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Hi,
Recently I was working on editing some family pictures, and went to export them out of lightroom. I wasn’t quite sure what settings I should use for image sizing. I did a bit of research to see what would be a good size to deliver to clients. Everyone was saying to set the quality to 100%, and the pixels per inch to 300 for the best quality. I tried exporting with these settings and the photo turned out really grainy. I’m quite sure why…. Any suggestions?Thanks!
Huh, that is strange! I have never had that problem before. I generally use 65 quality when exporting to JPG (here’s why: https://www.lenspiration.com/2020/07/what-quality-setting-should-i-use-for-jpg-photos/) and have no issues with graininess. Perhaps your issue has something to do with Output Sharpening being too high? I generally always just use “Standard” amount. Can you send us some screenshots? How grainy is “really grainy”? What final output is desired (print, web)?
I wouldn’t crank the quality to 100% unless you’re planning on doing some serious printing. For most digital uses, like sharing online or emailing, you can usually get away with a lower quality setting (like 70-80%) and still have it look great. Also, 300 PPI is overkill for digital viewing. Try exporting a version at 72 PPI and see if that helps with the graininess. It might just be that your file is getting too big and Lightroom is struggling to process it smoothly.
Also, 300 PPI is overkill for digital viewing. Try exporting a version at 72 PPI and see if that helps with the graininess. It might just be that your file is getting too big and Lightroom is struggling to process it smoothly.
Changing the PPI in your Lightroom export settings won’t make any difference in quality at all for digital viewing, (unless you’re specifying a particular print size, that is.) PPI is only really relevant if you’re resizing/printing your photos.
Lightroom shouldn’t “struggle” with large files. It’s designed to handle high megapixel, high resolution files.
@windyknollgoldens if you’re getting grainy exports, there are a couple of likely options:1. The RAW file is grainy, so the export is too. Zoom in to 100% in LR and compare to 100% zoom in the exported JPG. Are they different? If not, check out the noise reduction settings. Make sure you aren’t oversharpening. (Use the “Masking” slider to apply sharpening only to areas that need sharpened).
2. If there is a difference, and the RAW file isn’t grainy, then it’s your export settings (or a glitch in Lightroom). Check to make sure there’s no export sharpening being applied. That would be my first guess as to why the export may look different from what you see in LR.
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