Blurry / Distorted photo in Lightroom on export

[jodik3401]

Recently, I have had problems with exporting in Lightroom Classic.  I am current on updates.   Some, not all, photos that are clear in Lightroom are distorted upon exporting them to my hard drive.  You can see the photo "jerk" and distort. I have researched this online with no resolution.  I have changed my export settings to match others that have had the same issue.  One suggested it was the photo viewfinder on the computer, but there have been no changes that I am aware of and it doesn't happen to every photo.  I need these photos to be as clear as they were in Lightroom after exporting them.  None of the modifications have worked. Is this happening to anyone else?  Any suggestions on how I can fix this issue?  Thank you!

[Tony_See]

Can you please post a small screenshot of before/after and the export process you are using?

[F. McLion]

Also, please post some more information about the photo you are trying to export, i.e. the cropped size.

[The_Maj]

I've had the same problem for YEARS, and have never been able to figure it out. Tonight I did a deep dive, and am glad that I'm not the only one that's having the same problem.

Here's the rundown:

1. I import a Fuji raw image file into Lightroom
2. Edit in Develop
3. Right-click, Export, Export...
4. Leave Quality at 100, Uncheck Limit File Size
5. Select Resize to Fit, Long Edge, 1080 pixels
6. Click the Export button
7. Alternatives: Select Output Sharpening, Sharpen For Screen, try Low, Standard and High.

Regardless, the resulting image is soft - so I always export at whatever the native resolution was and resize in another program.

PS: I've read the reports that this is all a misunderstanding from using Preview, or using it incorrectly. I've previewed the images at 1:1, and in multiple pieces of software (e.g., Chrome) and they're always soft.

Would love to get to the bottom of this. Images are inline!

[The_Maj]

I should clarify: I've reproduced this on Lightroom (2015.14 and previous versions) and Lightroom Classic CC (7.5, any many previous versions) on macOS El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra, Mojave.

[Rob_Cullen]

You do not state the original size of the RAF file (or if it is cropped) but if it was something like- size in pixels (3840x5760), then an export to 1080px long edge would indeed cause a loss of quality. ie. 5 pixels in the original must be rendered into 1 pixel of the JPG export. And you also have JPG compression to consider.

No wonder you see a drop in quality, and I do not see how to avoid (as much as possible with JPG) unless you do not resize.

Jeffrey Friedl's Blog » An Analysis of Lightroom JPEG Export Quality Settings

[The_Maj]

Sorry! The original image is 6000 x 4000.

What would you suggest from a workflow perspective for this use case then? Should I be shooting in lower resolution?

Am I crazy in thinking that this (the same image, exported without resizing, and then zoomed out to the same size as the other one) is much more clear?

[Rob_Cullen]

What would you suggest from a workflow perspective for this use case then? Should I be shooting in lower resolution?

No. Shoot in the highest resolution ("Fine"?  if shooting in JPG). Do not use any 'Crop' settings in the camera. You want to always work with the best image available from the camera. (6000x4000) and that would be RAf raw.

Am I crazy in thinking that this (the same image, exported without resizing, and then zoomed out to the same size as the other one) is much more clear?

Yes, it should look (almost) the same. Except for the possibility of JPG compression artifacts. It is rare that you would see these if you export full-size and high quality.

I note also that you have the 'Output' Sharpening set to "High", this may be adding artifacts to your exported JPGs also. Try "Standard" or "Low" instead.

Finally- What is your work case?  What is the purpose for exporting the photos out to JPGs? And what size do you want them to be?

And have you studied the site link I posted in Post#5?

[Jao vdL]

What is happening here is that you are watching these images on a retina (hiDPI) display. This can be clearly seen from your screenshots. A 1080 pixel image on a display such as that will look soft simply because you have not enough pixels to drive each single pixel meaning that you will generally need images that have 2x the resolution (4x the pixels) to make them look as good as the originals or the full resolution export.

There is a setting in preview that will make an image display at precisely one pixel per display pixel. You get this by going into the preferences in preview and looking at the "images" tab and selecting Define 100% scale as 1 pixel equals 1 screen pixel. Now when you hit command-0, preview will scale the image to be 1:1 on the display. 

[The_Maj]

Thank you Jao vdL , your answer is spot on! When I drag that same "soft" photo over to my second display, it looks fine. This is all because of my laptop's retina display.

From doing a bit of research, it appears that my display is 2560-by-1600 native resolution at 227 pixels per inch, and as you mentioned there's an issue where my export does not contain enough pixels to "fill" the preview.

If I export with the long edge set to 2x 1080 (2,160), the image looks sharp in Preview.

Going back to the 1,080-pixel image...here's where I'm still confused: If I set Preview to 'Define 100% scale as:` to be `1 image pixel equals 1 screen pixel`, and I Preview the image, and I push command and 0 (View -> Actual Size), the image looks better, but still not right. Further, the Preview is taking up about 70% of my screen's real estate.

If the image is 1,080 and my display is 2,560, and I'm Previewing my image at pixels 1:1, shouldn't the preview take up 42% of my display?

Is there some disconnect between what Preview thinks is a pixel and what is actually a pixel?

I know a lot of people hate Preview, so I even went out and downloaded Xee ³, but when I open the image to 1:1 in that app, it also to the exact same size as Preview.

On either app, if I zoom out to about 50% of "actual", the image actually looks great.

I'm sure I'm missing something really obvious here, but I don't know what it is.

Thank you!

Aaron

[Jao vdL]

My guess is that you found one of the bugs in preview and mac os X in general. The one pixel trick only works if your retina display in System Preferences->Displays is set to “default for display”. If you have it set to scaled to “more space” or the other way (larger text), the setting does not work like it should.

[The_Maj]

I should note that my screen's resolution is not scaled. It is set to 'Default for display'.

[Jao vdL]

That is strange. For a 1080 pixel long (is it 1080 on the long side?)

image, it should be less than half the display. What does it show when you

do get info (command-I) in preview?

[The_Maj]

For the sake of science, I just set my display to Scaled and used the 'More Space' option, which I see now that Apple notes "Looks like 1680 x 1050"

Now when I preview actual size, the image is a bit smaller in terms of screen real-estate, but still not the size I expected...which would make sense if the screen isn't looking like 2560-by-1600.

With all this being said, I'm even more confused. Maybe I always need to edit on an external display? That seems ridiculous though.

[The_Maj]

[Jao vdL]

That is strange. Did you quit and restart preview after making the settings change? It is indeed not showing it at the right size. I wouldn't "only edit on the external display" just be aware that for the retina you need higher resolution images.