Exporting Images: File Settings and Image Sizes

[ZdeC]

I am trying to export some images to my desktop to then pass on for inclusion in social media or a website.

Please can someone offer some assistance as to what settings I need to choose for File Settings and Image Sizing?

Thanks.

I

[Bob Somrak]

No one can answer that as it depends on what size and quality you want your exported photos to be. 

[ZdeC]

If I’ve not exported photos before, how am I supposed to know.

The images are for social media and to go on a website. What settings would you recommend given that I don’t understand resolution, ppi, …

[Bob Somrak]

In general, just forget about resolution and ppi as they are meaningless most of the time.

.

These settings will work for a website or social media.  Just change the "1000 pixels" to a size of your choice and leave the other stuff alone.  Others may have different ideas but these have worked for me.

[ZdeC]

Bob I wasn't able to set the pixels to 1000?

[Bob Somrak]

‌Your dropdown are  megapixels, not pixels and long edge.  The dialogs have to be EXACTLY the same

You need to change ALL the dialogs as i have posted in the screenshot.

[ZdeC]

I so wish I understood what all the following refers to:

• quality
• limit size
• resize {why?}
• don't enlarge {what?}
• pixels
• megapixels
• resolution
• ppi

Without an appreciation of the above, it's impossible to understand what my exporting options are.

[Bob Somrak]

Download this Lightroom 6 Help pdf file and go to the Export section.  The rest of the document may be of use to you also.

https://helpx.adobe.com/pdf/lightroom_reference.pdf

[ZdeC]

This is going from bad to worse? What is a ‘bit’, ‘component’ and ‘compression’. The LR Manual seems to assume I have a knowledge of bit depth and channels which sadly I don’t!

[Per Berntsen]

Lightroom is designed for professionals, so yes, it is assumed that you know how digital images work.

You might benefit from reading these articles -

What is a digital image?

File formats

Lightroom basics

[ZdeC]

Per

You are so kind to share those links.

I will definitely read them in the next few days and hopefully things will then start to fall into place.

Once again, thank you so much for giving me some guidance.

[ZdeC]

Per, I’m so grateful for the links to your very well written articles. Your explanations are brilliant although I’m going to have to read them a number of times before I am able to fully absorb the content.

There are a few nuggets of information though that have already provided light-bulb moments for me!

Needless to say though, I have a couple of questions:

For on-screen viewing, ppi is irrelevant. If you post an image on the web, it will display exactly the same regardless of what the ppt is set to.

I struggle to understand how an image with many more pixels will not display any better than an image with very few pixels??

ppi - this is chosen according to quality of print you require?

The image above measures 300 x 450 pixels.* To print this image, the printer driver will divide the pixel dimensions by the ppi value to calculate the printed dimensions. Let's say the ppi is set to 300.

300:300 = 1 - and 450:300 = 1.5 - so the print will be 1 x 1.5 inches, or roughly 2.5 x 3.75 cm.

If the ppt is set to a lower value, it will print bigger, and if set to a higher value, it will print smaller.

what determines the pixel dimensions of an image?

your camera?

the type of file raw/jpeg

Thanks so much for your support.

[viarueda]

Large ppi files do not work well on the web. The web is designed for small files with the normal poi being 72 ppi. Larger files will load slowly and if too large not load at all. Stick with 72 ppi for web, for print use 300 ppi.

The original pixel dimensions of an image are determined by the sensor of your camera and your camera settings. Each sensor has a maximum, e.g., 4000x3000 pixels. You can upsize them to some extend and downsize them easily. Web images are always much smaller in ppi than print ppi. Higher ppi lets you print larger prints.

Most email servers have a limit to how large a file you can send via their email. That is why apps such as DropBox exist. You can send very large images over the Internet using that app.

[ZdeC]

Appreciate your input.

Presumably the full frame sensors capture more pixels than cropped sensors. Are you saying that a full frame sensors has 4,000 x 3,000 pixels?

[viarueda]

No they are larger. That was just an example.

[Todd Shaner]

ZdC wrote:

Needless to say though, I have a couple of questions:

For on-screen viewing, ppi is irrelevant. If you post an image on the web, it will display exactly the same regardless of what the ppt is set to.

I struggle to understand how an image with many more pixels will not display any better than an image with very few pixels??

ppi - this is chosen according to quality of print you require? 

Here's a very good article on the correlation between Resolution, PPI, and Size (in/cm) inside the Export module:

Lightroom Myth Buster: When Resolution Matters and When It Doesn't | Laura Shoe's Lightroom Training...

[Todd Shaner]

ZdC wrote:

This is going from bad to worse?  What is a ‘bit’, ‘component’ and ‘compression’.  The LR Manual seems to assume I have a knowledge of bit depth and channels which sadly I don’t!

From inside LR hit the F1 key, which will take you to the Adobe Help page. There are numerous links to Help and Video Tutorials. Here's one on the Export module in LR 5, which is identical in LR 6: Video Tutorial – Exporting Images in Lightroom 5 « Julieanne Kost's Blog

[Todd Shaner]

ZdC wrote:

If I’ve not exported photos before, how am I supposed to know.

