• Global community
    • Language:
      • Deutsch
      • English
      • Español
      • Français
      • Português
  • 日本語コミュニティ
    Dedicated community for Japanese speakers
  • 한국 커뮤니티
    Dedicated community for Korean speakers
Exit
2

Lightroom export file size: why so small? How can I maximize image quality?

New Here ,
Dec 18, 2014 Dec 18, 2014

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

My image file sizes are much smaller after editing and exporting through Lightroom. Is it impossible to maintain original file size to preserve image quality? Will this smaller file size have negative impact on prints? Any help is appreciated!

Views

136.7K

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines

correct answers 1 Correct answer

LEGEND , Dec 19, 2014 Dec 19, 2014

File size is not an indicator of image quality! You are looking at the wrong measure.

File size is determined by the number of pixels you have, the quality slider in the Export dialog box, and about a dozen other things, most of which you can't control.

You want to look at the number of pixels (height and width) and not the file size.

Is it impossible to maintain original file size to preserve image quality?

Not only is it impossible, it is also meaningless (see above)

Will this smaller file size

...

Votes

Translate

Translate
replies 114 Replies 114
New Here ,
Oct 14, 2016 Oct 14, 2016

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

When you go to export, on the left-hand side there should be 'Lightroom Presets'. Use 'Burn Full-sized JPEGs' and then change 'Export To: CD/DVD' to 'Export To: Hard Drive' and you can edit the folder it will export into and the filename. You can also up the resolution to 300 pixels per inch but make sure the 'Resize to Fit' box isn't checked. I hope this helps somebody.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Feb 24, 2017 Feb 24, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Thank  you Lauren you are so clever.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Nov 17, 2017 Nov 17, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

The lightroom photo after working and cropping is 5761x3841

these are the shots when we export :  Please note that we only found this problem when we changed to the cloud CC Package

here are the photos of the export setting.... the photos that come out after export, are slightly fuzzier, the clarity and colour do not match the original photo on lightroomIMG_3912.jpgIMG_3913.jpgIMG_3914.jpg

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
LEGEND ,
Nov 17, 2017 Nov 17, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Your screenshots (or photos) don't show everything important in the export dialog but you appear to have RESIZE TO FIT checked and set the Long Edge to 1800 when you started out at 5761 so you have shorted the photo by 3.2 times and essentially thrown away 9 out of every 10 pixels so I expect it to look worse.  Uncheck RESIZE TO FIT and see what happens.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
LEGEND ,
Nov 17, 2017 Nov 17, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I don't find that to be the case at all. I can take a 6000 x 4000 pixel image and export it with the same settings as illustrated above, and have a very acceptable JPEG image. Something else is affecting the quality. What version of Lightroom is being used? What software is being used to look at the exported JPEG images?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
LEGEND ,
Nov 17, 2017 Nov 17, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I agree Jim that an 1800 pixel wide image will look very good, even 500 pixels wide for some uses.  I should have explained a little further that if you are looking at the 1800 pixel wide image printed larger such as 8x12  or looking at full screen on a hi-res monitor there will probably be some degradation as opposed to not resizing to fit.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Nov 18, 2017 Nov 18, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hi Bob,

No going back to the forum today, we are soooo disappointed since we changed to the creative package…. We are going to try the tips that were suggested and go back to the very helpful guys.

But there is definitely a difference, that was not there before, and a problem with lightroom and the export. It is very strange, that we never experienced a problem with the programme before, and now we do.

Thank you

Daniela Leigh

Master Practitioner Real Estate

Team Daniela – Sales and Rentals

RE/MAX Premier

Cavendish Close, Warwick Street, Claremont

Cape Town, South Africa

Tel: +27 21-657-3560 | Fax: +27 21-671-5003

Cell: +27 83 387 7185

[1s]<https://www.privyseal.com/za/daniela-leigh/eaab-estate-agent/1c>

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Nov 18, 2017 Nov 18, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

oops apologies for above replied to Bob on email and all my details came up... sorry! 

husband will try in a little while but our problem is :  pictures have to be about 1.2mb to 1.5 mb    we need to load about 25 onto the website as it only allows you 35 mb.  We do not want to lose quality, colour and clarity as it has been happening.  never happened before... As you can see from above the images when worked and raw are quite large, some of them even bracketed, so what would be the best settings?  thank you everyone this helps a lot, we have been very frustrated!  Problem was that at times we exported pictures and they were on 15mb each, and we don't know why that happens either.!  it is very weird,  but Graham who works with them, is very unhappy with the photo quality after exported .... we will try the checking and unchecking and give feedback now.... thank you we really appreciate all the help from the forum!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Nov 18, 2017 Nov 18, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hi Stunning forum  ok we tried the following as suggested   unchecked  resize to fit  - no difference

Geoff tried your suggestion -  quality the same but the jpeg is now 16 mb!    also quality the same.... mainly fuziness.

