# How to revert back to the original image in Lightroom



## creativepro

Hi

Have a mac
Lightroom 1.3.1

I am really frustrated - I applied a downloaded preset to a photo in Lightroom - I realised I prefer the original image without the change.

How on earth can I regain the original - I have tried everything.

Hope someone can assist - The change is horrendous and I really liked the original image.

thanking you


Sue


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## DonRicklin

Just press reset for that image.
Don


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## Richard Earney

You also have Multiple Undo and the History feature to take you back step-by-step.


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## ToddziLLa

Command-Z works as well.


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## creativepro

Unfortunately the history panel has been erased.

Any other ideas?


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## Brad Snyder

Did you try Don's suggestion?

Select the photo, in Develop Module at lower right, click "Reset"

That should restore the photo to the import state.


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## creativepro

Thanks Don and everyone for your assistance


Sue


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## Richard Earney

Check out George Jardine's Podcast on Catalog Management as well!


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## HerrB

Sorry to warm this thread up but Sue's question and the answers to it do show something: the way the history list can be cleared separately from undoing the manipulations on the photo are not intuitive to everyone (and I dare say they are outright and big time unintuitive).

I had the very same problem as Sue a little while ago. Somehow, trial and error led me to find out the reset thing myself. But I think that these detail workings of LR here are not right. At least I cannot see the reasoning behind. Could someone point out why the history can be cleared without the picture state syncing up with this?

Cheers
Jörg


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## Brad Snyder

HerrB said:


> Sorry to warm this thread up but Sue's question and the answers to it do show something:
> 
> Could someone point out why the history can be cleared without the picture state syncing up with this?




Perhaps I'm not understanding your point, but what would you do differently?

Why should deleting the history change the picture adjustments?  

I'm struggling to put this in words.  The history of the adjustments, and the state of the adjustments are two completely different things.  

I think I'm understanding a little.  You believe that clearing the history should revise the adjustments to the pre-history state?  

That's the function of the first/oldest historical state, or the adjustment reset button. 

The history is a collection of metadata, which consumes resources (but not much).  You may wish to get rid of that metadata, (to conserve the memory perhaps, or to hide your process steps for example) without touching the picture. Or, you may wish to restore the picture to its import state, without discarding the changes that are saved in history (perhaps you forgot to export the "before" picture).

Sorry, I'm babbling, but I can see clearly in mind that 'resetting' the photo, and 'deleting' historical steps are quite different functions, and need to be addressed independently.


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## HerrB

Thanks for responding, Brad, especially as the point I was trying to make did not seem very clear.

You got it in a nutshell, after all :



> I think I'm understanding a little. You believe that clearing the history should revise the adjustments to the pre-history state?


You say:



> That's the function of the first/oldest historical state, or the adjustment reset button.


I can hear your words and I can see it in the application working like this but this separation (clearing out the history list yet leaving the edits in the photo) is still far from intuitive to me.

Coming to lightroom, my first understanding was along these lines: I have a photo and I apply a number of manipulations to this photo and each manipulation step I can see in the history list. So this history list directly corresponds to the manipulations I have done.

I then found it hard to undo multiple steps in one go, came here to ask and someone very helpfully pointed out that just selecting an item in the history view brings me back to that state in history and then continuing on editing works on that very state and discards all history entries that were following it and placing my new edits there instead. Cool thing.

This way of working with the history list reinforced my understanding that there is a direct link between the stored picture edits and the history view. It was for me then only natural to assume that deleting all history entries would undo all my edits.

With regard to the reset button, I completely agree that it should not remove the history but add a reset entry in the history and revert the picture manipulations. Otherwise such a reset would not be undoable and that would be wrong.

Can you see where I am coming from?

Cheers,
Joerg


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## Victoria Bampton

Joerg, I'm not sure I'm clear on your point.  Are you saying:

1.  Clearing the history should reset the image back to default
2.  Clearing the history panel should keep all settings as they are but clear the history steps?

If you want option 1, you can select the first history state, which will revert the image settings back to import state and will remove the history when you next change something.  Or you can hit Reset to reset the image, and Clear History to remove the history steps.

If you want option 2, you just hit Clear History, the image settings remain untouched, and the long list of history steps disappears.

How are you suggesting it should work then?

Have you used the History palette in Photoshop.  It works basically the same way there, except it's not saved when you close.  You can reset back to the 'opened' state by clicking on the first snapshot.  You can click on an early history state to reset to the state of the image at that point.  You can delete the history steps without affecting the current state of the image by selecting 'Clear History' from the menu.


