CS3 and Lightroom Q. Help me understand

Barry Nichols

I am looking for some advice from anyone who uploads photos to Smugmug, sells them, and EZ Prints (SM printer) prints them.

I am not sure what exactly needs to be uploaded, in terms of pixel size, MB, PPI. To make matters worse, I am new to CS3 and LR, so folks with expertise in these apps would be helpful as well.

Okay, Here is my question:
I take a pic, open it in Lightroom and see that it is 4288x2848 and 6.83MB.
I choose to edit a copy in CS3. After I make adjustments, I "Save As" and I get:





Now if I choose the settings above (and if these are wrong please tell me why), and save, and then review that pic in Lightroom, the pixels are still 4288x2848 but the size is now 1.45MB .

Okay, I sort of get that. But here is where my problem comes in. When I export from Lightroom so I can upload to Smugmug, I choose Export
and I get:



With the settings exactly as you see them the pic I exported still has a pixel size of 4288x2848 but now the MB have jumped to 3.4MB.:scratch :huh

I have read and tried everything I can think of and I am lost and confused. How could just the act of exporting DOUBLE the MB. :dunno

All I want is to make sure I am sending the best possible file to Smugmug so I don't get any returns. I guess what I am worried about is the UP and DOWN of the MB count and how that may affect the overall print.

Advice please.

Andy

Hi Barry,

So, for LR, get the plugin like I suggested in my email from the help desk:

You can get it here on the wiki:
http://wiki.smugmug.com/display/SmugMug/Hacks+and+Apps



You can experiment, with the quality level.... I use 90-100 depending. Be sure to choose sRGB, and don't minimize the metadata.

Andy

You can also upload from CS3 directly:
http://wiki.smugmug.com/display/SmugMug/Uploading+from+Photoshop+CS3+Bridge

Again, we say 8 on the help page, but you can save as, and use 10.

Barry Nichols

I appreciate the quick response, but I am a need to know person (took apart my parents appliances as a kid). What should I be striving for in the upload in my original question? Pixels only? Pixels and MB? Is there no harm if the MB are jumping up and down between programs?

Cameron

Barry Nichols wrote:

I appreciate the quick response, but I am a need to know person (took apart my parents appliances as a kid). What should I be striving for in the upload in my original question? Pixels only? Pixels and MB? Is there no harm if the MB are jumping up and down between programs?

Generally speaking, I'd recommend leaving the resolution (pixels) unchanged. What you should be striving for is a final image that does not compromise image quality but that is a reasonable size. Leaving the pixel dimensions untouched is the first piece. The reason you're seeing different file sizes between Photoshop and Lightroom is that the JPEG compression scale is different. In Photoshop the JPEG quality scale goes from 1-12. As Andy mentioned above, I'd stick with 8+. I usually use 10 for final output - I can't tell the difference between 10 and 12 and the size is much more managable. Lightroom on the other hand has a 1-100 scale. I've found that a quality setting of 80 in Lightroom gives almost the same filesize as using quality level 10 in Photoshop. For good measure I export at 85 or 90 usually. The filesize goes up a LOT above 90.

Typically, if you're going to edit a file over and over, or go from one program to another, it's advised to use a file format that is not lossy - using TIFF or PSD files to do sequential edits will keep you from recompressing the same image over and over. I export a JPEG image as my final step.

Barry Nichols

CSwinton wrote:

Typically, if you're going to edit a file over and over, or go from one program to another, it's advised to use a file format that is not lossy - using TIFF or PSD files to do sequential edits will keep you from recompressing the same image over and over. I export a JPEG image as my final step.

Thank you for this. I was concerned that a save in CS3 compresses and then a export in LR compresses again, how could that not hurt the final result? But if I am reading this right, as long I am using tiff or psd before that final export from LR the end result will be fine.
Thanks Again!

jfriend

Barry Nichols wrote:

Thank you for this. I was concerned that a save in CS3 compresses and then a export in LR compresses again, how could that not hurt the final result? But if I am reading this right, as long I am using tiff or psd before that final export from LR the end result will be fine.
Thanks Again!

Every sequence of save to JPEG, load from disk, modify image, save to JPEG does cause some image degradation because of the lossy JPEG compression. In my experience, 2-3 saves at JPEG quality level 10 or higher (on the 1-12 scale) or 90 or higher (on the 0-100 scale) is fine with no noticable degradation.

If you want to avoid any degradation at all, then save to TIFF before going to CS3 from LR and save back to TIFF after your CS3 edits. Then, your final save before uploading can be a level 10 to JPEG, thus you only have the one lossy save to JPEG.

As others have said, just keep the original pixel count, no resizing that way since that preserves the maximum image detail.

The TIFF and JPEG won't compare at all in size because the TIFF either isn't compressed or uses lossless compression (depending upon the options selected when creating the TIFF) so I wouldn't worry at all about that.

An image size can change dramatically with certain kinds of edits, even at a constant JPEG compression level. For example, an aggressive sharpening operation can double the size of some JPEG files because it creates many more sharp luminosity transitions in the file that render the JPEG compression algorithm much less effective (more detail to try to capture).