Please can you see previous email, of the size of the jpeg we need to get out of, but understanding the reducing of pixels, why is it affecting the photo so badly?  ( it wasn't before?)   wish i could post the two different photos so you could all see... but using a different computer for forum....  if anyone could help with a setting like you did Geoff?  thank you all, appreciate this forum!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Nov 18, 2017 Nov 18, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

danielaleigh wrote:

The pictures are exported to windows desktop and then put on a flash drive, to then be printed ( property photos)/;loaded on websites,

When exporting from Lightroom, the export should be tailored to the purpose of the image - one size does not fit all.

A full resolution image that will be good for printing will be much too large to use on a website.

For web use, set the size in pixels - ask the person who is in charge of the website what the pixel dimensions should be.

Try to set jpg quality to 60 as a starting point, and increase it if necessary.

Also set Output sharpening to Standard, Screen. Ppi is irrelevant for screen viewing.

For printing, if you know the exact printing dimensions, enter those under Image sizing, along with the required ppi. (usually 300)

If you don't know the printing dimensions, export the full resolution image with Resize to fit unchecked.

You can also set Output sharpening for printing.

Output sharpening for both screen and print relies on proper sharpening in the Develop module (sharp, but not too sharp).

If you have oversharpened in the Develop module, the exports will not look good.

All this will be easier if you have a basic understanding of how digital images work.

I have written a few articles that you may find useful:

What is a digital image?

File formats

Lightroom basics

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
LEGEND ,
Nov 17, 2017 Nov 17, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Your screenshot doesn't show the full settings, but it appears Output Sharpening is unchecked. When using 'Resize to Fit' you need to check Output Sharpening and use the appropriate setting for the target usage (screen or print).

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Nov 17, 2017 Nov 17, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

The pictures are exported to windows desktop and then put on a flash drive, to then be printed ( property photos)/;loaded on websites,    Bob and trshaner will try your suggestions as well. it is the latest lightroom cc package which i presume is lightroom 6.. we use to have lightroom purchased on its own, but then had to update and change to the creative cloud package with photoshop, and that is when the problem started. and hubby just doesn't know what  he is doing differently!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Nov 17, 2017 Nov 17, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Thank you guys, we will try again. with checking and unchecking etc......  not sure what settings we missed, the dpi is set at 300 but shouldn't make too much difference.  it is just the clarity and that it is fuzzier...... please  thank you appreciate all the help .  it is just not making sense to us at the moment,

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Nov 18, 2017 Nov 18, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

1880 is very small.... even my 2011MBP has a 1920 screen and if you are using any sort of reasonable current screen it will be above 1800 pixels and for printing at 300ppi that is just a 6 inch print any bigger is enlarging....

Try something like 4000 for the long edge... 

Screen Shot 2017-11-18 at 11.51.52 AM.png

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Nov 20, 2017 Nov 20, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

thank you for the answers, the articles are going to help!  thank you, will give feedback

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Sep 23, 2020 Sep 23, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Adobe folks, we are not dumb, if the convo is this long please either fix your user interface or do NOT change defaults after an update.
And regardless, ya need to lead this "support community" not let a simple problem turn into this mess of replies! Yeesh

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Sep 23, 2020 Sep 23, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

OK, a solve. In my case i was trying to upload finished images to my photoshelter.com account. One of LR's flaws is that one must switch to "Hard Drive" on drop down menu in export dialogue box in order to export to any destination (not just hard drive). I must have set this years ago but a recent adobe update to their software just defaulted back to very small size. Confused call from client just prompted me to have to relearn one aspect of this unintuitive software. Hope this helps someone else from avoiding such a call.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Mar 01, 2022 Mar 01, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I know these posts were 2. years ago but I am having the same problems.

my settings in export box-

from top export to -Hard drive

export to specific folder- i choose a folder on my hardrive

image format jpeg

colour-sRGB

quality 100

I do not check limit file size

I do not check resize to fit

sharpen for matt paper

my files are too small for a site I photograph for to upload

I would love some advice

thanks

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Mar 01, 2022 Mar 01, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

What file-type (RAW, JPG, TIF) is the file  that you are editing prior to Exporting?

