Adobe lightroom question

LisaMarie · Jun 11, 2009

I just noticed when exporting my pictures out of lightroom the quality seems to deminish when they are changed over from RAW to Jpeg, i looked at the export settings and it said that my pictures were being exported out around something like 240 ppi, and i read some where for best results it should be some wheres around 300 ppi? Anyhow i changed it and still dont seem to notice any difference in quality? Any ideas what could be going on here!?? Thanks

MattxMosh · Jun 11, 2009

You already asked this question here. Worded slightly different. Its usually forum etiquette to have just one thread with the same question.

Going from raw to jpeg will always cause a loss in quality, since jpeg is a compressed file format. If that really bothers you, try saving in tiff, as it is lossless. Though the files are much larger.

ANDS! · Jun 11, 2009

Here come the Forum Cops™! Self appointed of course.

As for LightRoom. The reason your images are coming out now as they look in camera, is because "in camera" editing has been done to the RAW file (sharpening, color saturation, etc). When you bring the RAW file into LightRoom, it strips ALL that **** off, and literally is looking at the RAW file with nothing done to it. If you open your RAW image in the editing software that came with your camera, you will see the file you took in camera.

I too dislike Lightroom doing this, and I know there is a way to stop it - as if you look, you will see the actual image you captured in camera displayed for a brief moment, before LightRoom reverts to the strict RAW image.

Bastards.

LisaMarie · Jun 11, 2009

Because previously i asked 2 questions under one title heading, a title heading of which had nothing to do with this question, hence the new thread and title for those intrested in answering it .....

ANDS! · Jun 11, 2009

I would then edit your first question, or the thread title so it doesn't appear as if you are spamming the forum. . .

LisaMarie · Jun 11, 2009

Holy cow, haha well asking it twice apparently worked as matt answered it the second time round!

ANDS! · Jun 11, 2009

LisaMarie said:
Holy cow, haha well asking it twice apparently worked as matt answered it the second time round!

I would be very surprised if LR was degrading your files that much that you are noticing an appreciable "loss of quality" in your photographs.

musicaleCA · Jun 11, 2009

Check that you're actually saving the JPEG at an acceptable quality level. 10 will give you the best results, with JPEGs that hardly have any noticeable compression artifacting. PPI only comes into play when you're printing. For web-viewing, a resolution of 72 pixels per inch is standard, and plenty. For printing, PPI is best thought of in terms of viewing distance; the father away the viewer will be, the lower PPI you can get away with. For a standard 4x6 I'd stick to 300 PPI though.

LisaMarie · Jun 11, 2009

Actually i think that is the problem, i think the default for jpeg is just to low, i saved it in tiff and actually just as matt said lost no quality however i notice that it is a large file and can only be opened in my photoshop, which makes me wonder if that would be alright to save to a disk and to take to most pro labs for devloping??

musicaleCA · Jun 11, 2009

If they're a Pro lab, they might look at you funny but they should be able to deal with TIFFs. Whether or not they will or want to is a different question, because they're so gigantic and I can easily see how a lab would simply say "You're not paying us enough to take the extra time to process such large documents". As I said, a high-quality JPEG is good for most purposes. If you are seriously going after absolutely the best possible image quality, you'd concentrate on it from camera to editing to exporting to printing, and the last part may include the use of a lossless format like TIFF.

Just grab the slider in the export dialog for JPEG quality to the right.

ANDS! · Jun 11, 2009

Can you post images of the supposed "lesser quality" JPEG?

And 240 PPI/DPI is a perfectly fine ratio.

Way too many myths being perpetrated in this thread.

LisaMarie · Jun 11, 2009

Actually you guys helped me figure it out, it was the jpeg file format that was the reason behind the loss of picture quality. So if thats the case then what format do you guys use for exporting your files after seeing what huge difference it makes, i see here on light room that i have the option between tiff, psd, dng. Are those generally all the same thing just that only certain progams can open certain ones, or is there more to them than that?

ANDS! · Jun 11, 2009

I still want to see a shot of this low-budget image. LR is on default for me. I have no degradation in my image, and I do not (no need) shoot in/export in TIFF.

musicaleCA · Jun 11, 2009

TIFF is a widely supported format that's been around for awhile, lossless, keeps layer data, and is also gigantic.

PSD is photoshop's proprietary format, and saves all layer data, such as filters, adjustments, masks, yadda yadda.

DNG is an open format, developed by Adobe, with then intention of standardizing the RAW format. DNG is similar to the RAW output of cameras, but it is a standardized format, which if camera manufacturers adopt it, will make it easier on everyone to interpret and use the various types of RAW files that are generated by different makes and models of cameras.

ANDS!: I don't disagree that 240 is perfectly acceptable, but if you've got the pixels to get to 300, why not use 'em?