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Archive 2016 · seeking user inputs on the pros and cons of smart previews in lightroom?

  
 
tntcorp
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · seeking user inputs on the pros and cons of smart previews in lightroom?


given my limited familiarity with lightroom (i have ver. 5), i liked the idea of being able to edit files on a laptop using smart preview w/out having an actual physical connection to the hard drive where the files reside.

1) will enabling smart preview increase the size of my catalog?

2) are there pitfalls to smart preview that i am not aware of?

3) i can find instructions to enable smart preview when importing and exporting images, but i am not sure i understood the purpose of smart preview when exporting?

4) how do i enable smart preview on images already in my catalog?

thank you in advance for your responses 😊



Sep 23, 2016 at 12:30 PM
Ian.Dobinson
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · seeking user inputs on the pros and cons of smart previews in lightroom?


tntcorp wrote:
given my limited familiarity with lightroom (i have ver. 5), i liked the idea of being able to edit files on a laptop using smart preview w/out having an actual physical connection to the hard drive where the files reside.

1) will enabling smart preview increase the size of my catalog?
no . you will have an extra file in the same folder as the LRcat file call smart previews . this is where your smart previews are . you cannot change this file in anyway or move it as LR will not use it (I've tried to rename it before and even when it had its original name its didn't work)


2) are there pitfalls to smart preview that i am not aware of?
not really . but you have to be aware that they are a lower res DNG file so while you can do just about anything you would do on a normal raw file , things like sharpen / NR are not best done on smart previews . oh and if you zoom into 100% the zoom is a lot less than a full res file .


3) i can find instructions to enable smart preview when importing and exporting images, but i am not sure i understood the purpose of smart preview when exporting?
if you export a bunch of images as a catalogue you can export the smart previews rather than the raw files . Ive stopped exporting into a separate cat file . rather now I just copy my full cat file to a thumb drive along with the smart preview file . . I do have a more extensive workflow to allow me to have nearly all my files as smart previews but since thumb drives have got larger and cheaper I don't need this much any more (although transfer times are reduced ) . if you want details then PM me


4) how do i enable smart preview on images already in my catalog?


select images you want to SMART and then goto Library > Previews > Create smart previews .

thank you in advance for your responses 😊






Sep 23, 2016 at 04:00 PM
Alan321
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · seeking user inputs on the pros and cons of smart previews in lightroom?


Smart previews are a waste of time and space unless you'll actually use them, and that normally means taking your smart previews with you on a laptop computer while your main library stays at home - because it won't fit on the laptop. If you never take your image collection away from home base, or if you can easily take a full copy of it, then forget about smart previews.

It can be nice to do some editing on smart previews and have the changes automatically applied to your main images when you get back home, but so much editing is best done on the full images that you may not want to bother.

When you edit your main images the smart previews may not get updated automatically. If they do then that would just be a burden on your computer when it is already busy. If they don't then they may not be ready for use if and when you need them, and so you would have to rebuild them each time before taking your laptop away from home base.

Now that I have enough internal storage in my laptop computer I no longer use smart previews at all. When I was running low on space they were very handy while I away from home on extended trips and had enough spare time to edit old photos.


- Alan



Sep 23, 2016 at 05:07 PM
Ian.Dobinson
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · seeking user inputs on the pros and cons of smart previews in lightroom?


Alan321 wrote:
Smart previews are a waste of time and space unless you'll actually use them, and that normally means taking your smart previews with you on a laptop computer while your main library stays at home - because it won't fit on the laptop. If you never take your image collection away from home base, or if you can easily take a full copy of it, then forget about smart previews.

Alan first line of the OP

"given my limited familiarity with lightroom (i have ver. 5), i liked the idea of being able to edit files on a laptop using smart preview w/out having an actual physical connection to the hard drive where the files reside. "

that is what smart previews are for . if (as you are) you have enough storage then yes maybe not needed .



When you edit your main images the smart previews may not get updated automatically. If they do then that would just be a burden on your computer when it is already busy. If they don't then they may not be ready for use if and when you need them, and so you would have to rebuild them each time before taking your laptop away from home base.

- Alan


I think we may have been around this little nugget a few times before . but I'll give it another go

just like a 'normal' raw file the smart preview is NEVER touched updated or changed in any way . ALL updates are held in the LRcat file .




Sep 23, 2016 at 06:28 PM
tntcorp
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · seeking user inputs on the pros and cons of smart previews in lightroom?


Ian - thank you for the info. I didn't realize smart preview uses lower red dng file. good to know.

i usually export edited files in jpeg format. never really paid attention to the option to export the catalog.

i am going to do more readings and may need to send a pm for any clarification

tom 😊



Sep 23, 2016 at 09:14 PM
tntcorp
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · seeking user inputs on the pros and cons of smart previews in lightroom?


hi alan - thank you for your perspective. I didn't consider about how smart preview will be updated or sync while the main file is being edited.

