Why does my exported photo from lightroom become flat, washed out, and grainy?

You don't say how you are viewing the photos outside of Lightroom, but many external viewers won't display the image the same as it appears in Lightroom.

What software are you using to view the image outside of Lightroom?

Is it possible that the software used on the right that doesn't look correct is being viewed on a Windows machine? What color space are you selecting when exporting from LR? Nearly all Mac software is color managed and you should see a match, Windows is a different story. But depending on the software used on the right, the issue could be that it doesn't understand color management (isn't ICC aware). We need more info to assist.

Which version of Lightroom?

Are you previewing/evaluating Lr's noise etc. at 100% view?

betsy132 wrote:

Andrew Rodney and dj_paige I'm on a mac. I'm viewing the photo on the right with preview.

I'm using lightroom version 4.3

Preview on Mac is color managed but the screen capture you provided doesn't look like Preview.

Be sure to compare the LR Preview in Develop module at 100% (1:1) and the same ratio in the other app.

Here is a description of the problems of viewing photos in the Mac Preview App

Re: Why does LR soften images after export?