Quality drop when export from tiff to jpeg in Lightroom

Are your TIF file 8-bit or 16-bit color?

Sounds like the 16-to-8 bit conversion is running out of colors to smooth out the shading.

You might experiment with using AdobeRGB instead of ProphotoRGB and see if that helps at all.

vladm90267370 wrote:

 

When in Develop mode everything looks great (i'm talking about night pictures, especially where there is dark sky). Once I finish working I transfer my tiff (that looks great in ANY zoom while in Develop mode) to jpeg - my settings are untouched and the jpeg pictures are a bit noisy in the sky with some halos and miscolored lines - frankly look completely different.

What processing are you doing to the image file in LR and then in PS? Please provide a screenshot of the LR Detail panel settings applied to the original camera image file before creating the TIFF file.

It looks to me that you have a monitor calibration issue. The image in Photoshop and Lr should be identical or very close.

vladm90267370 wrote:

 

Yeah, it's all zeroes in my LR, so there's no problem there. I noticed that when I transfer from LR to PS as tiff the picture looks really bad in open areas like sky or water, miscolored, really horrible

What is the "original file" type you are using in LR (Camera Raw, TIFF, JPEG)? If it is a camera raw file (NEF, CR2, DNG, etc) you need to apply Sharpening and Noise Reduction to it in the LR Develop module. Does the "original file" look the same when viewed in the Library module as in the Develop module? If not how does it differ?

What does the jpeg look like when you reimport back into Lightroom?

vladm90210058 wrote:

 

And btw I understand the difference in quality between Lib and Dev mode and I don't really care about it, my concern is why LR exports from tiff to jpeg with a "quality" that you see in Lib mode - that's the problem for me. And again it is only noticeable in gradient parts of the picture i.e. sky or water, where you go slightly from light to dark and vice versa. Also if I open this tiff in PS and export it to jpeg with maximum quality - same bad results and jpeg's "quality" is visible anywhere: in ACD See app, on Flickr, etc.

I reported this issue over three years ago: Lightroom: Low Quality Downscaled Views in the Develop Module – Part II Adobe considers this "Not a problem" and for most images it isn't an issue.  More here: Re: Develop module & library module aren't matching

ISSUE #1 - Noise Reduction

Concerning the posted "night shots' you say, "I checked Detail panel in LR and again, before I do anything with my raw files I set everything to 0 in Detail (but even if I would leave it as default (25) it wouldn't make the difference)."

Most night scenes are shot with high ISO and/or long shutter  times to achieve proper exposure. This increases noise levels in the image and requires using the Luminance and Color Noise Reduction controls to reduce the noise. You need to adjust them at 1:1 Zoom view and then adjust the Sharpening controls to restore edge detail. You may then need to go back and increase the Noise Reduction controls slightly. It's a fine balance and with high ISO images you may need to sacrifice some sharpness at the 1:1 view to keep noise levels low.  If you plan on doing further editing in PS I also suggest that the Basic panel controls also  be properly adjusted before creating the TIFF file. With these LR settings applied tried creating the JPEG file again.

ISSUE #2 - Incompatible Monitor Profile

As Ian Lyons mentioned you may have an incompatible monitor profile or simply improper control adjustment. The sky banding in the sky area is not as pronounced on my calibrated monitor as you describe. if I increase Exposure by ~+2 EV in LR it starts to look closer to what you describe. Do you use a monitor calibrator such as an i1 Display or Spyder device?

Hey there, I just pulled this topic up in a search for the same issue you posted here. I am having the exact same issue that you described here, library and develop module not matching. Develop module image looks great then library image looks lesser quality. Once exported to JPEG the image has a lot of noise and halos. I am using a 2017 macbook pro 15", so I do not think this is the problem. Plus when I email the image to myself after having been exported to JPEG the same noise shows up when viewed on my Iphone or other tablet.

Have you solved this issue? Any help would be awesome, THX!

Show us screen captures. Show us the photo as it appears in LR. Show us the photo as it appears outside of LR. Show us your export settings.

Please also show us a screenshot or the settings used in the Detail panel. These settings are what generally causes differences between the Develop module screen image and Library/Export rendering.