Since they're regular DNG files, you can even open them in Photoshop, which is nice, though the folder structure is annoyingly discrete, creating a separate folder for each file. The Smart Preview files reside in a separate catalog that lives in the same folder as the main LR catalogs. You can also export from the Smart Preview. When a drive is disconnected, you can work on these proxies when you reconnect the drive, the application automatically syncs the changes.
LIGHTROOM 5.7.1 VS 6 SOFTWARE
By using the new Has Smart Preview metadata flag I quickly built a Smart Collection of images without proxies with the final software it took just under 26 minutes to generate about 1,400 Smart Previews, far slower than the 45 minutes to generate the SPs for a little more than 6,000 images with the beta. You generate them via a globally applied check box on import, select to generate them individually on already-imported files, or set a global preference for it. Called Smart Previews, LR5 can selectively or automatically generate roughly 2,560x1,596-pixel (size depends on original aspect ratio), 1.5MB (or smaller) versions of images that it stores in its lossy DNG format. Lightroom plays catch-up with Phase One, adding the really useful proxy editing Smart Preview feature for working with images stored on disconnected drives. I'd like to be able to enter custom ratios as well. Lightroom now has selectable crop aspect ratio overlays, which is nice. That's about right, as its capabilities fall in the middle of the pack as well.
LIGHTROOM 5.7.1 VS 6 FULL
The full retail price is a bit higher than some competitors like Apple Aperture ($79.99) and Corel AfterShot Pro ($49.99), but not as high as DxO Optics Pro Elite Edition ($299, though currently $199) or Phase One Capture One Pro ($299, with a special offer of $249).
LIGHTROOM 5.7.1 VS 6 FOR FREE
Lightroom 5 is available for free with a Creative Cloud membership full single-copy price is $149 and upgrades are $79, the same as the previous version. What's not here: still no face recognition or tagging, HDR editing, panorama stitching, or expansion of the video capabilities. Plus, there are the usual myriad small updates. Other highlights include an overdue distortion and perspective correction tool, Upright reusable custom page layouts and page-numbering tweaks in the Book module a radial filter the expansion of the spot healing/clone tool into a full-blown healing brush and the option to insert playable videos into slideshows.
The biggest news: support for proxy editing of disconnected images, a feature dubbed Smart Preview. The latest iteration of Adobe's raw-editing and management software, Adobe Lightroom 5, offers a modest set of enhancements that will make some photographers very happy but will probably make a large number of others shrug and choose to skip it. Editors' note: This is an updated and rated version of the First Take published on April 15, 2013, based on subsequent testing of the final software.