TIP: What To Do If You’ve Lost The Original Image File…

This is pretty strong case for creating Smart Previews when you import your images into Lightroom, because even though the Smart Preview is smaller than the original, it’s actually larger than you’d think (it’s 2,540 pixels on the longest edge).

That way, if you get in a bind and lose the original image (for whatever reason), you can Export the Smart Preview as a DNG file so you will have a physical file that you can actually print around letter size at 240 ppi — that’s ain’t bad. So while it won’t have the same full resolution as the original, at least you’ll have a usable image file.