# Mobile device needed for presentations



## swteven (Feb 5, 2020)

I need a mobile solution for presenting my photos in a portfolio review. Thats my basic need. I need an accurate display so the photos look wonderful. It would be nice to be able to use Lightroom on the device as well. I am accustomed to my desktop Lightroom and iMac so I don't want a huge learning curve.

My budget is around $600 (used devise OK). Wondering which would be better choice: Apple laptop, iPad or even a Non-apple device. Love to hear your comments.

Scott


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## johnbeardy (Feb 5, 2020)

I've happily used an iPad to show people pictures, running Lightroom Mobile on it. Pictures look good, and getting them on there (syncing from Classic Lightroom) is very efficient. If I want to flag or rate pictures, even adjust them, the changes flow straight back via sync.


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## clee01l (Feb 5, 2020)

Scott, I have replaced my MBP with an iPadPro about 6 months ago. I think it would suite your needs but probably not your pocketbook


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## swteven (Feb 6, 2020)

Cletus,
Whats an MVP? Assuming its relevant, how much?


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## richard.powelljr (Feb 6, 2020)

swteven said:


> Cletus,
> Whats an MVP? Assuming its relevant, how much?



MBP = MacBook Pro


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## clee01l (Feb 6, 2020)

A 12.9" iPadPro is $999 at Best Buy. Didn't you used to have an MBP?


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## swteven (Feb 6, 2020)

Its a 10yr old Macbook. Have not used it in a year. I just tried to plug it in and the charger light did not come on. Perhaps the battery needs replacing.

Anyway I think its inadequate. I am preparing for portfolio reviews at this years Fotofest. Most artists still present with prints but digital presentation is growing in acceptance. I think a tablet would be best  since I can easily turn the device for images that are portrait vs landscape.


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## PhilBurton (Feb 6, 2020)

swteven said:


> Its a 10yr old Macbook. Have not used it in a year. I just tried to plug it in and the charger light did not come on. Perhaps the battery needs replacing.
> 
> Anyway I think its inadequate. I am preparing for portfolio reviews at this years Fotofest. Most artists still present with prints but digital presentation is growing in acceptance. I think a tablet would be best  since I can easily turn the device for images that are portrait vs landscape.


Rent something?  You could probably install a 30-day free trial of Lightroom.


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## clee01l (Feb 6, 2020)

You don't have much time until it starts.  Phil has a good suggestion.   I assume there is no need for a projector.   Do you still have my phone number?   Call me or PM me for the phone number and see what we can work out.


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## swteven (Mar 10, 2020)

I purchased and iPad Pro 12.9" (1st generation) for my presentation. It only has 32mb memory so I don't know how effective it will be for running LR mobile with raw files. Right now I only need access to about 50 photos from LR desktop. What is the best way to sync these to my iPad ? Can anyone provide a link to a good overview of syncing desktop and tablet?


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## Conrad Chavez (Mar 10, 2020)

swteven said:


> I purchased and iPad Pro 12.9" (1st generation) for my presentation. It only has 32mb memory so I don't know how effective it will be for running LR mobile with raw files.


It sounds like you found a first-generation iPad Pro with 32GB (not mb) of storage, since the later generations start at 64GB. That 32GB won't hurt the ability of Lightroom to edit raw files, because:

That 32GB is storage, not RAM. An iPad Pro has 4GB RAM (some have more). 4GB RAM is too low for a Mac or PC to run Lightroom well, but we cannot think of iPads in the same way because the CPU/GPU architecture is completely different, and more efficient. The non-Pro and older iPads had much less than 4GB RAM; this is one of the reasons the Pro is a relatively powerful iPad.
If you're just presenting, not editing, that will be a light load for Lightroom. It should be no problem.
Lightroom is not going to store all your original photos on the iPad at all times. It's only going to download and cache the images you're currently editing, send the edits up to the master copies in the cloud, cache the previews of edited versions, and dump any local copies you haven't edited in a while. If you're going to edit 50 raw images on the iPad, 32GB of storage (minus iOS and installed apps) is more than enough to get that done.
32GB storage will only start to get cramped if you install a bunch of big iOS apps, copy in a lot of music or movies, or import hundreds of raw images directly from a full 16GB or larger camera card.



swteven said:


> Right now I only need access to about 50 photos from LR desktop. What is the best way to sync these to my iPad ? Can anyone provide a link to a good overview of syncing desktop and tablet?


