Lightroom 3 preview Question

When I have the external drive that contains my pictures disconnected from my laptop I can see some of the pictures in the Library module but not all of them. Some are just gray squares. What is the difference? I want to be able to see them all when I am traveling with the laptop.

Somehow, Lightroom doesn't have previews for them - either it never did, or they gone bye-bye (or your previews are hosed).
Consider deleting previews (.lrdata folder), then with external drive connected, select all photos in catalog, then run "Library Menu -> Previews -> Render ... Previews".
Then if you disconnect external drive, all pictures should be viewable in library module.

Similar Messages

Curious question about Lightroom previews and Camera Raw Cache

Posted in the Flickr Lightroom Group as well:
I have noticed something about the Lightroom (3.6) previews and Camera Raw cache that have me puzzled.
I create a brand new empty catalog and purge the Camera Raw Cache.
Then I import ONE Nikon RAW (NEF) file with dimensions 2592 x 3872 (10 megapixels - 10,036,224 pixels).
Next I export that NEF file to an uncompressed 8-bit TIFF file. You would expect the size of that TIFF file to be roughly 30 megabytes (10 megapixels x 3 bytes per RGB value) and in fact the TIFF file is 30,135,830 bytes in size. If you export the same TIFF file but specify ZIP compression the resulting file size is 10,834,038 bytes. Obviously the compression obtained here is going to be highly specific to the image but so far no surprises.
During import I specify render 1:1 previews and I go into Loupe mode and view the entire image at 1:1 size. I also visit the develop module and do a bunch of manipulations on the image but no cropping.
At the conclusion of all of that I exit from Lightroom and examine the size of the Camera Raw Cache folder as well as the Lightroom previews folder. It would be my expectation that the previews folder should have a rendered full image and that the Camera Raw Cache should also have a rendered form of the raw data. What would you expect the size of those respective folders to be?
In fact - in my trials the previews folder totals a mere 1,675,264 bytes and the Camera Raw Cache which contains one DAT file corresponding to the one cached image is merely 267,374 bytes. This does not seem like nearly enough bits to preserve the rendered image nor is there a full size image tucked away in the actual catalog either - that file is not large enough to contain that. And yet I can use Loupe mode at 1:1 size and move from image to image with no loading delays (even when importing multiple files).
I'm wondering if I've missed something obvious in my analysis and if not, whether someone might care to speculate as to what magic Adobe is practicing here. Even if we grant them some special algorithm to compress their previews I don't see how they can achieve a compression so much greater than the ZIP-compressed TIFF file achieves.
And for those that might think to ask - I've repeated these experiments with multiple raw images and on both the PC and MAC platforms.
I look forward to some answers or interesting theories or perhaps someone might replicate the experiment and report findings.

MadMan and Hal - thanks so much.
So that was my D'Oh moment of what I was missing - the use of re-rendered JPGS as previews. That certainly does fit with the file sizes I am seeing. I had naively assumed that the previews might have tried to preserve the full fidelity of the image - But as you suggest that full fidelity is likely only there in the develop module.
This perhaps explains another observation from the Develop module - moving from one image to another might display "Loading" either briefly or across a longer duration. My guess is that the length of the loading process might have to do more with what is cached in RAM than cached on disk in the camera raw cache. More of a shame then that 64-bit Lightroom on 64-Bit Windows cannot grab more RAM than it seems to do at present.

Size of Lightroom Previews.lrdata and upgrading to 1.1

Hi
Thinking about taking the plunge for upgrading to 1.1, but only have just over 8Gb free disk space. Given the upgrade to 1.1 will be rebuilding the database it's going to need the existing space of the databases and then some. The current database size is about 110Mb, but the Lightroom Previews.lrdata is using over 10Gb of space.
A couple of questions, does anyone know if the upgrade uses the existing Lightroom Preivews.lrdata or whether this is upgraded as well (implying I'd need well over 10Gb of free space before attempting the upgrade).
Secondly, is it safe to delete Lightroom Previews.lrdata - will Lightroom re-create and re-populate the previews (I previously had the preview sizes would up higher than I probably should - and whilst I can discard the 1:1 previews, how do you get the remaining previews to be discarded or re-built at a lower resolution?).
For this issue, I'm on a Mac.
Thanks
Greg

1.1 uses the same preview cache as 1.0. The only rebuild is some shuffling of data in the main database.
Mark

Overprint Preview question and another issue...

