A method for manipulating a digital image includes identifying an image for processing at a local client computer, sending the image to a remote server, manipulating either locally or remotely parameters associated with the image without modifying the image itself, capturing state information defining a state of the manipulations at a predefined time and selecting a previous state at the request of the user, and synchronizing the local client computer and the remote server including updating metadata for one of the local client computer and the remote server using metadata of the other.