Exporting Photos Out of Lightroom

lfoush · May 25, 2013

I have a couple photos in Lightroom I was going to email to my friend to edit. I didn't know what the best export settings would be so that she receives good quality photo. What should the resolution be? I emailed myself the photo with both a 200 and 300 pixel count and they both were not the greatest quality. Is it necessary to sharpen for screen? If someone could explain what settings to use in this particular situation, it would be much appreciated. I'm new with Lightroom and figuring out what settings to use for particular situations has been somewhat of a challenge.

Thanks!

Heitz · May 25, 2013

I'm curious to hear people's response to this too, as I also find it hard to choose. If I'm looking for a smaller jpeg, what I usually do is size it smaller based on megapixels. In one of the export dialogs you can specify that. I'll usually use something like 3-5 megapixels as output, and it comes out looking just as good, just smaller.

o hey tyler · May 25, 2013

lfoush said:
I have a couple photos in Lightroom I was going to email to my friend to edit. I didn't know what the best export settings would be so that she receives good quality photo. What should the resolution be? I emailed myself the photo with both a 200 and 300 pixel count and they both were not the greatest quality. Is it necessary to sharpen for screen? If someone could explain what settings to use in this particular situation, it would be much appreciated. I'm new with Lightroom and figuring out what settings to use for particular situations has been somewhat of a challenge.

Thanks!

If you want to send them to your friend to edit, why don't you send her the original? Google drive allows you to upload photos to a cloud storage space and share the folder with anyone.

Personally, I wouldn't want to work with a small (sub 2000px on the long edge) file to edit.

cptkid · May 25, 2013

When you export just put like 5000kb for file size. Don't change any other boxes.

A 5mb jpeg file should give you plenty of pixels.

lfoush · May 30, 2013

When I export though, there is no option for changing the kb size...?

The_Traveler · May 30, 2013

Take a step back,
folks.
LR gives all sorts of options and the 'resolution' doesn't mean anything realistically.

If the final output is going to be for the screen, maximum usable or needed size in pixels is probably 1024 w x 768 h for most screens (and sharpened for screen) quality down around 50 or 60

If the final output is going to be a print, multiply expected size x 250 and export the jpg that size in pixels with quality of 80 or 90 and sharpened for print.

thus an 8 x 12 print would need a jpeg about 2000 x 3000 optimally to start looking really good (assuming fine detail is present in print.

Big Mike · May 30, 2013

As Lew is saying....we need to start with a better understanding of the term here.

200 and 300 pixel count

There is no 'pixel count'...I'm guessing that you're talking about the resolution in PPI (pixels per inch)...and as mentioned, that number isn't really important.
What is important (depending of the intended use of of the file/image) is the number of pixels. (3000x2000 or whatever it is).

I'd suggest that you just leave the size (number of pixels) at it's native value. That way you won't be creating any new pixels (which always lowers quality).

I'd leave the PPI number at whatever it is (maybe 240?) but really, you could change this to whatever, and as long as the actual size remains the same...it won't really change much in terms of quality.

As for file type...you could send a JPEG, but when you save/export an image as a JPEG, it compresses the file and reduces the quality. You also have control over the quality level...and you wouldn't notice a difference, going as low as 50-60%....but since this is going to be further edited, you probably want to use the max (if you decide to go with JPEG).
You could go with a TIFF file, which will retain more information than a JPEG, especially if you export it in 16 bit. But you need to know that doing this will give you a much larger file...which may be hard to send via e-mail etc.

You will want ton consider the color space as well. Saving it in Prophoto or Adobe RGB would be better (more color range) than using sRGB....but the person receiving the file should know what they're doing, if you are going to send them something other than sRGB.