Is there any way to save the develop settings of a virtual copy in Lightroom?

Question

I usually set Lightroom to save the develop settings in a .XMP sidecar file, due to I don't like the whole "catalog" thing. Whenever I want to re-develop a photo, the developing information is right there in the sidecar.

But, as you can make "virtual copies" of a single photo, when the catalog gets deleted, the virtual copy develop settings are gone.

Is there any way to save the virtual copies develop settings in a .XMP sidecar file? Can a single XMP file hold two developing settings for a single image?

If not, what other workarounds exists?

Answer

Andres,

there is a second, potentially better, method that i have found.

• on your original file, save snapshot "original"
• on your virtual copy, save snapshot "virtual copy"
• "save metadata to file" on your original file
• the xmp will contain 2 snapshots. one of your original, one for your virtual copy.

open up the linked xmp file in a text editor and you will see settings for "VirtualCopySettings" and "VirtualCopySettings"

http://cl.ly/2Y0G2O1t3A0D2z3l3v3C

Having said all this, you are making quite a bit of work here. The catalog is in effect invisible to me as a user, apart from when reminded the user to backup. What in particular don't you like about it? Why trust xmp files and not the sql catalogue file?

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