Edited some Images in Lightroom

Hi Guys

Ive taken some Jpeg and raw images on my Nikon d3300, I've installed lightroom 2015, I've been doing some editing only basic for now.

my first question is - When I edit my jpegs and I click file, export, save the photo in my folder, I have quality on 100% and pixels on 72 as reccomended by a friend, he stated if I was to print them id have the pixels at 300?? When edited does my JPEG Qauilty drop?? on my MacBook it appears quality in my opinion but I'm just curious to know.

my second question - when I edit my raw images again just basic edit, when I click export, I click save as original. if I was to send this raw images edited to a friend is there a way I can do this??

I've just been randomly shooting items objects as I've only just got the camera.

thanks in advance

Damen

Damo88 said:

When edited does my JPEG Qauilty drop??

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When exporting, LR creates a duplicate of your original image - with the LR edits applied - and puts it wherever you specify in the export dialogue. If, as part of the Export, you specify some sort of compression (i.e. making it a 600px image) then quality will be lost.
Also - when you edit an image, you are making changes to the pixels, so if you crop it for example, the overall quality will go down (assuming you view at the same size). Fortunately, all LR's changes are non-destructive meaning you can go back and do-over (open up the History panel in the Develop module to see this.)

Damo88 said:

I have quality on 100% and pixels on 72 as reccomended by a friend, he stated if I was to print them id have the pixels at 300??

Click to expand...

If you export an image at "full size" and 72 dpi, it will display on a monitor at 6000x4000 (and then almost certainly be compressed because there aren't screens at that resolution). If you send it to a printer and tell them to just "print it", you'll (presumably) get an 83x55 inch billboard at 72dpi. Because of this, it's probably worth setting up at least 2 export presets depending on what your output requirements are.
For screen display, limiting the size of the image to 1000 on the longest edge is a good balance between a nice big photo and something that people will have a hard time printing. Ignore dpi because it doesn't mean anything on a pixel screen. (an inch is an inch, but 1000px is half my (24") screen, almost all of my (32") TV screen and not quite all of an iPhone 7 screen (5")
For print, it's a whole different ballgame where inches do matter. 300dpi is a generally accepted resolution for magazines (something viewed at around 12") but the bigger the print, the lower the resolution you can get away with (assuming someone isn't going to get their nose up to it). My billboard example above would look brilliant from about 6 feet away. If you're doing "normal" (i.e. nothing over A4/8x10) printing, have another export setting that is around 300dpi but doesn't constrain size.

Damo88 said:

when I edit my raw images again just basic edit, when I click export, I click save as original. if I was to send this raw images edited to a friend is there a way I can do this??

Click to expand...

Your Lightroom edits to a raw file are stored as a set of instructions of "changes" made to the image (see history). These instructions are stored in the catalogue but can be saved back to the original raw file so that they can be viewed in another version of Lightroom (or any raw editor). Select the image and CTRL+S.
If you do an "original" export, I'm not sure what gets copied or how. The way I'd do it would be to make the changes, CTRL+S to save back to the original file, then make a copy of the original file and the sidecar xmp (in Windows Explorer for example) and send them both to my friend.

I would never export at 72dpi unless you only ever want to use it on a screen. I alway export at 18 icnches along the long side and 300dpi.

Damo88 said:

I have ... pixels on 72 as reccomended by a friend, he stated if I was to print them id have the pixels at 300??

Click to expand...

When you're exporting from Lightroom, I suggest it's best to think of the image dimensions in terms of pixels. That's because, ultimately, pixels are what your image is made up from and pixels are what screens use to display images. So your export dialogue would look something like this:

or like this:

And both images will be the same. The 'resolution' number, the pixels per inch, is meaningless. It's just a number that Lightroom writes into the JPEG file because the JPEG specification insists there has to be a number. But it doesn't change anything. The size of the file is still 1800 x 1200 pixels in both cases.

You might think that, this example, a file which is 1800 x 1200 pixels with 300 ppi means that it will print at 6 x 4 inches, and a file which is 1800 x 1200 pixels at 100 ppi will print at 18 x 12 inches. In fact you can print either file at any size you like. If you tell the printer that you want it printed at, say, 36 x 24 inches, the printer will just ignore the ppi number in the file.