Hi...
CS4, Win XP.
Overprint Preview question:
The other day i sent a file for printing (poster) in PDF and CS2 formats. For some reason, the printer converted the file to a .tif and then printed. Parts dropped out... Both the PDF and CS2 files looked fine.Description follows:
1/ Background black
2/ Design element over the black (blue lines to form a wave).
3/ Logo in red and white. Plus a line of text in red. And other text in white.
The white of the logo vanished. The red line of text kind of vanished... printed very faintly and only (i think in parts). Printer tried to do a patch job of printing the line separately and pasting... anyway... to cut a long story short, he wanted the final output in .tif. OK...
So, i converted to tif and sure enough... those parts vanished... did a search here and found the solution - view file in Overprint Preview and then in Attributes, turn off the Overprint Fill... so all well...
So, the question is, why does this happen? And, how, do i know in advance that x or y is likely to cause a problem? I have noticed in Bridge that sometimes, parts of a logo or a line of text does not show... but looks fine in AI or Acrobat... now realise the cause, but not the reason.
The other issue...
Same black background(s)... placed Photoshop file/s with a transparent background... Prints fine at the printers (various machines and media) ... But on the laserprinter an HP Color Laser Jet CP1510 series, there's a dark patch around the image (the actual file area).
Again, any ideas?
Cheers...
S

PrepressPro1 wrote:
<snipped>... so if your looking for this forum to play detective and tell you who in your workflow set the elements to overprint, I don't think this can be done. I don't think I have ever seen Illustrator set any elements to overprint all by its self. <snipped>
Hi PrepressPro...
Many thanks for your earlier inputs, but not quite sure where you got the idea that i want someone or anyone to play detective... i've understood the Overprint problem... and moved on. If anything, maybe i was just musing and wondering if any particular action turns on "Overprint Fill"...
Or maybe, i was referring to the second question which has not been resolved yet... Quoting it below for easy reference:
++++
The other issue...
Same black background(s)... placed Photoshop file/s with a transparent background... Prints fine at the printers (various machines and media) ... But on the laserprinter an HP Color Laser Jet CP1510 series, there's a dark patch around the image (the actual file area).
++++
To elaborate, the pix above are product shots which have been cut out and placed on a transparent background... The PS file is then placed in AI CS4 with the object option selected to maintain transparency. The transparent area is printing darker on the printer above. But is fine when sent to commerciqal printers...
Attached is a scan of the problem...

Previews questions from link - "preview folder so big, even after purging the 1:1"

Can someone clear this up a bit?
My LR 2.1 preview folder is at 12gb, and I want to get that under control. After reading all of the threads here about previews it seems one of the best choices is just delete the folder and then let LR 2.1 rebuild it. But before I do that I want to set my preview options correctly. The info below (found in another thread) is good, but confusing at the same time.
1) "You have 4 choices: 1024, 1440, 1680 and 2048. If all you want is standard-sized then choose a size equal to or slightly less than your screen size" Is this based on the long edge of your screen size? long edge meaning 1280.
2) "Now take the example of a larger camera, say a 8MP camera such as the Canon 1DMKII with an image size of 3504 by 2336 pixels. With the standard-sized set at 1680 pixels the full-size will again be purged (i.e. 3504/2=1752 pixels, which is greater than 1680 pixels)". This formula looks to be saying the long edge, correct?
Am I understanding this correctly? This looks to be saying;
A) standard previews uses your screen size.
B) 1:1 previews uses images pixel sizes?
C) you only have one setting to control previews for standard and 1:1? (that being the "You have 4 choices: 1024, 1440, 1680 and 2048")
This is interesting because in my case my screen size in 1280, but most all my Nikon D3 images are 42xx. So if I want to keep my previews folder clean and growth controlled, I should basically set my previews option to the lowest 1024? And one more interesting tid bit, how does a cropped image play into the 4 choices? Say I crop a 42xx image to oh say 2024, then my 1:1 for that image will never be purged? I'm probably missing something here, and it wouldnt be the first time.
Why is the Lightroom preview folder so big, even after purging the 1:1 previews?
Ian Lyons - 05:18am Aug 18, 2008 Pacific
1:1 or full-size previews take up a large amount of HD space, often many 10's of GB's. This is why building them on demand is an alternative to building them up front, and why you have options for auto or manually purging them. That said, it may not always be possible to delete 1:1 previews - more later.
Standard-sized previews are based on the pixel size option you chose in Catalog Settings. You have 4 choices: 1024, 1440, 1680 and 2048. If all you want is standard-sized then choose a size equal to or slightly less than your screen size. Lr also builds smaller versions at the same time. These are used for the thumbnail, 1:2, 1:3 and 1:4 zoom levels. Adobe call this the "preview pyramid".
1:1 previews will not be deleted unless your chosen standard-sized preview is less than half the size of the full-sized preview. For example, you have images with pixel dimensions of 3072 by 2048 pixels (6MP camera such as Canon 10D) and have selected 1680 pixels for standard-sized previews. Since a 1680 pixel preview is more than half the size of the original the full-sized preview will be kept, even after using the purge 1:1 preview command. Had you chosen 1440 pixel for standard-sized previews then the full-sized would have been purged (i.e. 3072/2=1536, which is greater than 1440). Now take the example of a larger camera, say a 8MP camera such as the Canon 1DMKII with an image size of 3504 by 2336 pixels. With the standard-sized set at 1680 pixels the full-size will again be purged (i.e. 3504/2=1752 pixels, which is greater than 1680 pixels).
thanks,
Donnie

