# lightroom "How do I retrieve snapshots?"



## lbeck (Feb 6, 2017)

Still climbing the learning curve.  I am playing with a few photos so nothing lost.  I made several changes and then created a snapshot.  Returning to my computer after a couple of days - and a couple of shutdowns -  I can't find my snapshots.

Is there a query to find snapshots?
should I save snapshots to a different filename?

Thanks for your comments and suggestions.

Lee


----------



## johnbeardy (Feb 6, 2017)

You can create a smart collection using Has Snapshots as the criterion. That finds all photos with snapshots.

Personally, I don't use snapshots very much. If I want a variation of an image, I'll use a virtual copy instead. You may want to look at them too.


----------



## clee01l (Feb 6, 2017)

I'm with John on the benefits of Virtual Copies over Snapshots.  If the develop state is important enough to remember with a snapshot, it is probably important enough to warrant a Virtual Copy.


----------



## Hal P Anderson (Feb 6, 2017)

To answer your question, your Snapshots are listed on the left side of the Develop module:


 
The snapshots are shown for the current image.

If you don't see the Snapshots panel, right click on any panel header on the left side and make sure there's a checkmark next to 'Snapshots'.


----------



## Hoggy (Feb 7, 2017)

Contrary to John and Cletus..  I actually use _both_ snapshots *and* VC's, as they're both equally useful to me.

I use a plugin by (the late/gone-missing) Rob Cole, called "Snap and Mark", that is able to put the copy name in front of the snapshots' names. (FYI: And ANY other metadata that one may wish, in any order/format.  And has MUCH more flexibility than the TPG version - not to mention it's FREE.  It can be a bit more geeky to set up, though.  Unfortunately, like "TPG LR Backup", both of them are now abandoned-ware.)

Snapshots are useful for keeping one development 'line' that I may want to branch out from, but don't deserve a VC in their own right.  And once I decide I may want to fork an image (an obvious example being black-and-white - but also low&high clarity, and low&high vib-saturation versions), I'll create a VC from one of those 'base lines'.  And further snapshots on the VC's, as well (possibly to spawn yet more VC's).  The snapshots on the VC's will also serve to embed them into the XMP within the main [DNG] file.

So, for snapshots, I may have:
"m(for master).YYMMDD.HHMMSS. CUST-text"  and:
"Copy 1.YYMMDD.HHMMSS. CUST-text"
Etc...
(And often for the custom text, I'll put a shorthand of what was changed since the previous snapshot: "1.01 b, det, gr, br, rad".  Meaning: Version 1.01, basic panel, detail panel, grad, brush, radial.)

Snap-and-Mark can prompt for a custom text to either put in the snapshot name, or simply marking the edit history with, or both.
(And I use Snap-and-Mark so often that I even have the keyboard shortcut to it tied to my middle mouse buttons while in LR..  On top of being set as a radial option in Wacom prefs. )

Snapshots can also be useful to serve as a sort of round-about 'layers' mechanism..  Like if you have a ton of spot removals, but find that they slow things down too much - one can do a 'copy' on just the spot removals, reset the image, paste the spot removals, THEN create the snapshot of them.  (Obviously, one doesn't really _need_ to reset the image to use them in this way - but doing so will allow for all-around smaller file sizes.)


----------



## Conrad Chavez (Feb 7, 2017)

If you don't see the snapshots where Hal indicated, make sure the catalog you have open is the same one you created the snapshots in. Some beginners don't realize they're working in a different or completely new catalog, especially in full screen mode, and so they believe they've "lost work" when actually, their edits are in another catalog.

Regarding snapshots vs virtual copies, I definitely think there is a place for both:

If you need a variation to exist as a separate database entry because you need to organize, filter, or output it differently than the main image, use a virtual copy.

If you don't need to clutter up the image listing with variations of an image, use snapshots within one image.


----------