Since you're posting this in the *Lightroom mobile/web apps (cloud-based service)*  forum, it should take 0 steps to sync them, because if you already set up the images in any of the Lightroom cloud apps (desktop, phone, tablet, web, but not Classic), they are already synced to Lightroom Photos in the cloud. After you install the Lightroom app on your new iPad Pro and sign into your Creative Cloud account from it, all your Lightroom Photos should just show up in it.

To organize the 50 photos for your presentation, use Lightroom on any device to create an album, put the 50 photos in there, and arrange them in the sequence you need. That album will sync across all devices. But you might be happy enough just organizing the presentation in Lightroom on the iPad Pro itself.

It would be a good idea to run through the presentation a few times on the iPad in advance. This will give Lightroom a chance to download and cache local previews of all the images you want to show, to minimize delays during the presentation.


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## swteven (Mar 10, 2020)

Yes, 32GB storage!
I do not have a Creative Cloud account. Is that the only way to sync my files?  Right now I run LR classic standalone on my desktop iMac and I have loaded LR on my ipad.


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## Conrad Chavez (Mar 10, 2020)

If you are running Lightroom Classic, you already have an Creative Cloud account; it's the same Adobe ID you use for the Lightroom Classic subscription. You would use that same Adobe ID to sign into the Lightroom app on the iPad.

And if you're running Classic, that changes the directions for syncing somewhat:

In Lightroom Classic, make sure "sync with Lightroom" is enabled.
In Lightroom Classic, create a Collection for your presentation.
Enable syncing for the collection. It will be synced as an Album in Lightroom for the iPad. Now you can manage it from either Lightroom Classic or the iPad.

For more details:
https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/lightroom-mobile-desktop-features.html


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## swteven (Mar 10, 2020)

Thanks Clee and Conrad. I see that syncing to Lightroom on the desktop and the web requires  a paid Adobe Creative Cloud membership which I prefer not purchasing right now. This may be useful in the future.  Any other way to do this using a collection for my presentation?


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## Conrad Chavez (Mar 10, 2020)

I'm a little confused as to how you're running Lightroom Classic without a paid Creative Cloud membership, but anyway...there are lots of other ways to get those images from your iMac to iPad.

Use any photo sync service you already use, such as Flickr, Smugmug, etc. Upload to your photo service account, and pick them up using the iPad app for that service. For example, I use the built-in Publish Service for Smugmug in Lightroom Classic to sync specific collections with my Smugmug account. When I open the Smugmug app on my iPad, the photos are there. If your photo service doesn't offer a Lightroom Classic Publish Service, you can export JPEG images and upload those manually, and pick them up on the iPad.
Use any cloud-based file sync service you already use, such as iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive. Put JPEG photos exported from Lightroom into the local folder for the cloud service, and after they sync up to the cloud service, present them directly from that service's iPad app.
Non-cloud local option: If you are syncing the iPad to your iMac using the Finder (in macOS 10.15) or iTunes (in macOS 10.14 or earlier), you can set it up to sync a folder of JPEGs on your iMac as an album in the Photos app on your iPad.
Another non-cloud option: In the Files app in iPad OS 13, you can use the Connect to Server command to browse and copy files back and forth with a Mac that has File Sharing turned on. You could use this on your iPad to dig into your iMac and copy exported JPEG photos to your iPad.
If you use any of those three methods, you don't need Lightroom app on your iPad at all, because you would either present from another iPad app, or straight from the iOS Files app. The only reason you'd need the Lightroom app on your iPad is if you want image edits to sync automatically between Lightroom on iPad and iMac. But not simply to run a presentation.

