Lightroom exporting

[PaulWog]

I've been a little lazy with the way I handle files. I set my Lightroom export settings two separate times: Once when I installed it, and once when I realized that JPeg export setting was set to lower than 100% quality.

Currently my settings are as follows: Color space sRGB, Quality 100 (JPeg), Resolution 300 PPI.

I don't care about the file size. What I'm wondering are these things:

1) Is there an advantage to ProPhoto RGB? I've read all the stuff about Adobe RGB, although I'll ask anyways: If I export an image file as an Adobe RGB, and I convert it to sRGB, do I lose data that I would've had were I to have edited in sRGB in the first place? And what about ProPhoto RGB?
2) Is there any advantage to exporting at a higher resolution than 300 pixels per inch?
3) Is there an advantage to exporting as a TIFF file as opposed to a Jpeg set to 100% quality? I know Jpeg is a lossy format, but I'm not sure how lossy it is at 100% quality export settings. If I'm planning to edit in Photoshop after a Lightroom edit, should I always export as a PSD file?
4) If I do export as a TIFF file for storage, and in the future I decide to convert the TIFF file to JPeg, would I end up with worse quality than if I had originally just exported as a JPeg?

Basically I'm just trying to manage my future processed image storage plans (aside from my RAW file storage).

 

[BillM]

Well just one note on 3 and 4. You can edit in PS right from LR just by right clicking and going through the menu. And it will select TIFF as the default file format and create a copy. I am not an expert but I believe TIF is lossless so going from RAW to TIFF to JPG shouldn't cause any issues with quality compared to going RAW to JPG. I believe the biggest quality issues are when saving as JPG then changing and re-saving, but again I am not an expert and I won't pretend to be one just because I'm on the internet Hope that helps

 

[KmH]

A JPEG at a quality setting of 100% (10 in Photoshop) is indistinguishable from an 8-bit, no layers TIFF file - as prints.

Beyond about 340 ppi the human eye can see no difference if you assign a higher print resolution.
The higher print resolution gets the smaller prints become if image resolution remains constant.
Print resolution value (ppi) ONLY APPLIES TO PRINTS and has zero effect on photos displayed electronically.
Plus as prints get larger they are viewed from further away reducing the need for print resolution.
Print labs stake their reputations on having minimum print resolutions of about 100 ppi.
The print resolution you need is also a function of photo content and photo quality.

LR's Develop module uses a version of ProPhoto RGB for editing, but does not assign a profile to an unprofiled master.
The version LR uses has a gamma of 1.0 instead of the normal ProPhoto RGB gamma of 1.8.
Converting from Adobe RGB to sRGB means the color gamut is reduced, though no image data is lost.

4. No. For storage I prefer PSD over TIFF because PSD usually has a somewhat smaller file size.

http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/impr...t/lightroom4/pdf_files/LightroomRGB_Space.pdf

 

[Ysarex]

When you're converting the raw file to RGB in LR the working color space is ProPhoto (minor LR variation). If you plan to do additional editing in Photoshop then you should export to a TIFF or PSD file and keep the color space ProPhoto until you're finished with all editing. You should likewise export the file to Photoshop in 16 bit at that point. As Bill noted you can move directly to Photoshop from inside LR.

The 300 ppi versus 72 ppi versus xxx ppi is pretty much meaningless. It can be changed from anything to anything else at any time and have no actual effect on your photo. Consider these two images:

JPEG is real lossy and there's a huge difference between a TIFF file and a compressed JPEG. If you can manage to do it, avoid editing JPEGs. That's a period. JPEG is great for having a compressed file that you can transmit and post online etc. etc. But there's a huge change do to the compression that will cause any editing after the fact to be far more destructive than it would have otherwise been.

All editing is destructive and causes harm. It's also necessary. Consider that you require surgery to save your life -- surgery then would be very good, but they're still going to cut you. So when you edit a photo you want the surgery that just puts a couple little holes in you rather than splaying you open like a dressed deer. Do all your photo editing on raw and/or 16 bit uncompressed ProPhoto colorspace files and you're performing the kind of surgery that barely leaves a scar. Editing a JPEG is the other end of that spectrum.

When you're finished you can archive that TIFF/PSD file away and or begin the process of converting it into a finished form. You'll want to eventually end up with an sRGB color space, 8 bit RGB file that you can save as a JPEG to put on your facebook page and/or whatever. At that point the editing should be done. If you decide later you want to make changes you should hopefully be able to reach back to an archive version that's still 16 bit and ProPhoto or raw.

Joe

 

[AlanKlein]

3) Saving jpegs at 100% will create a file larger than the original TIFF. You save nothing by doing that. I believe with LR 5, anything over 91% make a file larger than the original. You can check this out yourself saving multiple files at different percentages to see this. I've notioced this happens in Irfanview and Elements as well although the percentage vary among the programs where the size reaches these points.

Just a reminder about LR. The original image file from your camera imported into LR, whether RAW or jpeg, is never changed regardless of the edits. What LR does is store a data base of the edits. When you export, those edits are applied to the original image and the end results then becomes a new physical image file. But the original image file does not change. You can create any number of virtual copies of the original file and apply different edits to each of the virtual files (let's say conversion to BW on one, editing for printing on another, etc.) Again, the original image file does not change. The virtual files are virtual and do not exist as separate image files but are kept in a data base entry just as the edits. Of course, when you export, then the exported image does create a hardware image file.

 

[KmH]

Edits in LR are made using XML line commands that alter the algorithms LR uses to render the image.
In other words none of the pixels in the original are changed and LR edits are called "non-destructive".

Here is a LR image file with it's XML line commands:

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[Ido]

When I export images that aren't for print, I typically use 77 quality on JPEG. I can even make do with 60 most of the time, but if there are some repeating patterns, like a fence or a striped shirt, I'd rather not mess with 60. No reason to choose anything other than sRGB; the output media is digital-only, and the screens on which my photos are shown most often are sRGB-only, anyway; that's the color space of the web, by the way - it's compatible with pretty much anything.

When I do print, I typically do it through a printing service (basically my country's Mpix), which has a file size limitation (30MB) and color space restriction (sRGB), so that's what I use. If it had other requirements, I would've adjusted the settings for that. As for the file size, I don't need to guess what quality rating will give me the right size, because Lightroom can do that for me - under that quality box and slider, is an option to limit the export to a certain size, so that Lightroom chooses the highest quality possible while staying under that boundary.

I find that the only reason I need to export any photos and keep them in a certain location, is for my family to download them from our network-connected drive to their phones, and also for me to set a new wallpaper for my iPhone from time to time. Lightroom has a very useful feature called Publish Services, which allows exporting directly to online sites and social media such as Facebook and Flickr (and there are plugins for others, like 500px and several portfolio services like SmugMug and PhotoShelter), without needing to save any extra files on your drive.
Lightroom is what I use to manage my entire photo library, and it will probably stay that way (after a very brief dip in Capture One Pro 8 recently; I reverted back to Lightroom after less than two weeks - thank God for free trials!). It shows me all of my photos, most of them are DNG files (I typically convert Raw files to DNG upon import; they're smaller files and faster to work with in Lightroom, without compromising any data or quality) or TIFF files (that were originally DNG files, but went through Photoshop for some healing/cloning, panorama stitching or exposure blending). I can find a specific photo quickly and easily, because I've formed an organized workflow that's logical to me. That last part is key - learn the workflow that some professional photographers have shared, but remember that it's a very personal thing. What works and seems logical to one photographer, may not be that way to you. So take your time and get organized the way you think - it took me almost a full year.