Lightroom Export Settings for Photographers
Listen. You’ve just spent hours planning the perfect shoot, styling your clients, culling images, and getting that edit just right. Now it’s time to deliver them and show them off to the world. Lightroom has several different settings that you need to use depending on what you are going to use your photos for. For example, if you are exporting for Facebook then you will use different Lightroom export settings than if you were going to export high resolution images for print.
This blog will help you choose the right settings for the right usages ensuring your art looks exceptional everywhere you decide to display it.
Getting Started
Selecting your photos for export
If you have a group of photos you want to export, you’ll want to
Select the first photo
Hold down Shift
Select the last image and your selection will be complete
If your photos are not next to each other (i.e. not in order) and you want to choose only certain photos to export:
Select the first photo
Hold down Command on Mac or Control on PC
While holding down Command/Control select all the photos you want to export
Once you have all your images selected you can export them by either
Right clicking one of the selected images and selecting Export
Going to File -> Export
If you’ve already exported some photos and want to export more using the same Lightroom export settings, you can use the Export With Previous option. As the name suggests, if you choose this option, Lightroom will use the same settings as the last time and add your photos to the ones you had exported earlier.
Selecting your destination for saving
When you export photos from Lightroom, whether it’s to a location on your computer or to an external drive, you will have to specify where you want to export your photos to. If you want to keep things organized, you can create different folders for each export. For example, I export all my images into a Finals folder and within that folder, create specific folders for social media, another for high resolution images, and another for SEO optimized.
High Resolution (for printing)
When you are exporting your photos for print, it is extremely important to ensure they have the right resolution to avoid pixelated images and low quality prints. To obtain a high resolution export, set the pixels per inch to at least 300ppi (pixels per inch).
1. Choose the location of where you want to export the photos.
2. Choose the file type under File Settings. I select JPEG & color space sRGB
3. Make sure ‘Resize to fit’ is NOT selected
4. Change the resolution to 300 pixels per inch (ppi)
5. Choose sharpen for ‘glossy’ or ‘matte’ depending on your print type. (Glossy is for photos that won’t be touched often, matte is for photos that will be)
6. Select a Watermark if desired.
7. Click Export
Instagram/Facebook (social sharing)
When you want to share your pictures on social media you need to size them for the web. This helps them load faster as well as prevent someone from downloading a high resolution print size image. Facebook recommends 2048 pixels on the long size and if your image is larger than this, will automatically compress your image leading to pixelation and image degradation.
Choose the location of where you want to export the photos.
Choose the file type under File Settings. I select JPEG & color space sRGB
3. Under Image Sizing, make sure to select Resize To Fit. Choose a Long Edge and type in 2048 for pixel size for Facebook. For Instagram, choose a Long Edge and type in 1000 for pixel size
4. Under Image Sizing, change the resolution to 72ppi
5. Under Output Sharpening, choose Sharpen for Screen
6. Select a Watermark if desired.
7. Click Export.
SEO (web performant)
When it comes to creating the best images for your website, the most important thing to remember is the size of your image. Some people will say your image should be under 500 KB, though I generally prefer under 250 KB even if that leads to slightly pixelated images. Where your website ranks on Google and other search engines is still predominantly determined by your page load speed and your page will load lightning fast with smaller file sizes.
1. Choose the location of where you want to export the photos.
2. Choose the file type under File Settings. I select JPEG & color space sRGB
3. Under File Settings, select Limit File Size and set to 250 KB
4. Under Image Sizing, make sure to select Resize To Fit. Set the Long Edge 1600 pixels
5. Under Image Sizing, change the resolution to 72ppi
6. Under Output Sharpening, choose Sharpen for Screen
7. Select a Watermark if desired.
8. Click Export.
Save Your Export Settings
Now you know all the best export settings. And really, who wants to have to enter all that information every time? I sure don’t. Good thing Lightroom allows you to save export settings so you can quickly move through your workflow.
1. When the Export Photos dialog is showing, enter all your export settings
2. Select Add on the left side
3. Give your export settings a descriptive name
4. Choose which folder this export setting should go into
5. Click Create
You can always go back and update your settings by changing your settings to your new desired outputs and right click the setting you want to update. From there, select Update With Current Settings.
Bonus: Edit Images in Photoshop
Though technically not a traditional export method, editing your images in photoshop allows for a lot of flexibility. You can use the more sophisticated editing tools to remove people, clone areas, and even expand your image canvas. If you’re just getting started with double exposures and aren’t sure how to do them with just your camera, photoshop also allows you to blend multiple images and layers. And I love that once you save your edits, the image will be added to your Lightroom collection.
There are three ways to send your image to Photoshop to edit. For all you’ll first need to select your desired image, then
Press CMD + E (Mac) or CTRL + E (PC)
Right click. Select Edit In -> Adobe Photoshop
In the menu bar, select Photo -> Edit In -> Adobe Photoshop
Hopefully these tips help you get through your post-processing workflow faster and more efficiently! And ensure you are delivering the right image type and quality to your clients.