The only time you need to pay attention to the ppi number is if for some reason you're specifying the size of the file in inches (or centimetres, etc) rather than pixels, because then Lightroom will use the ppi number to calculate how many pixels it's going to use.

So this file will be 1800 x 1200 pixels:

and this file will also be 1800 x 1200 pixels:

but this one will be only 600 x 400 pixels:


It's better to always think, and specify, in terms of pixels, and then you don't need to worry about ppi.

bovey9 said:

I would never export at 72dpi unless you only ever want to use it on a screen. I alway export at 18 icnches along the long side and 300dpi.

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I would always export for each particular size I wanted. There is no one size fits all.

Unless you exporting in inches or cm then ppi and ppcm are absolutely meaningless.

The simplest way is to work at the largest pixel size available and forget about dpi or pixels per inch.
As StewartR says above: "It's better to always think, and specify, in terms of pixels, and then you don't need to worry about ppi."

A high resolution image can always be scaled down for a smaller print, but if you've got a small image as your starting point you cannot stretch to a larger print size without losing sharpness and image quality.

Why are you exporting, why not print straight from Lightroom?

StewartR said:

When you're exporting from Lightroom, I suggest it's best to think of the image dimensions in terms of pixels. That's because, ultimately, pixels are what your image is made up from and pixels are what screens use to display images. So your export dialogue would look something like this:
View attachment 93811
or like this:
View attachment 93809
And both images will be the same. The 'resolution' number, the pixels per inch, is meaningless. It's just a number that Lightroom writes into the JPEG file because the JPEG specification insists there has to be a number. But it doesn't change anything. The size of the file is still 1800 x 1200 pixels in both cases.

You might think that, this example, a file which is 1800 x 1200 pixels with 300 ppi means that it will print at 6 x 4 inches, and a file which is 1800 x 1200 pixels at 100 ppi will print at 18 x 12 inches. In fact you can print either file at any size you like. If you tell the printer that you want it printed at, say, 36 x 24 inches, the printer will just ignore the ppi number in the file.

The only time you need to pay attention to the ppi number is if for some reason you're specifying the size of the file in inches (or centimetres, etc) rather than pixels, because then Lightroom will use the ppi number to calculate how many pixels it's going to use.

So this file will be 1800 x 1200 pixels:
View attachment 93813
and this file will also be 1800 x 1200 pixels:
View attachment 93812
but this one will be only 600 x 400 pixels:
View attachment 93810

It's better to always think, and specify, in terms of pixels, and then you don't need to worry about ppi.

Click to expand...

very helpful. so the PPI doesn't mean a thing really if it was 70 or 300 if the image size is what it is then nothing will change. What about if I was to want a canvas of one of my photos, if I sent the image to a company would they adjust to suit?? or would I need to resize the image etc??

Rapscallion said:

Why are you exporting, why not print straight from Lightroom?

Click to expand...

I'm only exporting for Facebook integral and for also my photo library until I buy a external harddrive.

Damo88 said:

What about if I was to want a canvas of one of my photos, if I sent the image to a company would they adjust to suit?? or would I need to resize the image etc??

Click to expand...

They will generally resize the image themselves. If you tell them how big you want it printed, they know how many PPI their printer prints, so they can calculate how many pixels they need and resize the image accordingly.

If you wanted to resize the image yourself you would need to know exactly how many PPI their printer needs, and their customer service people might not even know that.

StewartR said:

They will generally resize the image themselves. If you tell them how big you want it printed, they know how many PPI their printer prints, so they can calculate how many pixels they need and resize the image accordingly.

If you wanted to resize the image yourself you would need to know exactly how many PPI their printer needs, and their customer service people might not even know that.

Click to expand...

thats great Stewart at least its not for me to worry about, I'm going to be posting some images I've been taking raw and editing to see how I can improve soon, ill post in the beginners section, I now a coupe I can do better at but want people to confirm it for me such as your self