And what are the PIXEL Dimensions of the file you are editing prior to export?

And what are the PIXEL Dimensions of the JPGs that result after the export?

 

Regards. My System: Lightroom-Classic 13.2 Photoshop 25.5, ACR 16.2, Lightroom 7.2, Lr-iOS 9.0.1, Bridge 14.0.2, Windows-11.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Mar 01, 2022 Mar 01, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I shoot in RAW , import into Lightroom as a DNG (copy DNG file setting)
I dont know how to find the pixel dimensions prior or after to export.
 
 
I know my files are big enough for the average family client but the site I need to upload to says file size is too small
 
thanks

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Mar 02, 2022 Mar 02, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Look in the Metadata panel-

2022-03-02 18_46_13-Roberts Catalog-v11 - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic - Library.jpg

 If you have the exported file added to the Catalog- Also Look in the Metadata panel-

2022-03-02 18_47_00-Roberts Catalog-v11 - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic - Library.jpg

Or any File Browser should be able to show pixel dimensions- even Windows File Explorer > Properties > Details (not for DNGs!).

If you retain the full PIXEL Dimensions in the Exported JPG file, then you can do no better. Your answer is the same as the 'Correct Answer' given in this long thread by @dj_paige.

 

 

Regards. My System: Lightroom-Classic 13.2 Photoshop 25.5, ACR 16.2, Lightroom 7.2, Lr-iOS 9.0.1, Bridge 14.0.2, Windows-11.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Mar 02, 2022 Mar 02, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Thank you for your futher help

from lightroom Metadata- is this the pixel dimensions?

nataliej39733446_0-1646216782878.png

 

From Apple file info panel:

nataliej39733446_1-1646216867671.png

 

So how can I make a file larger pixels to be accepted by an outsourced link?

Thanks

 

 

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Mar 02, 2022 Mar 02, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

"the site I need to upload to says file size is too small"

So what File size is required?

And how is the 'site' defining what they mean by "File size"? Are they asking for "Pixel size" or "Megabyte size".

What Camera do you have that is producing files 3936x2624px  (My Nikon NEFs & DNGs are considerably larger! 6016 x 4016px)

 

how can I make a file larger pixels...?

You can only make "larger" by up-sizing in the export dialog.

You are then asking Lightroom-Classic to 'Re-sample' the image by adding new pixels.

Or, you could use the Menu: Enhance > Super Resolution to double the pixel dimensions, which adds the new pixels by the new 'Artificial Intelligence' features.

Rob_Cullen_0-1646252152137.png

 

 

Regards. My System: Lightroom-Classic 13.2 Photoshop 25.5, ACR 16.2, Lightroom 7.2, Lr-iOS 9.0.1, Bridge 14.0.2, Windows-11.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Mar 02, 2022 Mar 02, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hi Rob thats very interesting thank you for the detailed reply.

 

I shoot with the Nikon Z6, in RAW ( its new so maybe my settings are wrong)

Here is a copy of the requirements needed for my photos.

 

nataliej39733446_0-1646294017802.png

I put these settings into lightroom export but still my files are too small.

 

thank you for your patience

 

 

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Mar 03, 2022 Mar 03, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Your camera (if it is the Z6 II) should be producing full-size raw NEF files that are 6016 x 4016 pixels.

I do not understand why you might be getting 3936x2624px NEF (or DNG) images! Are you Cropping the images? Do you have a crop setting in the camera menus? Maybe a DX crop setting?

 

Anyway your export dialog should look something like this- and you really have no control over the effect of JPG compression.

2022-03-03 19_14_43-Export One File.jpg

I used these settings with a 6016 x 4016 px image which resulted in a file that is 3.75 MB-

So what do you mean by "too small"?

2022-03-03 19_17_12-Roberts Catalog-v11 - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic - Library.jpg

A good interactive lesson on JPG compression can be found here-

JPG COMPRESSION EXPLAINED by Jeffrey Friedl

 

Regards. My System: Lightroom-Classic 13.2 Photoshop 25.5, ACR 16.2, Lightroom 7.2, Lr-iOS 9.0.1, Bridge 14.0.2, Windows-11.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines