with the stack expanded, the order that the two pics appear in the library grid is inconsistent. Sometimes the VC is listed AFTER the original in the grid, and sometimes it's listed BEFORE the original. When it's listed before the original, I've tried changing the stack "on top" setting, but this only changes which photo appears when the stack is collapsed -- the order when expanded stays the same.
I feel like I might be missing something here, i.e. is there some method of making a VC appear after vs before the original in the library grid? Also, is there a way to swap the order so that I can "fix" the situation? So far, the only fix I've found is to delete the VC and re-create it, at which point the order is sometimes corrected.
Thanks for any feedback on this,
Larry

b_gossweiler wrote:
it might be that you have a filter in effect on "All Photographs" that prevents the VCs from being shown
Here's why I don't think that's my problem. I search and find an image - so yes I am using a filter - lets say I want file ABC123. Now I see that frame and I also see a Virtual Copy which I previously created. So clearly I don't have a any filter to prevent my seeing VCs. Now I select the Master and create a new Virtual Copy. The new copy does not appear but the Master reports it is now 1 of 3. So Lightroom is telling me there are three copies of this file, but only displays two, the Master and an older Virtual Copy.
All I have to do (!) to see the new Virtual Copy is quit and relaunch. Now I see all three copies, the Master, the older and the new VIrtual Copy. Nothing changes between quit and relaunch.
Even if "All Photographs" isn't a Smart Collection, is appears to have the same issue others have reported on creating Virtual Copies.
DG

Finding Virtual Copies in Smart Collections

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