# Setting a Photo to READ ONLY



## Paul_DS256 (Jan 19, 2020)

I know sounds strange but here is the situation. I use TOPAZ tools for sharpening and denoising as needed. The plug-in works great because the resulting TIFF file is stacked with the original RAW file but is displayed unstacked.

More than once, I've gone back to do further editting on the photo and mistakenly made changes to the TIFF rather than continuing on the RAW file. What I would like to do is flag the TIFF file as read only to prevent this from happening. Yes, I know user error.

One approach is to show the TIFF in File Explorer and change the properties to R/O. I could then likely use Locktastic plug-in to show the file labelled red.

I hope I'm not the first person to try and solve this. Looking for other ideas as well.

Thanks


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## Califdan (Jan 19, 2020)

1)  Call me confused.  Once you denoise and sharpen in topaz and get the Tiff back, why would you then go back to the unsharpened. noisy original RAW file for further edits?  Wouldn't you want to do your further edits on the denoised and sharpened Tiff image?

2) not familiar with "Lockstastic' but if it's your purpose in using it is to turn on the RED color label, instead just select the image and press the "6" key on your keyboard.

3)  LR is non destructive so your original RAW or Tiff returned from Topaz are not modified by LR.  Your edits to these files are just entries in the catalog and do not actually change the data in the image file.  Therefore if you discover the you edited a "wrong" file, just go to the history panel in the Develop module and click down the list list of entries till you get to the entry before you started mistakenly editing.  Or, if you'd like to revert to the "as imported" version just use the "Reset" button.

4)  I wojld be reluctant to change the properties in the file system to R/O.  First because it is time consuming and second because LR doesn't write changes to the image files anyway (other than some metadata).


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## johnbeardy (Jan 19, 2020)

Locktastic is a very simple plugin of mine - here.


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## Johan Elzenga (Jan 19, 2020)

Califdan said:


> Call me confused. Once you denoise and sharpen in topaz and get the Tiff back, why would you then go back to the unsharpened. noisy original RAW file for further edits? Wouldn't you want to do your further edits on the denoised and sharpened Tiff image?


That is exactly his problem. He doesn’t want to do that, but it sometimes happens by mistake.


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## Paul_DS256 (Jan 19, 2020)

Califdan said:


> why would you then go back to the unsharpened. noisy original RAW file


I hadn't thought of that Califdan.  I'd always assumed the RAW and it's changes were the preferred way. I was treating the TIF as a derivative image. You've given me something to think about


Califdan said:


> I wojld be reluctant to change the properties in the file system to R/O


Ya, after I came to same decision


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## clee01l (Jan 20, 2020)

Johan Elzenga said:


> That is exactly his problem. He doesn’t want to do that, but it sometimes happens by mistake.


"Stupid user tricks".  I do them all the time.   Still apart from the annoyance, the first derivative TIFF remains unchanged.   The TIFF is also lossless, so a second derivative  would only be a modification of the first.


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## Paul_DS256 (Jan 20, 2020)

Thanks all. I'd never thought about the lineage from RAW to TIFF to TIFF etc. Getting my head around that. More of a personal issue than making sense.


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## kaymann (Jan 21, 2020)

And perhaps make a VC (Virtual Copy) for all the new TIFF's you would want to mess around with...


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## Conrad Chavez (Jan 21, 2020)

Paul_DS256 said:


> I know sounds strange...I hope I'm not the first person to try and solve this. Looking for other ideas as well.


It’s not strange, because you’re not the first person to ask for something like this. Over on the official Lightroom Feedback site, where Adobe accepts feature requests, and users vote and discuss them, others have submitted similar ideas:

*Ability to lock photos. Please protect me from myself!*
Posted 9 years ago, 116 votes

*Mark a photo as the FINAL version*
Posted 3 years ago, 296 votes

Obviously there is user support for these requests, based on the number of votes. It’s not clear how or when locking images will bubble up to be a higher priority for Adobe to implement versus other potential new features that they have to consider.


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## Paul_DS256 (Jan 21, 2020)

Conrad Chavez said:


> It’s not strange, because you’re not the first person to ask for something like this


Thanks for confirming my sanity Conrad  albeit that mine may not have been in the right context.


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