The chance of an answer is inversely proportional to the length of the posting. ;)
You do not indicate what your preview setting was while you accumulated a 12Gb preview folder. Nor do you indicate how many images are in your catalog.
Given your screen size of 1280 (laptp?) I would set the preview size to 1440 since this is still far less than half of your D3 images.
Cropping - I'll safely guess - has no effect on your preview size choices.
I confess that preview sizing and purging is confusing. I avoid the confusion by shouting "more disk, mama".

Can I turn Lightroom previews into jpgs?

I recently lost my original raw (CR2) files for a set of photos. They were imported and edited in lightroom 4.1. I still have the lightroom catalog but the photo previews are occompanied by the warning "The file name "#####.cr2" is offline or missing". I am aware they are missing, the only version of the photos I still have is the LR preview. I am wondering if anyone knows of a way to extract the image information in a lightroom preview and save it as a jpg. (Not including doing a screen capture of the preview).

If you don't mind the colors being off, then the Adobe solution John Beardy linked to above may suffice (no icc profile assigned means colors will usually be interpreted incorrectly).
If you want the colors to look right, then use PreviewExporter instead (proper icc profile assigned):
http://www.robcole.com/Rob/ProductsAndServices/PreviewExporterLrPlugin

Overprint Preview question

I am trying to print a film positive for a spot UV job that is supposed to have some text reversed out of it. Output Preview does not show the text. My RIP does not see it either. I can only see the knocked-out text when I turn off overprint preview in Acrobat preferences. I guess my question is what did the artist do wrong when he made the PDF? Also, is there a preflight profile I should use on all the files I receive, to prevent this confusion from happening again?
I am using Acrobat 9.5.1 on Windows 7
RIP is Roland VersaWorks

Do you know what software the artwork was created in?
If I didn't see reversed text, I would first check that the reverse field object was not set to overprint -- which would eliminate reversed-out type. Some other issues can interfere with reversed type -- using an unavailable font for example, or the text not being set to white, and several more exotic settings and techniques. Some DP software has trouble knocking out type if it's not the frontmost object on the page.
BTW, the title says "Overprint Preview question" but I think you're just asking about "output" preview, though it did make me think of the overprint setting issue.
As to preflight profile, you have to make sure everything is set right for your particular output device/print conditions. You might want to run a profile that checks for missing fonts, low-resolution images, non-CMYK inks -- anything that would give problems in film/plate output or on the press.
Also, when I have text problems, I try printing to other devices -- laser printer, inkjet, whatever -- to see if the problem is device-specific.
Hope that helps a little

Lightroom 3 question

I imported a number of images taken from products but need to remove the background, Photoshop does not show in the ''open in other application'' for Editing purposes, do I need to get photoshop or can I still do it with Lightroom 3 or do I need to update my Lightroom to the latest version?? Thanks in advance, Cheers, James.

