High quality file sharing in Lightroom CC

[ChangeableFocus]

Hi,

I have just uploaded an album to share, however clients only seem able to download at a reduced quality - for example 2048x1458, 586.3 KB compared to original at 5600x4000 at 19mb.  Is there any way clients would be able to download a higher quality image from a shared folder on Lightroom CC?

Many thanks,

A.

[Jim Wilde · Accepted solution]

How did you upload to the cloud? If you uploaded from Classic, then only Smart Previews are synced, so the full-size original is not in the cloud, so can't be downloaded....instead a 2048 px jpeg is downloaded. If you want your clients to be able to download full resolution images, you need to get the originals up into the cloud instead of smart previews. Any of the LRCC clients will upload full originals.

Using LRCC on the same system as Classic you can import the already synced images, which is intelligent enough to detect that those images are already available in Smart Preview form, so it will import and sync the originals to the cloud, replacing the smart previews. There's no impact on Classic, and your clients should then be able to download the full resolution files.

Of course, if you are already uploading originals, there's a different problem which we'll need to figure out. The bottom line is that it is possible for full size files to be downloaded.

[Suths]

Jim, this was really useful thanks, but I've still not quite managed to figure it out. If you're still around, please could you help?

I have edited photos in LR classic, organised into collections, synced to LRCC and shared from LR in the browser.

When clients download the images, they are very small, so I imagine that's the smart preview as you explain (7MB file downloading as 200KB).

I've opened the LRCC desktop client on the same machine as LR classic, but I don't know how to now push the originals up into the cloud from there. Or will simply having opened in LRCC have done that?

I'll be very grateful if you see this and are able to reply.

Best wishes,

Mark

[Jim Wilde]

Jim, this was really useful thanks, but I've still not quite managed to figure it out. If you're still around, please could you help?

I have edited photos in LR classic, organised into collections, synced to LRCC and shared from LR in the browser.

When clients download the images, they are very small, so I imagine that's the smart preview as you explain (7MB file downloading as 200KB).

I've opened the LRCC desktop client on the same machine as LR classic, but I don't know how to now push the originals up into the cloud from there. Or will simply having opened in LRCC have done that?

I'll be very grateful if you see this and are able to reply.

Best wishes,

Mark

By @Suths

Mark, I do apologise for the long delay, obviously I completely missed this post of yours. If you're still looking for the answer, what you need to do is to locate the photos (in your file system) that you want to be uploaded as the original to the cloud, then simply import them (using the Add Photos option) into the Lightroom desktop app. If you first ensure that those same images have already been synced from LrClassic as Smart Previews, the import into Lightroom will simply replace those Smart Previews with the originals. They remain synced with Classic, of course, but it does mean more flexibility in terms of sharing/exporting from the cloud.

Note that when the client downloads the image, they will get the full resolution in terms of pixel size, but the download will effectively be a jpeg export with quality setting equivalent to around 70%. That should still be OK, but there's currently no option to download the original file (e.g. a raw file) or to increase the quality setting to 100%. 

[joshmon3212]

I don't quite understand this but it's exactly what I'm looking to do.  Would someone be able to explain in a little more detail for me?  I don't understand why importing the same raw files a second time into Lightroom desktop would be shard any differently online and can't get this to work with a few ways I've tried. Would appreciate any help you can provide, thanks! 

[Jim Wilde]

Not sure what extra detail you're looking for. But basically, when you sync images TO the Cloud FROM LrC then only smart previews of those images are uploaded to the cloud. SPs are 2560 px on the long edge, so not going to be as good as the full-res originals (and can be even more problematic if the image has been heavily cropped, as the crop is then applied to the smart preview, thus reducing the pixel count even more). 

To get a copy of the full resolution originals to the cloud requires that they be imported into any one of the Lightrooim apps (Desktop, Mobile or Web). With full resolution images in the cloud, the end-user will then be able to get full-resolution jpegs of the originals when using the album or image download option. 

In the situation where SPs uploaded from LrC are already in the cloud, subsequently importing the full-resolution copy of the same files into a Lightroom app will cause the SPs in the cloud to be replaced by those originals, thus making them available in the shared albums when using the album/image download option.

If that latter action isn't working for you, we need some details about what you did and what exactly happens when you next try the download.

[the_tarts_art]

Thank you  Jim for this post. You answered the question perfectly. I importing 3 photos, and the original is now stored in the cloud, and I'm just waiting for the syncing to finish.

[Remy5E12]

Hi Amber, could you support on how to put the original file in the cloud?

Example: I have exported the image in JPG based on the setting for IG (3MB). I add the JPG in creative cloud LRCC and when I download it from there, file size remains. When sharing it to a client and the client downloads it, file size is compressed to 900KB. I don't want the file to be compressed.

thank you!

[Jim Wilde]

Hi Amber, could you support on how to put the original file in the cloud?

Example: I have exported the image in JPG based on the setting for IG (3MB). I add the JPG in creative cloud LRCC and when I download it from there, file size remains. When sharing it to a client and the client downloads it, file size is compressed to 900KB. I don't want the file to be compressed.

thank you!

By @Remy5E12

I don't believe you can avoid that compression when the client downloads. My testing suggests that the dowloaded file will be in Jpeg format (even if the original is a raw file) and will have a quality setting around 70%. So while you are able to download at 100%, at the client end the download is more compressed, though even at 70% many people would find it difficult to see much, if any, difference between that and 100%. See this blog post from Jeffrey Friedl: http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/jpeg-quality

[vchen]

I want to share higher res photo. I made collection in classic and sync it. Instead of sharing in LR classic, you suggest do it in LRcloud. Now I have this collection in LRcloud then share it from LRcloud?

You mention importing to LRcloud? but ir's already there because it's sync in LRclassic. How. Thanks

[Suths]

I also have this problem, Vchen. Did you manage to work it out?