The images are for social media and to go on a website.  What settings would you recommend given that I don’t understand resolution, ppi, …

After reading the article at the link I posted this question will still be unanswered. Most social media websites have a maximum size in both resolution (long edge pixels) and file size (megabytes). If you exceed these limits the file will be resized by the website, which can degrade the image. For example Facebook's photo upload limits are 2048 ppi Long Edge and 25 MB File Size maximum. So what does this mean? Let's look at two typical examples:

27" 5K Retina display: 5120 x 2880 = Long Edge ~23.5" and PPI = 5120 ÷ 23.5 = 218 ppi

27" 1080p display: 1920 x 1080 = Long Edge ~23.5" and PPI = 1920 ÷ 23.5 = 82 ppi

So what is the native resolution size of a 2048 pixel Long Edge image on these two displays?

27" 5K Retina display: 2048 pixels ÷ 218 ppi = 9.4 inch Long Edge

27" 1080p display: 2048 pixels ÷ 82 ppi = 25 inch Long Edge (1.5" off-screen at full-size)

In the case of Facebook I would suggest uploading image files with the maximum 2048 pixel long edge. The below settings should work very well. If you don't need the image to be viewable at large size on the website the choose a a lower 'pixel' setting such as 1024, which will display at 1/2 the size shown in the above examples.

NOTE: The 'Resolution' value is only used with in or cm setting for resizing the image. The Resolution value is simply written into the file's EXIF data with pixels setting You can set it to any value (300 or other).

[viarueda]

Web color space is sRGB, quality for web is 70 or greater. Generally will not see different above 70. Resolution for web is 72 pixels per inch. Long side dimensions really depends on how large you want images to appear and also depends on screen of viewing computer. I would suggest 1500 to 2000 pixels.

[ZdeC]

Can you recommend a link to some pithy definitions for me?

I’m struggling even with the basics. Why is a ‘long edge’ relevant?

I’ve really only known that my jpeg images were about 1 mb and now that I’m shooting raw my images are around 10 mb. As for the resolution, number of pixels etc … I don’t understand the relationship to the mb?

[Geoff the kiwi]

I recommend you go through the videos here.... at AdobeTV, they will answer your questions, instruct you and leave you with more questions...

[ZdeC]

I’ll be sure to check it out!

[Per Berntsen]

For on-screen viewing, ppi is irrelevant. If you post an image on the web, it will display exactly the same regardless of what the ppt is set to.

ZdC wrote:

I struggle to understand how an image with many more pixels will not display any better than an image with very few pixels??

Ppi and pixel dimensions are two different things.

Ppi is used to calculate print size, nothing else. An 3000 pixel image @300ppi will print at 10 inches

An image with many more pixels will display larger on screen, not better. If your screen resolution is 1920 pixels horizontally, an image that is 1920 pixels wide will fill the width of the screen exactly at 100% view, no matter what the ppi is set to.

So, at 100% view, your monitor will display one monitor pixel for one image pixel.

viarueda wrote:

Large ppi files do not work well on the web. The web is designed for small files with the normal poi being 72 ppi. Larger files will load slowly and if too large not load at all.

This is a common misconception. The simple truth is that ppi is totally and utterly irrelevant for screen viewing.

Only pixel dimensions matter. See the two images below.

800 x 534 pixels, 1 ppi

800 x 534 pixels, 800 ppi

ZdC wrote:

what determines the pixel dimensions of an image?

Inherently, pixel dimensions are determined by the camera you use.

The pixel count of a camera is commonly referred to in megapixels (millions of pixels).

So a camera that takes 6000 x 4000 pixel photos is a 24 megapixel camera (6000 x 4000 = 24 million).

If you don't crop the image in Lightroom, and export with Resize to fit unchecked, the exported image will have the same pixel dimensions as the original.

For web use, you will have to check Resize to fit, and enter suitable dimensions, like setting Long edge to 1000.

For a 6000 x 4000 image, this means that the 6000 will be reduced to 1000, and the 4000 will be reduced proportionally, to 667 pixels.

[JP Hess]

The reality is that the PPI setting never has any impact on the quality of the image. It doesn't matter what that setting is, the image will always still have the same number of pixels, have the same dimensions, and produce the same quality of print at any given size. The only value the PPI setting has is to enable programs such as Photoshop to calculate how large the image will be at any given setting.

As far as posting images on the web is concerned, all you need to do is multiply the number of inches you want by some number such as 72 (PPI) and that will enable you to calculate how many pixels along one side that your image needs to be. The PPI setting is then irrelevant.

[Per Berntsen]

Jim Hess wrote:

As far as posting images on the web is concerned, all you need to do is multiply the number of inches you want by some number such as 72 (PPI) and that will enable you to calculate how many pixels along one side that your image needs to be. The PPI setting is then irrelevant.

Jim, I have to disagree with you here.

Inches are as irrelevant to web images as ppi - screen viewing is all about pixels - suitable pixel dimensions is all that's required.