Hi There, and thanks for the answer! I don't have Photoshop the only thing I have is Light room, can Lightroom do this task or do I have to purchase Photoshop ?? And by the way, if Lightroom can't do that what for to have Lightroom anyway, I would think that Photoshop can do everything that Lightroom can - or am I missing something?
Cheers,
Andy
Date: Sat, 21 Dec 2013 21:28:04 -0800
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Lightroom 3 question
    Re: Lightroom 3 question
    created by Silkrooster in Photoshop for Beginners - View the full discussion
If you already had photoshop, when you installed lightroom, it should have found photoshop for you. Is it possible the psd file association is not set for photoshop? That can happen if you uninstall a previous version of photoshop with a newer version still on your system.
Check the file association in both the OS's file browser (explorer or finder) and in bridge.
Failing all of that, lightroom should have a third option that will allow you to browse to a image editor of your choice.
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Lightroom 5 will not open and gives me a message saying it encountered an error reading from its preview cache. [was: Lightroom 5 question]

@Lightroom 5 will not open and gives me a message saying it encountered an error reading from its preview cache.

This is the Photoshop forum however.
Close Lightroom and go to your Lightroom catalog folder.
The default location is usually in Pictures.
Delete the file in the catalog folder which ends Previews.lrdata
Do not touch the catalog itself which ends.lrcat
Then try re-launching Lightroom.

Problem with reading lightroom preview cache

i have Lightroom 5.4 and i come home from a shoot and opened lightroom to import my photos and it came up with this message " Lightroom uncounted an error reading its preview cache and needs to quit" i have done this several times and even uninstalled it and re installed it and still comes up with the same message as i need this to do my photography work can yo let me know why this is happening and can it be fixed

There are many threads here in this forum where the solution is stated, just do a search

Fields in PDF form are blank: Another Preview question...

So I get that filling out a form in Preview can create a problem where the end user cannot see the info in those fields unless they click on them. But I have some additional questions:
1. Is just viewing a PDF in Preview without making any changes enough to cause this problem?
2. Is it only Windows users reporting this problem or are Mac users having it as well (when trying to view it in Acrobat or Reader)?
Here's why I ask: We created this form but send it out to clients to fill in and return. I sometimes view these returned forms in Preview because the info loads faster than it does in Acrobat. No issues there. But with one form in particular that we received today, anyone trying to subsequently open the form in Acrobat is having a problem. It seems to be just this form that is causing the problem. I'm not sure what the client used to fill it out, but they sent back other forms that don't seem to be a problem, so it seems unlikely this one would have been filled out using a different tool from the others.
Also it appears that Mac users AND Windows users are having issues seeing the fields in this form properly filled out. Heretofore, I've only read of Windows users having this problem.
Any insight would be appreciated -- thanks!

A form has to be saved in Preview in order for it to be corrupted, not merely opened. What OS is used when opening a corrupted PDF in Reader/Acrobat doesn't matter.

Why is the Lightroom preview folder so big, even after purging the 1:1 previews?

1:1 or full-size previews take up a large amount of HD space, often many 10's of GB's. This is why building them on demand is an alternative to building them up front, and why you have options for auto or manually purging them. That said, it may not always be possible to delete 1:1 previews - more later.
Standard-sized previews are based on the pixel size option you chose in Catalog Settings. You have 4 choices: 1024, 1440, 1680 and 2048. If all you want is standard-sized then choose a size equal to or greater than your screen size. Lr also builds smaller versions at the same time. These are used for the thumbnail, 1:2, 1:3 and 1:4 zoom levels. Adobe call this the "preview pyramid".
1:1 previews will not be deleted unless your chosen standard-sized preview is less than half the size of the full-sized preview. For example, you have images with pixel dimensions of 3072 by 2048 pixels (6MP camera such as Canon 10D) and have selected 1680 pixels for standard-sized previews. Since a 1680 pixel preview is more than half the size of the original the full-sized preview will be kept, even after using the purge 1:1 preview command. Had you chosen 1440 pixel for standard-sized previews then the full-sized would have been purged (i.e. 3072/2=1536, which is greater than 1440). Now take the example of a larger camera, say a 8MP camera such as the Canon 1DMKII with an image size of 3504 by 2336 pixels. With the standard-sized set at 1680 pixels the full-size will again be purged (i.e. 3504/2=1752 pixels, which is greater than 1680 pixels).
Another thing worth mentioning - Lightroom will usually delay purging previews for deleted images until after the application has been closed and reopened, even then it might take a few minutes to clear the purged previews. The idea here is to ensure the previews don't get deleted whilst there's still a chance that they may be needed (e.g. you removed images by mistake then use Undo command to reinstate them).
Hopefully above explains why Lightroom doesn't behave as you expect. If it makes your head spin, think how much mine spun when writing it.

