Use Smart Previews instead of Originals - does not work

[Guest]

Hello,

i copied raws from camera to my SSD disk. Imported them from the SSD to lightroom and created a smart previews.

When i use zoom to 1:1 it firstly load the zoom to 50% and after it is created fully, it loads the 100% again with waiting.

So it is very slow even on SSD.

Next what i did was, that i renamed the folder where my original files are and restarted LR.

After open, LR shows on pictures that there are only smart previews available.

Now the zoom function is lighting fast, no loading at all. Same for other processing tools.

I double checked if the function Use Smart Previews instead of Originals is ticked ON and it is..so i renamed the folder back to original and the problem returned.

Therefore i guess, that this feature is somehow not functional.

Any idea how to fix?

Thx

[JP Hess]

After you renamed the folder Lightroom no longer had access to the original files. It only used the Smart previews. There are a few limitations in doing this. For instance, if you are using just the Smart previews with no original raw files you cannot send the image to Photoshop. Lightroom must have access to the original file in order to integrate with Photoshop or any other external editor. When you changed the name of the folder back to its original name Lightroom was then able to access the original files. Smart previews are used until you decide that you need to zoom in on the image. Then Lightroom switches to the original raw file. If it is slowing down then you have a performance issue with your  computer. You should try turning off GPU acceleration in the Lightroom preferences to see if that helps.

[Guest]

Thanks for your response, i do understand what you trying to say.

Regarding the issue, here is short video of the problem.

LR poor performance.webm - Google Drive

turning the GPU ON/OFF doesnt make any difference.

On the video, you see CPU on 100%, but I do not believe that my computer bottlenecks it somehow, because in the past it was running ok.

[Horshack]

I have this same complaint. The purpose of this option should be to force LR to use the Smart Preview in place of the original even if the original is available, as a means to improve performance in the Develop tab. But since LR still uses the original when zooming at 1:1 in Develop it makes the option moot. As it stands right now the only way to force LR to use the Smart Preview is to make the original unavailable (by either unmounting drive it's on or renaming the folder/file so LR can't find it). So I don't really see the purpose or utility of this setting.

[JohanElzenga]

Most edits, such as tone and color edits, do not require zooming in to 1:1. That is when using smart previews will speed up Lightroom, especially on slower machines with spinning hard drives. If you make the originals unavailable, then Lightroom cannot zoom in to 100% of the original size, it can only zoom in to 100% of the smart preview size. So comparing the two is comparing apples and oranges. If you want to sharpen the image, or remove noise, then you need to zoom in to 1:1 of the original, not of a smart preview.

[Horshack]

JohanElzenga​, I think your conception of the Smart Preview feature is at odds with actual use. At 4MP the Smart Preview size viewed at 1:1 is perfectly adequate for judging sharpening and NR in many situations, and Adobe even increased the preview size across LR revisions to help in that role. For instances where users feel that's not adequate and want 1:1 previews from the original file then they can deselect the "Use Smart Previews instead of Originals" option.

[JohanElzenga]

Apparently your quality standards are different than mine. I do not think that I can adequately judge the sharpening or NR of my 42 MP Sony A7R III files by looking at a smart preview at 1:1.

[Horshack]

@JohanElzenga, And hence why the "Use Smart Previews instead of Originals" preference option exists, to allow users who feel the Smart Preview size is adequate for the Develop tab to enable their use, while allowing users who feel differently to access the originals, either by not using Smart Previews or by disabling the "Use Smart Previews instead of Originals" option.

[JohanElzenga]

The smart previews preference option exists for the reasons I already explained. It speeds up editing of images, as long as you do not zoom in to 100% on each image. Lightroom has the option to synchronize develop settings between images. If you have a series of images taken with the same camera with the same lens at the same ISO-value, then you probably need the same sharpening and NR for all of them. Other edits may need be different however. So you can zoom in to one of the images, set sharpening and NR in that one image and then sync this across the other images. That means that you do not need to zoom in to 100% on all the other images, and that means that editing those images as smart previews will speed up the process.

Enough said. I think this is a rather useless discussion, because neither you nor I can change anything. It is as it is. Use it, or don't use it, that choice is yours.

[Horshack]

@JohanElzenga, Your restated points still lack any supporting evidence, empirical or otherwise. For example, if I import a 45MP Z7 raw into LR using Standard Previews I'm able to perform all of the Develop panel edits at the FIT sizing (ie, not zooming to 100%) with the same performance provided by Smart Previews. The performance penalty comes when one attempts to zoom to 100%, as this triggers a full-quality demosaic of the raw data and its edits. The purpose of Smart Previews is to allow a sized-reduced (4MP) render of the full size image at 100% without that performance penalty, which provides enough detail to apply more precise edits, including precise mask/brush painting at boundary areas and enough detail to evaluate sharpening and noise. In other words, to treat a high-MP image as a lower-MP image for performance reasons. It's the stills equivalent of a video proxy in Premiere. It makes no logical sense for LR to render a 4MP Smart Preview (on a 1080 screen for example) but then preclude the user from using that extra data at 1:1 when "Use Smart Previews instead of Originals" is enabled, forgoing it for the full-sized image data instead. This is esp true when you consider  LR does allow the use of the 4MP render at 1:1 when the raw is unavailable.

[Jao vdL]

I actually do agree with Horshack that if the "use smart previews instead of originals" button is checked that Lightroom Classic should ignore the presence of the original raw and behave exactly like as if the originals were not available. It should simply not zoom to 1:1 in the original image for example. It should simply throw a warning when you zoom. I never use the preference as it does not give much actual speed advantage except if you never zoom so to me seems pretty useless but for people that use it it should be consistent and do what the text in the preference says. So for Horshack, it would be a good idea to go to https://feedback.photoshop.com and submit a request there. This forum is not frequented by Adobe people that have any power to change things but the feedback one is.

[Horshack]

Thanks Jao, I followed your advice and posted my request to the feedback forum. Here's the link to tie the two threads together:

https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/honor-use-smart-previews-instead-of-originals...

[Ian Lyons]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Jao+vdL  wrote

I actually do agree with Horshack that if the "use smart previews instead of originals" button is checked that Lightroom Classic should ignore the presence of the original raw and behave exactly like as if the originals were not available. It should simply not zoom to 1:1 in the original image for example.

Your opinion is not shared by most of those asked to share their thoughts on how 'use smart previews instead of originals' should work.

[Horshack]

Ian, can you provide a reference to where a poll was taken (or discussion held) where most of the respondents said they prefer the current way the option works? Also, what benefit does Smart Previews provide with this option set (and with the raw available) when not working at 1:1? Based on my experiments (described here: https://forums.adobe.com/message/11039399#11039399) the Develop tab w/Smart Previews yields no performance benefit over Standard Previews in that scenario.

[Ian Lyons]

Horshack  wrote

Ian, can you provide a reference to where a poll was taken (or discussion held) where most of the respondents said they prefer the current way the option works?

NDA!

[Jao vdL]

Wasn't claiming this was a generally held opinion just that I think it should do what the button says. I don't use it so I don't care all that much.