Lightroom Mobile the full workflow?

[Ian Jukes]

I would desperately like to leave my laptop at home when travelling but I tried just with an iPad in the summer and it didn't go well. I ended up with 14,000 images to import into Lightroom upon my return home.

I will go through the workflow the way I think it works and would appreciate any comments and / or corrections.

1. Import images to iPad Pro via the apple sd card reader.
2. Backup images to a WD wireless external drive with SD card slot. This itself backs up to my cloud drive at home.
3. In Lightroom Mobile make a new collection and add the images.
4. I can now flag, star and edit etc.
5. Smart previews get synced by Adobe. Question 1. Does this use any of my 20gb allowance?
6. When I arrive home (this can be several months later), desktop Lightroom will sync the collection. Question 2. These are only smart previews right?
7. I locate the original files and add them to desktop Lightroom. I can now export out high resolution images from the originals.

Question 3. If I am still in the field and a client wants a high resolution image how can I provide it? Lightroom only has smart previews right?

Question 4. Does Adobe impose a limitation on the number or size of Collections / Smart previews?

Question 5. Is there anyway to add IPTC metadata to the images within Lightroom Mobile?

Thanks in advance for any feedback / help. I apologise if this has been asked before.

[99jon · Accepted solution]

Q1. No

Q2. Originals are sync’d from mobile devices to LR on the desktop. Smart previews are sync’d in the other direction e.g. if the originals are first imported into LR desktop and placed in a collection marked for sync.

Q3. You can access full resolution photos on LR Mobile e.g. an original imported with the Apple camera connection kit or a smart preview when sync’d in the other direction.

Q4. No limit

Q5. LR Mobile only really supports Titles and descriptions (captions) Keywords are visible bet tend to get lost when sharing/exporting.

[Ian Jukes]

Thanks for the prompt reply.

Just to clarify, The full raw images will be left on my iPad? What happens when the storage is full? Is there a way to remove them from the iPad but leave them synced for the desktop later?

I have also noticed that importing raw + jpeg is not possible? I only get the raw files. I'm a Fuji shooter and love the film simulation jpeg images that can accompany the raw files. Any way to keep the jpegs too?

Kind regards,

Ian

[99jon]

Normally you can delete from the phone/iPad to free up space once originals are sync'd to the desktop.

Sorry I'm not familiar with raw+jpeg on mobiles. On the desktop jpegs can be recognized as a siecar of a raw file.