54. CREATING SMART PREVIEWS IN LIGHTROOM

SOME PHOTOGRAPHERS LIKE to work with and store their images on removable hard drives, and don’t want to have their images connected to the Lightroom catalog all of the time. For that, Lightroom has developed the Smart Preview.

A Smart Preview is a preview that is larger than a 1:1 preview and is meant to serve as a substitute for images when they are not connected to the Lightroom catalog. You can create a Smart Preview during the import process (Figure 54.1), and you can also do it inside the main catalog. To create a Smart Preview in the main catalog, go to Library > Previews > Build Smart Previews (Figure 54.2).

I know what you’re thinking—this is a great idea; I can store all of my images on a removable hard drive and then put the hard drive away. This is true, but you do need to remain aware of how much space these previews take up on your computer so you can handle them accordingly.

When your drive is connected to Lightroom, you’ll notice that directly under the histogram in the Library module it says Original + Smart Preview (Figure 54.3). That means Lightroom has access to the original image, and you can go into the Develop module and make any changes to the image.

The moment your drive is disconnected, you’ll notice that under the histogram it says Smart Preview (Figure 54.4). Now when you work on the image in the Develop module, any changes you make are applied to the Smart Preview, which is larger than a 1:1 preview, but is definitely not a RAW file. When you reconnect your external drive, Lightroom will sync the Smart Preview with the RAW file settings and show you your image.

Figure 54.1 Building a Smart Preview during the Lightroom import process.

Figure 54.2 Building a Smart Preview inside Lightroom catalog.

Figure 54.3 Underneath the histogram you can see that Lightroom has access to the original image and a Smart Preview.

Figure 54.4 Editing a Smart Preview in the Develop module.

This is all well and good, but keep in mind that a Smart Preview is larger than a 1:1 preview. So imagine if every single time you did a shoot, you started converting your images to Smart Previews. Storing a large number of these previews in your catalog can jam up your computer. In the File Handling section of the Catalog Settings, you can choose to discard your 1:1 previews after a specific amount of time because Lightroom knows that having large previews will get you in trouble—you could fill up your hard drive (Figure 54.5).

Now you’re in a situation where you’re creating previews that are larger than your 1:1 previews, but you have no mechanism to control how often they’re stored on the computer and when they’re discarded. This is where the “Smart Preview” Smart Collection we discussed at the end of Lesson 52 comes in (Figure 54.6).

Creating a Smart Collection for your Smart Previews allows you to quickly take a look at whether the number of Smart Previews in your Lightroom catalog is getting really high (Figure 54.7). If so, you can go into the Smart Collection and discard the Smart Previews for any images you’ve already developed, freeing up space on your computer (Figure 54.8).

Figure 54.5 Lightroom gives you the option to automatically discard 1:1 previews after a set amount of time to free up space on your computer.

Figure 54.6 Creating a Smart Collection for Smart Previews.

Figure 54.7 Using a Smart Collection for your Smart Previews helps you monitor their numbers so you can free up space on your computer when necessary.

Figure 54.8 Discarding Smart Previews.