Need help with LRC to LR for iPad workflow

[anthonyt73]

So I'm a long time Lightroom Classic user who has recently purchased an Ipad pro to work into my workflow. Ideal uses for the ipad are (1) a secondary bluetooth LRC display for clients on shoots, (2) A more portable and fun editing tool (apple pencil, etc..), and (3) general "Wow" factor when displaying work. For 90% of my shooting, I am tethered to my macbook (natively), so right off the bat, I believe I am limited to Lightroom Classic. (Im not interested in a 3rd party tethering solution. I've been down that road!)

After a week or so of working with the Ipad and LRC in tandem, I'm scratching my head about a couple things, and was hoping I might get some help here..

1- Biggest Problem! I dont seem to be able to sync the full size raw images to my adobe cloud. Once I create a collection in LRC and sync that collection to the cloud, I only get very small smart previews, and there doesnt seem to be any option to sync the full size files. I find the smart previews very frustrating to edit on the ipad because of the low res. Not to mention, I spend a lot of money, time and effort to end up with high quality images. Why would I want to edit them in low res? In addition, what good are smart previews if I'm out and about with my Ipad only, and a client requests an image? It seems like an absolute no brainer that I should be able to edit and deliver a high res image to a client from my ipad that was sycned to the cloud from my tethered shooting session in LRC. What am I missing?

2- The LRC secondary display window on the Ipad (both in bluetooth/sidecar and when wired directly to the laptop) will only give me a horizontal workspace. I shoot a lot of headshots and portraiture, so utilizing the full portrait orientation of the Ipad would give clients a gorgeous full screen portrait oriented shot to look at as we shoot. Instead, I'm stuck with a small portrait oriented image in a horizontal workspace. (I hope Im making sense here..) Is there any way to calibrate the secondary LRC display on the IPad to take advantage of the full portait orientation? 

I'm hoping I'm missing something simple on these and will end up feeling silly for being frustrated!

Sorry for being so wordy. Any help is appreciated!

[JohanElzenga · Accepted solution]

Lightroom Classic syncs smart previews, period. There is no way to sync originals from Lightroom Classic. What you can do is install Lightroom (desktop) on your computer as well, and import those images you want to sync as originals into Lightroom desktop.

Using the iPad as secondary display is an Apple thing. If Apple provides an option to do this in portrait orientation, then Lightroom Classic will use this portrait monitor just fine. There are a few third party apps that also allow a computer to use an iPad as second monitor. Maybe one of those supports it?

[anthonyt73]

Hi Johan. 

Thanks for the info.

Based on this, I cant help but feel like Adobe doesnt want working professionals using cloud/mobile. (LRC has the most advanced editing tools and is the only LR product ability to tether, but cant upload anything but low res previews to work on mobile devices). Extensive research this week has me thinking it might be time to go back to Capture One. 

Thanks again!

[Nadeem28230335k4xr]

Capture One's cloud/mobile solution and integration is even less useful.  If you want something that can utilize both desktop and mobile, you're best options are Adobe and it's few limitations, Photomator (which is improving every day), Darkroom (I haven't looked at it for a while but they seem to also be improving their functionality), and I think On1.

[anthonyt73]

thanks for the thoughts. agree on the current state of Capture One moblile, but with the full cloud sync that is rumored to be days/weeks away for C1 mobile, the masking and layering is the only thing it will be missing for my particular needs. Still a major miss though. Ultimately, it seems that neither Mobile app is a useful stand alone solution for working pro level shoot.

[Jao vdL]

This is a big frustration to many of us. There are workarounds but Classic really should be able to sync full raws. Add your vote(s) to https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-ideas/p-should-be-able-to-sync-full-raw-files-to-th...

Adobe unfortunately made this decision many many years ago and is refusing to come back from it.

[Nadeem28230335k4xr]

Not being able to sync full size RAWs from Classic to the cloud is frustrating.  The best option I've found is to start in Cloud.  Load the raws to the cloud via LR on ipad or desktop, then let those albums and their images sync to a new collection in LRC (which will also download the full raw).  This way I have the full raw in the cloud, plus the full raw in my LRC catalog, and I can edit in either and the edits will sync across.

[anthonyt73]

Thanks for the reply! Unfortunately, starting outside of LRC makes no sense for me as 95% of my shoots are tethered to the computer with a client audience. Maybe I just need to give smart previews another chance.