Client downloaded images are compressed

[CCDCC]

My questions is in reference to the web based version of Lightroom. Client downloadable web galleries from lightroom.adobe.com

When I upload a full size, high resolution image into an album (drag and drop directly to the web browser) for my clients to download I can see in the metadata that the image is 5mb. In the home screen/dashboard area of the lightroom for web when I download an image it will give me the option to download either the full sized 5mb version of the image or a compressed 900kb version of the image. When I share the album and create a web gallery for my clients there is no option and they can only download the compressed 900kb version of the image.

Is there any way around this?

How can I use Adobe Cloud services to transfer full size high resolution images that are not compressed to my clients?

[selondon]

Hi,

A couple of things, do you know how are they trying to download the images? And do you have 'Allow Downloads' checked in the Album's Share Settings (which should give them a download icon to get the full res)?

You can test it yourself by copying the link into another browser that does not know that you are logged in to Lightroom Web. Then you should be able to see what your Client can see. I have just tested and I can download full res as expected.

[CCDCC]

Hi Selondon,

Thanks for your response. My question is not how to allow downloads for clients, but how to avoid the compression that Adobe is applying to the images when my clients download them.

I've made a test album which you're welcome to view here: test

If you open the info panel on the image you'll see the metadata shows the image is 6081x4054 @ 2.4MB, this is the original file that I uploaded.  But when I download the image as a client would I get 6081x4054 @ 1.1MB. The pixel size is the same, the file size is not, it has been compressed.

I've seen some images compressed from 5MB to 900kb which makes the images undeliverable due to client needs.

[selondon]

Hi,

What file format are the Full Res as I believe you can only download JPEG’s unfortunately.

[CCDCC]

They are jpg.

Did you look at the test gallery/image I posted a link to?

You're welcome to download the jpg and let me know what file size you get.

[Jao vdL]

The lightroom web thing will not allow others (i.e those not logged on as owners to the site) to download originals. It will always download jpeg copies fully rendered using the develop settings you applied. Even if the originals are jpegs! The reason for this is that your originals are not touched in any way as stored on CC. Your develop settings are stored as xmp properties inside (or along) the raw/psd/tiff or jpg file as metadata. Then when you need to display on the web, a series of jpeg previews, including a full res jpeg is generated. The latter is what gets downloaded when you select the download link. If you would download the original, you could only see the correct rendering if you opened the file in Lightroom or Photoshop so that is not a good solution.

[CCDCC]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Jao+vdL  wrote

The lightroom web thing will not allow others (i.e those not logged on as owners to the site) to download originals. It will always download jpeg copies fully rendered using the develop settings you applied. Even if the originals are jpegs! The reason for this is that your originals are not touched in any way as stored on CC. Your develop settings are stored as xmp properties inside (or along) the raw/psd/tiff or jpg file as metadata. Then when you need to display on the web, a series of jpeg previews, including a full res jpeg is generated. The latter is what gets downloaded when you select the download link. If you would download the original, you could only see the correct rendering if you opened the file in Lightroom or Photoshop so that is not a good solution.

Thank you for the explanation, that makes sense. The images have been originally edited in LR Classic, Capture One, or Photoshop, then exported as a jpg. So the jpg I am uploading is the final image and the way I want it to be seen. I am only using the LR CC for its web gallery features as a means to deliver final images to clients, I've made no adjustments to the images in LR CC. But it would appear as though they are still run through LR CC engine and processed out with their algorithms which are compressing the file.

That image is extremely compressable without loss in quality. It's a big white field with an extremely simple image in it. I would not expect it to be more than 1MB in jpeg format if correctly compressed. For more natural images, the difference should be minor.

Yes it is. And truth be told I've seen no noticeable loss in quality with any of the images even though they're being compressed. The subjects in questions are product on white backgrounds so they retain good quality even under higher amounts of compression.  My problem is that even though pixel dimension does not change, a 900kb image does not fall under the definition of "high resolution" according to my clients and the people they work with. I understand that this may be an immaterial issue in most cases, I'd rather just deliver the original 5MB image and be done with it and was hoping to find a way to do so using the LR CC infrastructure.

[Jao vdL · Accepted solution]

>But it would appear as though they are still run through LR CC engine and processed out with their algorithms which are compressing the file.

Yes indeed. Lightroom CC web always runs the files through their engine even when you have made no edits to the files. That is a shortcoming of the CC web gallery system indeed. If you want to use the Adobe ecosystem,. the only way to do it is to use the creative cloud files thing. Create a folder there and upload your jpegs into it and then share the folder with your clients. This will work the same as it would when doing it through dropbox or any other cloud sharing solution and you will get the original files when you download from there. You can do this trough the creative cloud app or by going to https://creative.adobe.com and clicking on "Creative Cloud Files" after logging on.

[CCDCC]

I was not even aware of the 'Creative Cloud Files' features. I will look into it.

Thank you for the help!

[selondon]

Yep, but surprised at a drop of over 4mb. Surely the size in mb should be similar.... mine seems to be.

[Jao vdL]

That image is extremely compressable without loss in quality. It's a big white field with an extremely simple image in it. I would not expect it to be more than 1MB in jpeg format if correctly compressed. For more natural images, the difference should be minor.

[vanessag55774102]

I just discovered that if you click on the individual image in the LR web gallery and hit download it will give you the option to download the original (uncompressed and with the proper color profile) or the Latest version (which is compressed and has a color profile of Display P3 _ DO NOT USE this version!). If you choose to Download All they will ALL be compressed and the wrong color profile. So the thing to keep in mind is you can never get back (download) the original image with LR web tweaks (crop, exposure, temp..), you can only view it in the web gallery. What a waste!

[Percyrod]

Hi Cholly,

I just wanted to know if today you solved the problem whitout using folders in creative cloud files? cause I have the same problem, in fact my downloaded files are three times smaller than the original JPEG.

Thanks in advance

Percy