Today’s Question: In the context of working in Lightroom Classic when the source photos aren’t available, you said “If you build Smart Previews you can even apply adjustments in the Develop module.” Can you clarify how this works and what I need to do to enable me to apply adjustments to images that aren’t currently available?
Tim’s Quick Answer: You can build Smart Previews in Lightroom Classic on import or later in your workflow. Those Smart Previews enable you to work in the Develop module and export copies of photos even when the source files aren’t available.
More Detail: Working in Lightroom Classic primarily revolves around viewing Standard Previews for your photos, which are effectively JPEG copies of the original images created at a reduced resolution (based on the setting established for Standard Preview Size on the Previews tab of the Catalog Settings dialog). While these previews enable you to view your images and apply metadata updates even when the source files aren’t available, you can’t work in the Develop module based on a Standard Preview.
However, you can use Smart Previews to work on your images in the Develop module. These are previews that are generally at a higher resolution than Standard Previews at 2,560 pixels on the long side, without JPEG compression applied. As such, they are more suitable as a proxy for your original image and can be used in the Develop module.
You can build Smart Previews for all photos during import by turning on the “Build Smart Previews” checkbox in the File Handling section of the right panel in the Import dialog. You can build Smart Previews at any time later in your workflow by selecting the applicable photos in the Library module and then going to the menu and choosing Library > Previews > Build Smart Previews.
Once you’ve built Smart Previews for images, you can optimize those images in the Develop module or export copies based on the Smart Preview. Just keep in mind that the Smart Previews won’t have the full fidelity of the original images, in large part due to their reduced resolution. When you want to be more critical about the adjustments you apply in the Develop module, I recommend working based on the original image files.
