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Here Are My Quality Settings for Saving JPEGs out of Lightroom

Happy Halloween, everybody! Here’s another one I get asked a lot, and it’s an easy one to answer because I’ve been using the same settings for saving my JPEGs for 11-years now. What I look for is a decent amount of reduction in the file size but without a visible loss of quality.

I’ve found that my sweet spot is a Quality setting of 80 (as seen above) out of a 100. That gives me a small file size but still the quality of the final image looks great, and you don’t see any signs of compression at that high a setting. The size of the JPEG files saved at 100 are more than double what they are at 80. Take a look:

For the image shown at the top of this post, saving at a quality setting of 80 creates a file with a size of 414 KB (less than 1/2 a Mb).
For the same image, saved at 100 quality, it’s 1Mb, more than double the file size.

But Drive Space is So Cheap Now!

Yes it is, but this isn’t just about drive space — this is also about load speeds on the Internet, and smaller files load quicker, so that’s a 2nd consideration.

Anyway, those are the settings I’ve been using for years now, and I’m happy with the results. Hope you found that helpful. 🙂

I’m Selling My “Big Boy! Lens

I’m not shooting enough sports these days, so I’m selling my beloved Canon 200-400mm f/4 with a built-in 1.4x Extender. Excellent condition, and close to $3,000 off the street price of a new one (and this one is close to new condition – just a minor blemish on the lens hood. Killer lens, not used nearly enough. Incredible sharpness and versatility. It’s over on eBay at this link in case you’re so inclined. 🙂

Have a safe, fun, Halloween and I hope you get lots of yummy nom noms! 🙂

-Scott

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7 comments

  1. Scott 1 November, 2019 at 09:00 Reply

    Is that regardless what you are doing with the jpg? Obviously size makes a difference for uploading, but do you use the same settings if printing?

  2. STEVEN GOTZ 31 October, 2019 at 18:28 Reply

    I would love top see a followup that tells people what the optimal photo dimensions are. I know they keep changing, but I think it would be a valuable tool to keep updated for KelbyOne members.

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