How To Export Your LR Smart Preview Catalog
Hello My Friend!
Follow these screenshots and instructions for exporting your LR smart preview catalog to send to me for editing. If you are on a Mac it will look a bit different but should still follow a similar process. It can be a bit tricky the first time as it seems like a lot of steps, but after you do it once successfully it will seem easy enough! Don't forget, you also have an instruction sheet for how to do this saved in your shared Dropbox folder with me. :)
***You can also cull your images in Photo Mechanic or however you usually do, this just shows how I do it in Lightroom. Then import your selected images into Lightoom and highlight all of them for export. If you cull in a different way just skip ahead to the export as catalog step.***
After you have uploaded that smart preview catalog to me, I will then import that into my LR and edit your images and then re-upload the edited previews into the Final Edits folder.
Once your edits are completed you will then import that file by opening Lightroom and doing the following:
File > Import From Another Catalog >Select the file I put into the Final Edits Folder
Now Select > Replace: Metadata and Develop Settings ONLY
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask! Sometimes this is tough the first few times, but once you get it down it is no big deal! :) So don't give up right away, sometimes it is just a matter of one wrong box being checked. There are also some great YouTube videos of people showing how to export Lightroom Smart Previews Catalogs. So try watching those as well if you would like to really see it in action.