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mjs9876543210
mjs9876543210
Participant
December 29, 2017
Answered

Lossless export from Lightroom Classic CC 7.1?

  • December 29, 2017
  • 4 replies
  • 3902 views

Hi --

I am new to Lightroom Classic CC. I have searched pretty extensively but have not been able to find an answer - I appreciate any help.

My question: Is that possible to do a lossless export from Lightroom Classic CC and if so how?

I believe - but am not certain - that exporting with JPEG format with 100% quality is not lossless. This is based importing and exporting a few sample images. Most (but not all) are much smaller (e.g. 3MB -> 500KB). I understand that file size is not a strong indication that the compression has been lossy, but my assumption is that unless compression on the original file was very poor that the file could not shrink by ~85% without there being some information loss.

Thank you,

Mike

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer dj_paige

    mjs9876543210  wrote


    I believe - but am not certain - that exporting with JPEG format with 100% quality is not lossless. This is based importing and exporting a few sample images. Most (but not all) are much smaller (e.g. 3MB -> 500KB). I understand that file size is not a strong indication that the compression has been lossy, but my assumption is that unless compression on the original file was very poor that the file could not shrink by ~85% without there being some information loss.

    Exporting from LR via TIF (16 bits/component) will be loss-less, every pixel in the edited image is unchanged in the import. Exporting via JPG will have some loss, even at quality 100 (not 100%, it is not percent) there is some compression in exporting a JPG, plus JPGs are 8bits per pixel whereas if you shoot raw your original has 12 or 14 bits per pixel. This is also why exported JPGs are typically much smaller.

    4 replies

    mjs9876543210
    mjs9876543210Author
    Participant
    December 30, 2017

    Thank you all for your help.

    Conrad_C
    Community Expert
    Conrad_CCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    December 29, 2017

    mjs9876543210  wrote

    My question: Is that possible to do a lossless export from Lightroom Classic CC and if so how?

    Yes, because Lightroom mostly exports to lossless formats, since of the five export formats available (JPEG, PSD, TIFF, DNG, Original), four of them are either lossless or have lossless compression options.

    JPEG is the only lossy export format from Lightroom, and I don't think any level of JPEG compression is lossless. There are variations of JPEG that can be lossless, but Lightroom doesn't offer those.

      JP Hess
      JP Hess
      Inspiring
      December 29, 2017

      Assuming you are working with raw files, and then you are exporting to JPEG or TIF or PSD, etc., there will always be some loss of quality. It is unavoidable. The good thing about it is that since the export is a first-generation export, the loss will be so minimal that it will be extremely difficult, if at all possible, to visually detect that loss quality. There is more loss exporting to JPEG than to other file formats, so it's probably best to reserve exporting to JPEG until it's absolutely necessary to do so for posting on websites or preparing images to send to printing labs. But I wouldn't really concern myself with that quality loss because it really is minimal in my opinion. At least that is true unless you are going to pixel peep at extremely high magnification. And personally I don't see much sense in doing that.

        dj_paige
        dj_paigeCorrect answer
        Legend
        December 29, 2017

        mjs9876543210  wrote


        I believe - but am not certain - that exporting with JPEG format with 100% quality is not lossless. This is based importing and exporting a few sample images. Most (but not all) are much smaller (e.g. 3MB -> 500KB). I understand that file size is not a strong indication that the compression has been lossy, but my assumption is that unless compression on the original file was very poor that the file could not shrink by ~85% without there being some information loss.

        Exporting from LR via TIF (16 bits/component) will be loss-less, every pixel in the edited image is unchanged in the import. Exporting via JPG will have some loss, even at quality 100 (not 100%, it is not percent) there is some compression in exporting a JPG, plus JPGs are 8bits per pixel whereas if you shoot raw your original has 12 or 14 bits per pixel. This is also why exported JPGs are typically much smaller.

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