Lightroom Previews & Smart Previews...

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russellmcbride

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Does the catalog file, the previews file, and the smart previews file all need to exist in the same place? It would seem to make more sense to somehow allow one of these files to pull double duty instead of having a separate file for each.

Currently my previews file is 256.11GB and my smart previews file is 255.91GB. Looks like a lot of wasted spaced being used by similar information, no?

Thanks in advance,
Russell McBride
 
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No.

A library preview file (*.lrprev) is a pyramid of variously-sized jpegs, which are used primarily in the Library module. The size and quality of the jpegs is controlled by the settings that you choose in the Catalog Settings menu. Lightroom will load the most appropriately-sized jpeg out of the pyramid for the task in hand, and in none exists (e.g. you want to zoom to 1:1 but no 1:1 jpeg exists in the pyramid stack, it is rendered in the fly).

Smart previews are special fixed-size DNG-type previews (known as scene-referred) which can be edited in real time (much like the fully rendered develop preview), and are only used in the Develop Module.

Basically they are different things, used for different purposes.

One question for you: do you really need a Smart Previews folder that size?
 
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"[Catalog Name] Previews.lrdata" and "[Catalog Name]Smart Previews.lrdata" are folders not files. OS X called these packages. If you right click on one and choose "Show Package Contents" You will see the folders of image preview files that Jim referred to.

The Folder (Package) named "[Catalog Name] Previews.lrdata" is required to be located in the same folder as the LR catalog. The Folder (package) named "[Catalog Name] Smart Previews.lrdata" is optional. Smart Previews are used for collections sync'd with your mobile device using Lightroom Mobile and/or for photos that you want to work on when you laptop is not connected to the drive containing your master images. If you have all of your master images on the primary HD and not on a detachable EHD, OR if you do not use Lightroom Mobile, you do not need the Smart Previews generated. If there is an instance where your laptop is separated from the master image files or you are syncing collection to LR Mobile, ONLY those images used in either case need Smart previews. For the most part, that means that your Smart previews folder can be quite small since it only needs to contain previews for a subset of your image inventory.

If you have a smallish SSD, and permanent access to a larger EHD, you can create an alias and store the Catalog Previews in an alternate location as long as the alias resides in the folder alongside the catalog file and is named as LR expect the catalog previews package to be named.
 
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Thank you Jim. I will have to think further about just how many smart previews I actually need. The simple answer is all of them as I am not always sure who is looking for what, and when. Generating previews can, based on the amount of images take a considerable amount of time; time I usually do not have so I just resolved myself to generate smart previews for my entire library. Since it has grown this large I guess its time to reconsider my workflow when using smart previews.

Thanks again,
Russell McBride

Jim Wilde said:
No.
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I don't see much point in smart previews if you are connected to the originals, certainly not for 100%. Instead I mainly have smart previews to have access to large numbers of pictures when I go away for a period. So I have a smart collection to find photos that should have smart previews - the criteria are images that don't have smart previews and are recent or >3 stars or from area where I'm planning to travel etc. I'll then make smart previews of anything that shows up in the SC. When this shows zero, I know I have all the pictures I may need during the trip and will be able to do things like send out pictures, research locations, copy metadata etc.

John
 
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I had been doing import with min previews. I decided to change that to doing standard previews. I told Lr to generate standard previews for the 9282 images from 2015. Based on the speed in the progress bar, that is going to take a few hours.

Do I need to create a import preset that uses standard previews instead of min previews as my default size? Since I do culling of large shoots before Lr, I don't worry and creating standard previews for images I will delete.
 
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mcasan said:
I had been doing import with min previews. I decided to change that to doing standard previews. I told Lr to generate standard previews for the 9282 images from 2015. Based on the speed in the progress bar, that is going to take a few hours.

Do I need to create a import preset that uses standard previews instead of min previews as my default size? Since I do culling of large shoots before Lr, I don't worry and creating standard previews for images I will delete.
Click to expand...
You can update your existing import presets if you like or simply select "Save as a new Preset" after changing the "Build Previews" field.
 
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clee01l said:
You can update your existing import presets if you like or simply select "Save as a new Preset" after changing the "Build Previews" field.
Click to expand...


Much thanks!
 
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