Online photos appear lower quality than in my desktop app

[mariab60897220]

Hi,

I have Lightroom Classic CC installed on my laptop. I wanted to share a handful of photos so I created a collection synced it to my online account. When viewing the album online, the photos appear to be substantially lower quality than when viewed in my desktop app. I've created a few online albums and I haven't seen this issue come up before.

See the two photos attached as an example (the color pixelation on the back of the shirt is where it's most noticeable). The first is exported directly from my Lightroom Classic CC application. This is a JPEG file, sRGB color space, exported at 80% quality. The second is downloaded directly from my online album. Oddly, the online photo, despite being worse quality, is twice as large a file.

I'm so confused! How do I make my images render online in the exact same way they do in my Lightroom desktop application?

Thank you!

Maria

[JP Hess]

Are you aware that images shared via collections from Lightroom Classic CC are smart previews? Smart previews are reduced size, not full-sized images. There is no way to share a full-sized image from Lightroom Classic CC.

[mariab60897220]

Hi Jim,

Thank you for the answer. I didn't know that actually, but I'm still confused since I've created and synced a number of albums between Lightroom Classic CC and Adobe online and never saw a difference in quality. Is there a difference between creating a web album and creating a collection and syncing? Most of the other photos I shared (where I didn't notice any quality issues) I created via the web gallery option -- see below. For "Lands End", selected, I simply created a collection and dragged photos into it. There may not actually be any difference between how these two collection types render online, but I thought it worth asking...

Thanks again,

Maria

[oliwa19]

I'm seeing my synced photos are 33% of the original resolution. I checked and I do not have a smart preview for the target photo.

[JP Hess]

oliwa19  wrote

I'm seeing my synced photos are 33% of the original resolution. I checked and I do not have a smart preview for the target photo.

I don't understand your statement here. If the synced Photo is from Lightroom Classic CC, then that photo IS a smart preview. Any photo synchronized from Lightroom Classic CC is a smart preview because that is all Lightroom Classic CC can synchronize. Classic cannot synchronize full-sized images. It isn't part of the program design of Classic. If you want full sized images in the cloud then you must use the new cloud-based Lightroom CC and import them directly using that version of Lightroom Or a compatible mobile device.

[oliwa19]

When I try to download a synced photo the jpg dimensions are 33% of the original. When I upload a raw file directly to the cloud the jpg dimensions for download are 90% of the original.

Conversely, when I publish a photo to Flickr the downloadable file is 100% of what was uploaded.

I get what you are saying about smart previews. I think not giving me the ability to change it preventing the download of a jpg matching my photo's dimension is a FAIL.

[DdeGannes]

It’s As Jim posted see details of the differences of the two apps.

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-cc-vs-classic-features/

[JP Hess]

oliwa19  wrote

I get what you are saying about smart previews. I think not giving me the ability to change it preventing the download of a jpg matching my photo's dimension is a FAIL.

Then apparently you don't understand the basic difference between Classic and the cloud-based Lightroom CC. It's a fundamental concept difference between the two that probably isn't going to change.

[oliwa19]

The basic difference is one is cloud based and one is desktop based. I reviewed the differences and "Saving an image at 100% of the original dimensions" is not listed under either version of Lightroom.

[JP Hess · Accepted solution]

If you import an original image into Lightroom CC (the cloud-based version) than the full-sized image is in the cloud. It's that simple. If you synchronize an image from Lightroom Classic CC, no matter how big the original image is, Lightroom only synchronizes a smart preview to the cloud. End of story. There is NO provision to synchronize a full-sized image to the cloud from Lightroom Classic CC. Again, it's that simple.

[msej449-18037639]

Or to translate: We suddenly realised that if we gave people the ability to download the full-size JPGs, let alone original RAW files, then it would cost us a fortune in extra physical disc storage, and download bandwidth charges. So we aren't going to offer this capability and when anyone asks we talk to them like they're slightly deranged for even imagining anyone offering a photo service would do this. We keep having quarterly reviews where we're challenged as to why people aren't using Lightroom to the extent you'd think they would, and the answer is always the same - once people realise this entirely reasonable capability isn't there, they steer clear.