Export settings for LR4 Export to Websites?

[cmcm789]

I take photos of races as a hobby, and usually export from LR4 and upload them to flickr or email them for use on certain running/ athletic club websites. My settings are Jpeg with sRGB colour, quality 80% and max size 1600 pixels long edge, resolution 72ppi. I also set the sharpen for screen to standard.

I don't know if this is right, but the files are still quite large. I think the size is too large as it is usually a full height shot of a runner and I don't really need it any larger than the monitor height. All I want is the right size of image at the best possible resolution for viewing on a monitor. I don't print out photos, but if any of the runners wants to download them off flickr they can, but I won't be changing settings for this.

 

[Winkyphoto]

I looked at a few on Flickr and they look fine to me. If you went any smaller, they wouldn't print as well. Why are you bothered by the file size? I downloaded one and it was only 412kb.

 

[cmcm789]

I don't have fast internet and it takes quite a while to upload/ email them when I have a few hundred. I had read that sites like flickr show photos at 1024 pixels by reducing the original photo if it is larger, which in turn can cause softness due to compression applied. I just thought that if this is the case, I might be as well to export 1024 pixel max rather than 1600 and avoid the additional compression.

 

[Brian G]

There are two main things that control an image file size, first is the image size and the second is the amount of compression applied.
If I'm resizing images for web upload, I tend to make them 1200 pixels on the long side.
The other thing you could experiment with is the save quality (compression).
You said you are saving them at 80%, so it might be worth experimenting with a lower setting.
One of the annoying things about all the Adobe products is that you cannot preview what the result will look like until after you have saved it, although I'm not an Adobe expert, so I may have that wrong,
Although I now mostly use Lightroom, a lot of my PP was done with PaintShopPro, and as part of the save menu in that, you have the option of previewing the image as you change the save quality, and it also tracks the file size as you change it. It's often quite surprising how much you can compress a jpg file without seeing any serious quality loss.

 

[BillN_33]

you can limit the file size by putting the max size in the box - just try a few different files sizes and see what you think - I always limit mine to below 250k