How to get web images displayed at higher resolution?

[mlm5587522]

I am trying out Lightroom CC to be able to share albums on the web and I keep running into a strange issue - lightroom web (lightroom.adobe.com) seems to limit all images displayed on the screen to 2048 pixels on the larger dimension (everywhere besides the edit mode). Even when zooming in to see 1:1, it does not load a full-resolution image but stretches the downscaled image, which looks comically bad. I tried saving the image ("Save Image As" in the browser) to see why what's being displayed looks so bad, and the image saved is essentially a ~250kb heavily-compressed jpeg downscaled to 2048 pixels on the largest dimension. Looks terrible with visible loss of resolution and compression artifacts even when not zooming in. But zooming in to 100% stretching the same low-res image instead of real zoom is even worse. Is this a bug or a limitation of a free trial?

The same issue with any shared albums - everything seems to be displayed downscaled to 2048 pixels and very heavily compressed. How do I get images displayed in full resolution on the web (or at least at screen resolution)?

Thanks!

[Sahil.Chawla]

Hi there,

As you're looking to share albums with high resolution images, please have a look at this forum thread and let us know if it helps: High quality file sharing in Lightroom CC

Regards,
Sahil

[mlm5587522]

No, this does not answer the question - that explanation does not fit. The actual UI of the lightroom on the web shows low-res (2048px wide) images everywhere except the "Edit" mode, even when zooming in, which is bewildering (what's the point of zooming in then?).

Here is a scenario:

Add images to Lightroom CC

Go to Lightroom Web and open one of those images in view mode (not in edit)

See highly compressed low-res (about 250kb, 2048px wide) version instead of full-res or at least a screen resolution version.

Zoom in, and instead of going full-res as the desktop client does, it stretches low-resolution version instead, showing big pixels.

The same happens with albums shred on the Web. Yes, you can still go to "Download original" and download the original, but viewing images on the web is unusable for me due to low resolution and compression artifacts.

[Nancy OShea]

Assuming you're syncing  LR Albums/Collections to your Adobe Portfolio site, beware that Portfolio steps on oversized images to conserve bandwidth and reduce the time it takes for pages to load.  The only way to beat that is to optimize your images for the web BEFORE  you bring them into Portfolio.  When I upload 900 x 900 px cover images, they are not stepped on and image quality is satisfactory for the web.  At most, your web images should be 2x the container size.    See help article below.

https://help.myportfolio.com/hc/en-us/articles/219536868-What-size-images-should-I-upload- 

[Jim Wilde · Accepted solution]

Yes, the view of shared images using the LrWeb is still restricted to the 2048px resolution. I've been asking Adobe to change that to allow a full 1:1 view for a few years now, but so far it hasn't materialised. I live in hope that it will turn up eventually.

Having said that, I don't see much in the way of artefacts when viewing the lower resolution files, nor is the image ever "stretched" as you describe, it "zooms" normally to the maximum resolution of the file. There may be some "trial" limitations or influences that I'm not aware of.

[mlm5587522]

So it's not just me who sees this. Sad that it's the feature rather than a bug. I shared photos with a colleague via lightroom web and despite all my efforts to change it, the quality was unacceptable when viewed on a 5K monitor or even a basic 4K consumer TV. Google Photos or OneDrive do a much better job (they have their problems, but they are not even real photography tools). It's a shame Lightroom has this limitation, given how common 4K devices are now. Anyway, I cannot switch to Lightroom until this is addressed, so I'll just wait for a resolution on the sidelines.

[Max LTV]

Same issue here. Very frustrated by this limitation. Anything shared via web looks terrible due to this 2048px downscaling.