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Photofocus: Understanding the Snapshots and History Panels in Lightroom

snapshotsvshistory

In this Photofocus blog post I take a deep dive into the Snapshots and History panels in the Develop module. Knowing when to use each can really improve your workflow.

One of Lightroom’s greatest strengths is the fact that it stores all the work you do in its catalog file and never changes the pixel data in the source photos. Having all of that data on hand gives you a tremendous amount of freedom and flexibility in your post-production workflow. The most obvious benefit is that you can always return to the un-processed state of your photo at any time, which gives you the freedom to explore and experiment without fear of doing permanent damage. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing though as you can step back and forth through every slider bump and setting tweak you’ve ever made in the Develop module, and you can even preserve certain states along the way in what Lightroom calls Snapshots. Let’s take a look at the two panels in the Develop module that make this all possible, and how to get the most out of them. Continue reading at Photofocus.