Lightroom Smart preview: what do you need it for?
Starting with Lightroom version 5, Adobe has integrated an ingenious new feature with the Smart Preview. You can find out exactly what the Smart Preview is in this article.
Lightroom: Work offline with the smart preview
If you have saved your pictures on an external hard drive, for example, you can use Smart Preview to edit the pictures offline. Your external drive does not have to be connected.
- You can edit the file in Smart Preview. As soon as you connect your external drive on which the original file is located, your changes will also be transferred.
- If you have changed the original file, your smart preview will also be changed.
- A smart preview takes up much less space than the original version of the image. This saves you many megabytes on devices with little storage space.
Lightroom: Create a smart preview
You can create a smart preview in several ways:
- When importing images, after clicking on "Import" you can click on the arrow at "File Management" in the upper right screen. Now check "Create Smart Previews".
- Smart previews can also be included when exporting. First click on "File"> "Export as catalog". In the dialog box, tick "Create / Include Smart Previews".
- Of course, smart previews can also be easily created for individual images if required. First select a file. Switch to the "Library" module.
- In the right window click on the arrow at "Histogram". Now click on "Original Photo" (see picture).
- In the subsequent dialog window you can create a smart preview.
The next practical tip will tell you how to delete a catalog in Lightroom.