Photos in NAS but wish to edit on laptop on-the-go occasionally

[mactopia]

Hi all, just recently got my M1 Max 14" MacBook Pro! I'm not a seasoned power use of Lightroom Classic so apologies if this has been answered elsewhere before.

I normally only edit my photos - stored on home Synology NAS - on Lightroom Classic at home, but given this beast of a laptop I wish to occassionally take some photos (huge backlog to go through) out for a ride and edit on-to-go while at work.

May I ask if there's a solution to temporarily take out the RAWs out for a ride (store them locally), edit them on-to-go and then sync all the settings and newly-exported JPEGs back to my NAS without major disturbances to my catalog?

i.e. Wish to edit some of my photos at work during the day in a manner as if I've never left home / my home NAS.

Many thanks for any potential solution provided!

[Rob_Cullen]

Learn how to set up Lightroom Classic desktop to sync photos with Lightroom ecosystem of apps.-

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/lightroom-mobile-desktop-features.html#AccesssyncedLi...

Lr-Classic syncs proxy (smaller) files to the Cloud that Mobile Apps (Lightroom, Lightroom Web) can edit the images anywhere. Edits automatically sync back to the desktop Lr-Classic Catalog.

[Conrad C · Accepted solution]

Use Smart Previews. They are a fully local solution that work well for your situation.

In the Library module grid view, select the photos you want to edit on the go, and choose Library > Previews > Build Smart Previews. Once generated, you can disconnect from the NAS and continue to work on any images that have Smart Previews. They’re called Smart Previews because unlike JPEG-based previews, Smart Previews let you apply corrections at full, raw-level quality. When you return to the NAS, Lightroom Classic will automatically reconnect with the original files, and the edits you made on the go will now apply to those.

When you need to free up space on your laptop, you just dump the Smart Previews you no longer need (Library > Discard Smart Previews).

The only downside of a Smart Preview is that it’s limited to 2560 pixels on the long side, so they are not always useful for doing critical edits to sharpness or noise reduction.

You don’t need to sync anything to the cloud unless you plan to edit with a different device, like an iPad or another Mac.

[mactopia]

Thanks a lot! Yes that seems like what I was looking for, cheers!