# Virtual copies



## SueC

Should I make a virtual copy of my editted raw photo before exporting in case i may want to make another size or different image from the photo?    If I use the 4x6 size (crop size), that is a format size correct not the extent of the size that can be made correct?


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## clee01l

Welcome to the forum.  You would only make the virtual copy at theme you need it.   The "4X6" is an aspect ratio equivalent to "2X3" This is generally or approximately the aspect ratio go the image sensor.  If you export a cropped image of "4X6", you do not really need a virtual copy.  You can re-crop the original and export again.  Both crop steps will be listed in the develop history.


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## SueC

Thank you Cletus.  I thought initially since LR was non destructive,  it was fine to export a pixel size (camera club) or original size(prints).  Then I thought I read once you have exported, you can not go back and have the original size to work with to resize.


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## SueC

I have another somewhat related question.  If I  needed to send out 30 photos at a time, is it best to export to a folder on my hard drive then put on flash drive?   I have dropbox but have only used it once, not sure of its capacity.  I am exporting as jpegs.


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## Paul McFarlane

SueC said:


> I have another somewhat related question.  If I  needed to send out 30 photos at a time, is it best to export to a folder on my hard drive then put on flash drive?   I have dropbox but have only used it once, not sure of its capacity.  I am exporting as jpegs.


Export to a folder on the local disk works well, then you can check you have what you want before copying to your flash drive. However, you could just export direct to your flash drive and be done with it (might be slightly slower due to write speeds)


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## Johan Elzenga

SueC said:


> Thank you Cletus.  I thought initially since LR was non destructive,  it was fine to export a pixel size (camera club) or original size(prints).  Then I thought I read once you have exported, you can not go back and have the original size to work with to resize.


No, that is not correct. Your original image remains as it is, so you can export as many copies at as many different sizes as you want. No need to create virtual copies.


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## Dan Marchant

You don't have to create virtual copies but you certainly can if you want. In fact it can be very useful to do so if you use Publish services to publish images to Flickr or other services. Re-cropping the original image would be seen as a change by many services and the image would be republished in its new form, which may not be what you want. So creating a VC that is not in the Publish collection would allow you to re-crop without upsetting your publish collections.


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