Lightroom plugin

Grumpy_one

So I just started using the plugin to upload directly from LR to smugmug. I like the concept of not having to export then upload. BUT.... its seems real slow uploading via plugin vs uploading directly to the site. The problem I have is now LR is sluggish during upload and seems to take a real long time. Has anyone reverted back to old school after using the plugin for same reasons? Thanks

leftquark

We've tested the LR plugin extensively and there is no noticeable difference in upload speed when using the Plugin vs directly uploading. The perceived difference occurs because the LR plugin is doing 2 actions at once (export the photo to JPG, then upload). The extra time is the photo being exported to JPG with your edited settings. Let us know if you find anything different.

dbrazeal

Ah, thanks for this clarification. I’d noticed the same thing, and was trying to figure out the best way to deal with this. Is this the case even when my LR catalog has .jpg photos to start with? In other words, is the plugin doing some kind of export action even when the originals are .jpgs?

leftquark

Yes, because lightroom is completely non-destructive. That means it's never actually altering your original images every time you make a change. It creates a separate list of all the changes, which tell Lightroom (and only lightroom ... well, maybe Photoshop too) how to display the photo. For other applications to know how to see your edits, the changes have to be exported as a new JPG.