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## HerrB

Hi Victoria (and Brad),

First of all: I am not really missing functionality. It is rather that I find the decoupling of the history list and the picture state counter-intuitive and still struggle a bit finding good reasons that justify it.

What for me breaks intuition here is that I can clear out the history list without undoing the edits. Asked to suggest how it works (which you did )I'd say this:

a) Each edit shows up as a history list item.
b) If I clear the history list all edits are removed and the picture goes back to the original
c) If I press the 'reset' button, a new history item 'reset' is added to the end of the history (or right after the currently selected history list item, if there is one selected)

The result of this would be that the history list always shows the steps that have lead up to the picture we see. To me this is the intuitive meaning of the history list.

You see, I have not used Photoshop in a longer while and have never done too much with it. So for Photoshoppers, all this might be normal.

I was just wondering why we are looking at this from different angles. It could be that I am thinking with my 'non-destructive-editing' LR hat on. And here the history is what defines the end result and is even stored in some way. The history is actually stored. So closing and reopening LR and looking at the photo will show me the very same history entries. So to me this reinforces the understanding that the history items are not just a nice to have there for reference or so but integral information on the photo as it is now.

When you look at it from the Photoshop angle, the history gives you (only while the file is open) the luxury of being able to look back a bit from the result that you have there in front of you (which you have chiseled in stone by means of destructive edits).

So much for a feeble attempt at finding out where the differenet view points might come from. I am not trying to justify myself here and I am not saying I am right. I am just questioning. I have worked on Mac OS based applications for the creative field and I very well remember long discussions about this kind of thing and what the "users will expect when they find such and such interfaces."And I'd loved to have been the fly on the wall when the LR lot had their meetings on how the history list should work...  

You see, it might just be me.

Again thanks lots for responding and discussing.

Cheers,
Joerg


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## Victoria Bampton

Questioning is good Joerg.  It's interesting to see different viewpoints!

So based on your idea, what would happen if you wanted to clear your history (say you don't want someone else looking at what you've done to get to the current stage), but wanted to keep the image as it is now?  How would you go about that?


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## HerrB

> So based on your idea, what would happen if you wanted to clear your history (say you don't want someone else looking at what you've done to get to the current stage), but wanted to keep the image as it is now? How would you go about that?


 Well, I wouldn't be able to do that.

Would I want to, though? I mean, is that particular situation a real concern or are you teasing? I'd have thought that if I let people as far as looking at my LR screens I'd be fine with them catching a glimpse of the odd history list item.

Cheers,
Joerg


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## Victoria Bampton

If I'm processing for someone else (I process for pro photographers), then I may not wanting them to know how much I've fussed with their image (or not!! ), so an option to clear history is useful.


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## Brad Snyder

I see that Victoria has carried on in my absence. (Gotta' love that round the globe-timezone coverage  )

In summary, LR works slightly differently from the way Jorg envisions it.

The only way History affects the state of the adjustments is by *selecting* an historical state. Manipulating the entries on the list only affects which entries on the list are *available* for selection.

Jorg, all I can suggest is that if you feel strongly enough, you should make a feature request. I believe you can reach the feature request thru the LR Wiki above.


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## HerrB

Hi Brad,

I understand that there has been a long beta phase in which Adobe carefully listened to the users. I'd therefore assume that most people are happy with the way LR is working and so I wouldn't have made a change request.

Thanks for encouraging me to do so, though!  Might it after all be the case that there are more people confused by LR's current behaviour? I shall ponder this a little while longer...

Cheers,
Joerg


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## Mark Sirota

HerrB;1'''9 said:
			
		

> I understand that there has been a long beta phase in which Adobe carefully listened to the users. I'd therefore assume that most people are happy with the way LR is working and so I wouldn't have made a change request.



Yes, thousands upon thousands of people tried out Lightroom during the Beta phase, and a very large number of those commented.  But that shouldn't be taken to mean that it's perfect!  If you've got a suggestion, suggest it!

In particular, while I don't have the same discomfort about the decoupling of the history list with the actual image state, I do believe there's room for improvement in this area.  I'd like to be able to delete multiple steps from the history without deleting all of them, reorder the history, and -- most importantly -- be able to "collapse" the history into the smallest number of steps required to get from the starting state to the finished product.  I don't want to have several "crop rectangle" steps all in a row, for example...  One will do.


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## Ian Farlow

Mark Sirota;1'148 said:
			
		

> I'd like to be able to delete multiple steps from the history without deleting all of them, reorder the history, and -- most importantly -- be able to "collapse" the history into the smallest number of steps required to get from the starting state to the finished product.  I don't want to have several "crop rectangle" steps all in a row, for example...  One will do.



Good points, and I agree. Just a little refinement for the history would be very welcome.


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