The chance of an answer is inversely proportional to the length of the posting. ;)
You do not indicate what your preview setting was while you accumulated a 12Gb preview folder. Nor do you indicate how many images are in your catalog.
Given your screen size of 1280 (laptp?) I would set the preview size to 1440 since this is still far less than half of your D3 images.
Cropping - I'll safely guess - has no effect on your preview size choices.
I confess that preview sizing and purging is confusing. I avoid the confusion by shouting "more disk, mama".

Lightroom preview and JPG color difference.

I'm a Photographer. Using Windows Vista and a brand new Dell 24" HC LCD monitor. Freshly calibrated with a MonacoOPTIX calibration kit. The profile generated is my default monitor profile. After calibration, I looked at some of my past photographic work and the colors looked very saturated to me. And the images all looked a bit brighter as well. I was working in an uncalibrated environment before so I figured thats why my pictures looked different. I shoot in RAW (Canon) and I always (and still do) export all of my work as sRGB.
Yesterday I was working on a personal image and noticed my preview in Lightroom looks a bit different than the output in JPG. I verified my settings and I am outputting to sRGB. I'm expecting my preview and and the JPG to match almost exactly.
See the screenshot here: http://lifesharephoto.smugmug.com/photos/256400141_Qy7np-L-1.jpg
Notice the web version is much brighter and more staurated?
Why would that be?

Lou, you are using a non-managed browser. No matter how much you calibrate, it will not show you correct color, even if you use sRGB. This is because your monitor's gamut will differ slightly from sRGB. IE7 is not color managed, even though Microsoft promised it would be a long time ago. Currently only Safari is color managed. Firefox 3.0 beta can color manage if you enable it in the settings. There is unfortunately nothing you can do about it and you have to realize that even if you do everything right, your audience will see different colors. They will all cluster around what you saw in Lightroom though and you should absolutely not trust your IE7 display, even if you calibrate. Only your monitor has that specific response. Other people will see more saturated greens, or more saturated blues, or the opposite. There is no predicting. It will all cluster more or less around sRGB though.

IPad Preview question

Hi, apologies if this has been asked before but is it possible to give the user a preview of the magazine you expect them to purchase on Apples Newsstand? Right now it appears to be limited to the front cover. It would be good to allow the user 'flick' through the magazine in thumbnail style to give them an impression of whats inside (just like on Newsstand in a shop). It looks like other publishing software offer this feature.
And part B of that question is, if I have a free (for the user) sample issue amongst my paid issues, I assume I have to pay the folio download cost for each free sample downloaded?
Thanks for any feedback.

For Part A of your question, no, it's not currently possible to offer a preview of a pay folio (either via thumbnails of the content or partial reading of some part of the content).
For Part B of your question, yes, the free folios count against the download cost. You can read more about that in this thread: http://forums.adobe.com/message/4064294#4064294. Bob provided a good set of answers around how free folios work, in particular in relation to multi-issue publications and the iTunes store.
Hope this helps,
Neil

Another RAM preview question. CS6

Hello everyone! I am currently working in After Effects on a video that uses an evaporation effect. When I use the RAM preview function only about 200-250 frames load out of 1200. At this point After Effects stops loading a RAM preview and just plays the few seconds of video it has loaded. I am trying to watch the entire 12 seconds of the evaporation effect.
I then tried to use footage that has no effects added to it, and the same thing is happening. I recently cleaned my disk cache, and this problem started happening. I feel like that is a coincedence though.
This problem was not happening a few weeks ago and after searching the forums I have not been able to find a solution that worked. Thank you for any helpful responses you can give.
Computer Specs: Macbook Pro. OSX 10.75. 2.2 GHz processor, 4gb Memory, 158 gb free storage
Video specs: 60 FPS, 1280 x 720 , H.264

This question is answered in the Forum's FAQ section:
Why does RAM preview only play part of my composition?

Lightroom 3 preview Question

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