Creating a Lightroom Classic Catalog and Importing Photos
Recommendation
We recommend creating a separate Lightroom catalog for each photoshoot, as the app performs best when the number of photos in a catalog does not exceed 10,000.
Creating a New Catalog
In Lightroom, go to File > New Catalog…
Specify a folder for the catalog, enter a name, and click Create
Exporting a Photoshoot to a Separate Catalog
If all your photos are stored in a single catalog, you can export a specific folder to a separate catalog:
In the Folders section, select the desired folder
Go to File > Export as Catalog…
Smart Previews Support
PhotoPicker also supports Smart Previews.
Benefits of Smart Previews:
Smaller catalog size
Drawbacks:
Previews are stored in the DNG format, requiring decoding during each view, which may slow down performance
Importing Photos into the Catalog
1. Use the File > Import Photos and Video command
2. In the import window, set the Build Previews parameter to 1:1, select your photos, and click Import
Setting 1:1 provides maximum photo detail, making it ideal for use in PhotoPicker.
If catalog size or import speed is a priority, you can choose Standard instead of 1:1. In this case, you need to specify the size of the standard previews before importing:
macOS: Go to Lightroom > Catalog Settings…, then under the Previews tab, set Standard Preview Size to 2880 or 2048 pixels
Windows: Go to Edit > Catalog Settings…, then under the Previews tab, set Standard Preview Size to 2880 or 2048 pixels
Important: Re-rendering Previews for PhotoPicker
If you edit photos after importing them, Lightroom may delete high-resolution previews for those photos. As a result, you might see the following message in PhotoPicker:
“Preview for this photo in the Lightroom catalog is not available in sufficient resolution.”
To prevent this issue, re-render the missing previews before copying the catalog to PhotoPicker:
Select all photos in the catalog
Go to the Library tab
In the menu, choose Library > Previews > Build Standard-Sized Preview or Build 1:1 Preview
Lightroom will render previews only for photos that are missing them.
Once this process is complete, your catalog will be fully ready for use in PhotoPicker.
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