Convert to JPEG Command

Question

After a quick development I convert my 1- and 2-star photographs (i.e. the ones that are almost good for nothing, but still I can't hit the Delete button) to JPEG to save disk space.
Currently I use Bridge and ACR to save to the same folder (Lightroom export does not have that option), delete the RAWs right in ACR, then Synchronize Folder in Lightroom to remove RAWs and import the JPEGs.
Would like to have a 'Convert to JPEG' along with 'Convert to DNG' or a more universal 'Convert To...' with options for all the formats supported. I think it should be saved in ProPhoto RGB with all the settings, except for cropping, already applied to the JPEG image, and thus reset to zero.

Answer 1

To expand on this a little bit, I want to have the option to use the jpgs as the preview files and kill two birds with one stone. Here is a post I made earlier this year:
Rory Hill - 08:11am Jul 28, 2007 Pacific
To provide a little background on why I am thinking about how previews are used in Lr it might help to understand my workflow. I import my raw files, cull the ones I do not want to keep, keyword and add metadata, and tweak in develop. I then export to JPG. I do this because:
1. I can quickly browse through images in any program I choose. Others in my work environment can do the same as the files are saved on a network.
2. I can quickly email or FTP the JPGs to others.
3. I can edit the JPGs in any other program, because all programs can efficiently use JPG.
4. For 99% of my usage, a high quality JPG works just fine.
Now, it just so happens that Lr is maintaining previews of my images in a proprietary JPG file so that:
1. It can display images quickly in the library.
2. It can show the previews even if your images are offline.
Lr has a neat shortcut, where you can print a preview, instead of rendering the raw file, which speeds up the printing process, albeit with a loss in quality. However, if you render 1:1 previews, I have a hard time telling the difference. In other words, one can have the best of both worlds, high speed and high quality.
So, I want to use JPGs for most of my work and Lr can save 1:1 previews. However, I cannot access the previews directly because Lr does not save them as JPGs, even though the preview is in a JPG format (as I understand it). Also, it seems wasteful to have both the previews and exported JPGs.
I would like to be able to bypass my current step of exporting to JPG, and then reimporting the JPG into my library, and just use a 1:1 preview JPG. This would require the following:
1. Lr save the previews as JPG files.
2. Provide a "Show preview in explorer".
3. Provide a "Copy selected previews". This is needed to aggregate a selection of previews, scattered throughout the Lr catalog preview folder structure, to a common folder for other applications to use.
4. In the catalog settings, provide the same options for JPG quality (0-100) as in the export dialog. I would like to be able to set this separately for the 1:1 rendering (use a high quality) and the standard previews that load first, which could be a much lower quality.
Now, I fully understand that the whole idea of Lr is not to bother with the JPG (or PSD, TIFF) and just work directly in Lr, happily saving all the changes as metadata. This is fine in theory, but as has been discussed here a number of times, breaks down in the real world because Lr does not do everything, and even if it did, someone else will always be providing some capability that is better than Lr. Consequently, at present, at least for me, it makes sense to maintain a "developed" version of the raw files as a JPG.
I realize this is a complex issue and that I may not have thought through all the consequences of this, so I am interesting in any other thoughts on this idea.
Regards
Rory