😊



Sep 23, 2016 at 09:52 PM
Ian.Dobinson
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · seeking user inputs on the pros and cons of smart previews in lightroom?


tntcorp wrote:
Ian - thank you for the info. I didn't realize smart preview uses lower red dng file. good to know.

i usually export edited files in jpeg format. never really paid attention to the option to export the catalog.

i am going to do more readings and may need to send a pm for any clarification

tom 😊



Yep Smart Previews are a DNG with a resolution of 2560 pixels on the long edge .

as for exporting as a catalogue . well if you go thru any of the Adobe videos they will tell you this is the way to do it if you want to work mobile on laptop .
they will say to export your chosen images as a Catalogue with the smart previews only and then take those files onto your laptop and run that catalogue on the laptop and then when your done re import that catalogue into your main LR cat .
this will work but I've found that if you have too many images LR will either take ages to re import or even just hange completely . upto about 500 images I found all was ok but if I tried to get more than that then it was much slower . and over about 1000 i never got it to re import . (I've not done it for ages with that many images so things may have improved) .
I just take my full LR cat file and the smart preview file onto my laptop and then when Im done i just copy the Cat file back t my desktop computer (i.e. copy/paste, replace file) there is no need to copy/paste the smart preview file unless you've imported new images and created smart previews for them while you were using the laptop .

trick is when doing that to remember that you MUST only work from 1 cat file . so you don't copy the cat file to your laptop and then carry on working on stuff on the desktop .
and always make sure you have an upto date back up of the cat file before you do any copy/paste



Sep 24, 2016 at 01:25 AM
Ian.Dobinson
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · seeking user inputs on the pros and cons of smart previews in lightroom?


tntcorp wrote:
hi alan - thank you for your perspective. I didn't consider about how smart preview will be updated or sync while the main file is being edited.

😊



they are not . the smart preview is never changed . you can create a smart preview of an image and then move the smart preview file to another location (so LR won't see it) and then make adjustments to the RAW file , disconnect the source of the raw file (i.e. your images drive) and then bring the smart preview file back to the same location as the LR cat file and then open LR again and you will still see all your edits made to the raw file .

a smart preview is nothing more than a DNG file just a lower resolution (2560 on the long edge) .



Sep 24, 2016 at 01:31 AM
Ian.Dobinson
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · seeking user inputs on the pros and cons of smart previews in lightroom?


actually the statement about Smarts being a waste of time and space if you always have your RAW files present isn't actually correct anymore .
it seems that the latest CC update allows you to use the smart preview even if the raw is present to speed things up

http://petapixel.com/2016/09/20/adobe-lightroom-cc-now-smart-previews-faster-performance/

I'm on CC but I've not updated yet so haven't tried this out .

yes its extra space needed to have them . my 1tb catalogue of RAW files probably creates a smart preview file in the region of 80gb . which because it as to live in the same location as the LR cat file could be inconvenient if your running a smaller sized SSD .



Sep 24, 2016 at 01:38 AM
Alan321
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · seeking user inputs on the pros and cons of smart previews in lightroom?


Ian.Dobinson wrote:
I think we may have been around this little nugget a few times before . but I'll give it another go

just like a 'normal' raw file the smart preview is NEVER touched updated or changed in any way . ALL updates are held in the LRcat file .



Obviously, Ian, those pesky smart previews came along *after* my medication, because that point just never seems to stick with me It also doesn't help that I stopped using them long ago. Thanks again for the reminder and for the courteous delivery.

Presumably the Lr previews will get updated to reflect the changes you make to images while using smart previews. Presumably, also, previews based on the lower resolution smart previews will probably look a little different from previews based on the raw files, with the extent of difference depending on the size of the previews and the nature of the image edits. One or both previews will need to updated sooner or later and that may take Lr some extra time when you are not expecting it. Or is that covered by another lost nugget ?


To the OP, I suggest that it is worth considering putting a bigger HDD or SSD in the laptop unless your library is way too big for any internal drive.

- Alan



Sep 27, 2016 at 06:03 AM
Ian.Dobinson
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · seeking user inputs on the pros and cons of smart previews in lightroom?


Alan321 wrote:
Presumably the Lr previews will get updated to reflect the changes you make to images while using smart previews. Presumably, also, previews based on the lower resolution smart previews will probably look a little different from previews based on the raw files, with the extent of difference depending on the size of the previews and the nature of the image edits. One or both previews will need to updated sooner or later and that may take Lr some extra time when you are not expecting it. Or is that covered by another lost nugget ?


- Alan


Yeah Alan I think the standard preview updates itself to include any new edits you've done on the 'smart' . my guess is its going to happened so quickly that it would be hard to notice (or maybe I'm not looking for it) . I would think that as LRcat holds the edits then the preview is automatically going to be updated to include the latest edits


you could probably test it but I'm not sure about the process .


But yes if there is no 1:1 preview built from the full raw file LR builds a new preview using the smart file . when I just use my LR cat file and the smart file you can see another preview file being built as you start up LR (if a preview file is not present in the cat location another one is automatically built) and as the res is only 2560 on the long edge then thats all LR has to go on and builds its 1:1 preview accordingly .
if you zoom to 1:1 on a smart generated preview the 'zoom in' is a lot less (like having an old 4mp body )







Sep 27, 2016 at 06:31 AM





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