Useful tips for when exporting photos from Lightroom

When you're done with editing your images, you're ready to share them with the world or send them to your clients. Before either can be done, you have to export your pictures

Here's some useful tips for when exporting your images. 

Select the images you want to export and use Cmd Shift E (Ctrl Shift E in Windows). The export dialogue opens.

There are loads of options you can use. I mostly choose the hard drive to export my images to. 

Export location

This menu gives you the option to choose the location on your (external) hard disk where you want to store your images.

File naming

This is the moment where you name your images. Again, you've got lots of options. A name in combination with a sequence is very helpful when you export more then one image.

File settings

The next step gives you the different options with regards to the format for your images. Most of the times I use JPEG. By increasing the quality you reduce the file size and save some file space.

Color space can best be set on sRGB.

Last option is to limit the file size. It's an option that I actually never use but some say it can be handy.

Image sizing

Here you can resize your image by changing the height and width. You can also choose a resolution for your image: 

• 72 or 96 for web
• 300 for print

Output sharpening

This is where you can sharpen the image during export. I don't use it because I always use Lightroom for sharpening my images. 

Metadata

When importing your images into Lightroom, it's really useful to give your images keywords. This greatly facilitates the search in your ever expanding Lightroom image library. When exporting images, again you can choose what data you'd like to export. The more data you use in the export, the better it is for when searching your images. I always choose All metadata.

Watermarking

Here you can add a watermark to your images. You can create your own watermarks. I've written about this in a previous blogpost and we will explore some new ways for watermarking some time soon in a new post. 

Post-processing

Another menu with several options. You can, for example, open a picture in Photoshop after the export. 

A last thing you can do is to save your settings as a preset. So next time you want to export with a specific setting you can use the preset. Just set your setting and click on Add. Give your preset a location and name and you' re done!

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