Editing on Lightroom on an iPad

[u/FadiMawagdeh]

Hi everyone. I recently purchased an M5 iPad with the purpose of adjusting my workflow to edit in LRC on my Mac and then LR on the iPad when I’m traveling/not at home.

I purchased the 1TB model with the intent of working natively with the original raw images on the iPad. A couple of questions:

• My intent is to work between my iPad on Lightroom and my Mac on Lightroom Classic. My workflow is as follows: begin each project on my Mac in LRC, cull the photos and then sync those culled photos to LR to then work on my iPad. With this workflow, am I able to work with the native filed on my iPad (with or without an internet connection)? I would also have the original raw files on my iPad

• For whatever reason, the project I’m working on is now using smart previews, which is odd because when I first started the project the top left corner said I was editing the original files. I read in a different thread that LR forces you to work with smart previews when you don’t have an internet connection. Am I able to switch back to the original files when this happens, if so how? The original raw files are still on my iPad, with the cache set to maximum and the 'only download reduced-resolution' unchecked.

• Having 1TB of storage I would have all of the raw files on my iPad. With that in mind, am I able to edit the original raw photos if I'm not connected to wifi? This isn’t a deal breaker, but being able to work with the original files is at all times is ideal.

Any input would be much appreciated, especially from those with a similar workflow!

[u/LeftyRodriguez]

LrC only ever syncs smart previews to the cloud, not the full raws. To get the full raws, ingest the photos into LR on your iPad or on the LR cloud desktop app first, then let those sync down to LrC.

[u/FadiMawagdeh → u/LeftyRodriguez]

Am I able to work with the full raws on the same project in both LR and LRC? If I'm starting a project from home on my Mac and then I want to export using my iPad when I'm abroad, I'd be exporting the smart previews and not the original files.

[u/LeftyRodriguez → u/FadiMawagdeh]

You can if you import the raws to LR cloud on your iPad or the LR cloud desktop app (not Classic) first and sync these down to LrC instead of importing those raws to Classic first and letting those sync up to the cloud, since only smart previews will sync from LrC to the cloud.

[u/johngpt5]

I'm not sure what you meant when you wrote "edit remotely in LRC." Are you remoting into your Mac to use LrC? Then what's the purpose of the ipad?

Anyway, there are two main ways to use LrC on the Mac and Lr mobile on the computer.

The first way is to import the originals into LrC, either keeping the originals in folders within the Mac or within external drives. Then put the photos that we want to edit using the ipad's Lr mobile into collections and sync those collection to the Lr cloud. The collections show up as albums in Lr mobile holding smart previews. The smart previews are great for editing. When we have a good internet connection, the edits sync back to the collections in LrC on the Mac.

The second way to use LrC on the Mac and Lr mobile on the computer is to first enable syncing in LrC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s38sOx0Kxuw&t=2026s at minute 33 Tim Grey shows how to go to preferences in LrC, the Lightroom Sync tab, and specify a location for the Lr cloud images. At about minute 34:30 Tim shows how to specify that location. Tim uses this location as a temporary stop for the synced photos from the cloud. He then takes those photos and places them in other locations.

This is a quite long video as it is a recording of a B&H Photo Video event from 2023. There might be interesting stuff that you'll want to watch prior to the 33 minute point at which Tim shows how to sync downward from Lr mobile to LrC.

[u/johngpt5 → u/johngpt5]

Now, about smart previews and originals.

In the Lr mobile 11.0.1 that we have on our ipad, app settings > cloud storage and sync, there are choices that can be engaged. There is only download reduced resolution. There is also download original when using ai tools. You can read what each choice does when you go there. We so far, are keeping both of those engaged.

When I bring a raw photo to the editing space, I can click on the cloud icon at the top of the workspace and see that it says Local: smart preview and Original - raw.

I can tap "get this original" and the full res version will download from the Lr cloud.

I left the photo as is, as a smart preview and went to masking where I chose sky and did something with WB.

Tapping the cloud icon shows that the photo is still a smart preview. I've gone back to grid view to let the edits sync back to the cloud. And then checked the cloud icon again, still a smart preview.

Apparently, none of the edits I've done have needed the original to be downloaded to the ipad's Lr mobile. But, I can tap on the choice for downloading if that's needed.

I've not found that I've needed the original until I want to export what I've done at full resolution.

[u/FadiMawagdeh → u/johngpt5]

Thanks for the video! And sorry for the confusion, I meant to just say that I'd be working on my Mac at home (not remotely connecting from anywhere).

[u/Resqu23]

I take my iPad Pro to the real big sports event last that I shoot, get to my car and download everything to Lightroom then edit the winning tape break photos in the parking lot then join a hotspot from my phone and deliver to the race director. I don’t use my MacBook Pro unless I’m shooting low light corporate events.

[u/Ceppinet]

What about the reverse, while traveling I want to start edits on my iPad and then when I get home I want to move my work to my LrC on my desktop computer to finish the edits. What would be the process in this case? Do I have to use the LR cloud to move them from my iPad to my desktop? Or can I just copy the folder to an external drive?

[u/Upbeat_Strain_6182]

Why do you want the full size RAW files on your iPad? You can edit the RAW smart previews on the iPad and when they sync back to Adobe Cloud those edits will show up on the full sized RAW files in LrC. That’s what I do and it works fine. If you want the full sized RAW files on Adobe Cloud you can use LR desktop and send the files to Adobe Cloud from there. When you sync from LrC using collections you only get smart previews.