Those are just the ways I know of. They are not as seamless as a direct sync between Lightroom, but they work.


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## swteven (Mar 10, 2020)

I have a standalone version of LR 5.7.1
When I go to "Get started with LR mobile" and click on "sign in" all I get is a "Connecting..." window that never connects.


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## Conrad Chavez (Mar 10, 2020)

swteven said:


> I have a standalone version of LR 5.7.1
> When I go to "Get started with LR mobile" and click on "sign in" all I get is a "Connecting..." window that never connects.


OK, I see. It isn't Lightroom Classic (subscription), it's Lightroom 5.7.1. In that case your best bet is one of the other suggestions I had, that do not involve direct Lightroom syncing, but take advantage of the many other commonly available file or photo  syncing options between a Mac and an iPad.


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## clee01l (Mar 11, 2020)

swteven said:


> Yes, 32GB storage!
> I do not have a Creative Cloud account. Is that the only way to sync my files? Right now I run LR classic standalone on my desktop iMac and I have loaded LR on my ipad.



If you have Lightroom Classic (V9) you have a cloud account, a subscription, (probably with 20 GB of cloud storage and an unlimited amount of images that can be sync’d FROM Classic


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## swteven (Mar 11, 2020)

I'm using 5.7.1 on my desktop. My iPad runs iOS 12.4.1 but I could upgrade that to 13.2


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## Conrad Chavez (Mar 11, 2020)

All of the methods I listed, except the last one, can be used with your iPad Pro without upgrading it to iOS 13.

But iOS 13 is a good upgrade with some important changes that will let you get the most out of using an iPad.


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## swteven (Mar 11, 2020)

Conrad Chavez said:


> Another non-cloud option: In the Files app in iPad OS 13, you can use the Connect to Server command to browse and copy files back and forth with a Mac that has File Sharing turned on. You could use this on your iPad to dig into your iMac and copy exported JPEG photos to your iPad.


Conrad - I installed iOS 13 on my iPad Pro. Using the Lightning to USB cable, I connected my iMac to the iPad. I made sure that  file sharing was authorized on my iMac. Then I used the "Connect to Server" option on the iPad. I entered my iMac server name and got the message "Operation not supported".  I have used Mac servers  on local area networks so I am surprised that such a basic connection will not function.


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## Conrad Chavez (Mar 11, 2020)

I am not sure what is going on there. I have successfully used my iPad Pro with Connect to Server to get into three different Macs running macOS 10.14, 10.12, and 10.11.

If you have any other devices around that can serve up an SMB connection (other Mac, a PC, an NAS...), see if the iPad can connect to those. If it can, the problem is with the iMac, if so, I'm not sure what the problem would be. Maybe there's some subtle thing that needs to be adjusted in Lion to get it to work like in the firewall. Even though Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is old, SMB should be SMB, I think...


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## swteven (Mar 12, 2020)

Ok, thanks for your time responding to my little project.

In the meantime, Gmail it is, and I can say after spending a day on this that it sucks. And after using computers for 40 years I can't believe that 2 Apples can't do this simple task with a wire between them.


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## Denis Pagé (Mar 12, 2020)

Scott, keep it simple. Old Lion system? Old Lightroom 5? No problem! Do it the old way 

For a presentation and for a Camera Adapter (the Lightning to USB cable you have is called such) JPG would be just fine. So, Export from Lightroom to JPG on a USB memory stick (key). Then plug the key to the iPad with your little cable and the photos will import easily. I often use the Photos App for presentations rather than Lightroom. Using both in fact.

Let us know how you succeed that way...


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## swteven (Mar 12, 2020)

Thanks Denis. Another classic solution!


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