I don't use CC or Lightroom Mobile. I use Lightroom 6.5.1 (latest) on OS X to process my photos.
Some concepts first...
Whenever I process a photo and consider it finished, I export a final, fully-rendered, full-resolution 16-bit-per-component TIFF into an archive folder for storage and future use. I also export a 'framed and matted' web display JPEG for posting to Flickr.com (and thence to everywhere else) and a JPEG optimized for viewing on the iPad.
That means I have four copies of every FINISHED photo to work with (not counting backups):
- the raw, JPEG, or JPEG+raw original, included in my master LR "In Progress" catalog
- the full res 16-bit TIFF archive rendering, included in my LR "Completed Work" catalog
- the web display JPEG, included in my LR "Completed Work" catalog
- the iPad display JPEG, included in my LR "Completed Work" catalog
Of course, I have only one copy (the original capture) of unprocessed or truly in progress work (again, not counting backups).
I don't see any downside to this. Original exposures in a Lightroom catalog (particularly raw captures) are volatile since what you see is a combination of the original exposure plus Lightroom's parametric edits rendered on the fly at display time. That's an interpretation that can change when Lightroom is updated due to changes in the image processing engine. Finished work should always be exported into an uninterpreted, fully-baked-into-the-pixels rendering that any simple display program can display without risk of altering.
Displaying on the iPad:
There are several different ways you can output finished work and move it for display to the iPad. Your number 2 method is the simplest, but I've not yet used Photos very much on OS X, or iPhoto before it.
- If you're going to synch from Mac to iPad using iTunes, another way to move them is to export from LR into a folder of finished JPEGs that you set up iTunes to synchronize to the iPad. I have a subfolder of Pictures on the Mac named "iPad Photos" in which I create subfolders named for every photo set, for example: "Friends 2016", "Family 2016", "New York Trip-April 2016", "PESO 2016", etc. When I export a set of photos*from LR, I export them into the appropriate folder for that set. I have iTunes configured to synchronize "iPad Photos" and all its subfolders whenever I sync the iPad (or iPhone).
- Another way to move photos to the iPad is to create presentations with Keynote on OS X and move the keynote presentation files to iCloud. This way you can open them directly with Keynote on iOS, edit the presentation, auto-run or manually run it, etc. Similar to this is to use Pages for a more "book like" display, which is again editable in Pages on iOS.
- A third way is to create a slide show in Lightroom of each set of photos and export it as a video, a set of JPEGs, or a PDF book. You can then transfer these to the iPad using iTunes and the method I mentioned above (for videos and JPEG slide shows), with iBooks (for PDFs) or with iCloud into whatever app you want use on iOS that supports the format.
I've used all of these different methodologies for different purposes. My display collection on the iPad/iPhone is now running about 7,000 individual photos in a couple hundred 'albums' (folders), videos, PDF books, Pages, and Keynote presentations.
Of course, when you use either your method #2 or my first method to move individual images and groups of images to the iPad, you can also use Photos on the iPad to organize them into albums there. I'd just rather organize them before I move them ... I find it easier.
enjoy,
G
-- I also use DropBox, etc ... There are a lot of different ways! Each with its advantages and weaknesses ...
🙂
