Exporting

Learning goal

You will be able to turn a photo you edited into a file with the right size, the right compression and the right color profile for where it is going. You will explain that exporting produces a new file without touching the original RAW, size the photo by its long edge for the screen and social media, strike the balance between compression quality and file size, know why you choose the sRGB profile for the internet, calculate the print resolution for a print, apply output sharpening by medium, and remove personal information like location when exporting. You will also learn that the same portrait can look different on a phone, on a screen and on paper, and what to check to protect the color of every skin in every medium. At the end of the lesson you will prepare the level's portfolio project.

The question

The twenty-frame selection is ready; but each frame is going somewhere different. For the exhibition at the library you will have the twenty frames printed at thirty by twenty centimeters, you will share the best five on a social media account, and you will send the portrait at the fountain to your friend by message. When you open the program's export window, a host of options appears in front of you: file type, quality, size, pixels, inches, color space, sharpening. To try it out you export a frame at the highest quality; the file passes thirty megabytes and the sharing app won't accept it.

For Instagram or for print? Why should the same photo be prepared differently as it goes to different places, and what is each of these options for? In this last lesson of the module and the level, we will talk about exporting.

Context

A cook prepares the same dish in big pots for a wedding, on small plates for a breakfast, in leakproof containers for a journey. The dish is the same, but the measure, the container and the presentation of each occasion are different. An edited photo is like this too: for social media it needs a small, light file, for print a large, detailed one, for a message one that can be sent quickly.

In earlier lessons we saw that we never touch the original RAW and keep only a list of edits in the catalog. The place where this list turns into a photo is exporting. This lesson, the last step of editing, tells the ways to see the photo just as beautiful where it is going as you see it on the screen.

Simple explanation

What does exporting do?

To export is to combine the original RAW and the edits on it and produce a new image file with the settings you choose. The original file and the edits stay in place; the exported file is an output of them. That is why you can produce as many different files from the same photo as you like, choosing a separate size and quality for each. Exported files are part of sharing, not of the archive; as in Lesson 15.4, they shouldn't be written over the originals.

The long edge is the length in pixels of a photo's larger side, and it is the most practical measure for sizing for the screen. The long edge of a twenty-four-megapixel frame is about 6000 pixels; but on a phone screen or in a social media feed, such a large file isn't needed. Many platforms shrink uploaded photos to their own sizes and compress them again. That is why shrinking the photo yourself to a long edge close to the size the platform recommends keeps the shrinking and sharpening under your control.

How are compression and color chosen?

Compression quality is the setting that decides how much a JPEG file will be compressed; high quality means a bigger file, low quality a smaller file. The difference between the highest quality and a slightly lower quality is most often almost invisible to the eye, but the file size shrinks noticeably. Lowering the quality too far, on the other hand, leads to blocks and steps in soft transitions like the sky and skin. After exporting, checking by enlarging a face's cheek and the sky is the way to find the right balance.

A color profile, as we saw in Lesson 11.9, defines which colors the numbers in a file correspond to. For the internet, phones and most screens, the safest choice is sRGB. A file exported with a wider color space can look faded or strangely colored in an app or on a phone that doesn't recognize that profile. This difference is noticed most in skin: a dark skin that looks warm and deep on screen can drift toward gray, and the pink of a light skin can fade. It is safer to use a wide color space only if the person or company doing the printing specifically asks for it.

Why is a print prepared separately?

Print resolution is the value that shows how many image pixels fall on each inch of a print. For prints that will be looked at up close, three hundred pixels per inch is a frequently recommended value. A thirty-by-twenty-centimeter print comes to about eleven point eight by seven point nine inches; for three hundred pixels per inch, this means about 3540 by 2360 pixels. A twenty-four-megapixel frame is comfortably above this; but a tightly cropped frame can fall below this limit. For large prints that will be looked at from a distance, a lower value is also most often enough.

A screen gives off light, while paper only reflects the light that falls on it; that is why prints most often come out darker and less bright than they look on screen. This difference is felt most in the shadows and dark tones: the detail on the shadow side of a dark skin can close up on paper, while the fine transitions of a light skin can look flatter than on screen. Before printing for an exhibition, getting a small test print of one or two frames, and if needed preparing a separate virtual copy that opens the shadows a little for print, keeps skin and shadow detail on paper too.

What are the final settings?

Output sharpening is the sharpening added while the file is produced, taking into account the frame's final size and where it is going. The sharpening in Lesson 17.6 brought out the image's detail at actual size; shrinking and printing, on the other hand, soften this detail a little. Many programs let you choose, while exporting, a light, medium or strong output sharpening for the screen, matte paper or glossy paper. This setting should be kept low; too much creates halos again on faces and edges.

The export window is also the last chance to manage metadata: removing location information, keeping copyright information, and giving file names in the order from Lesson 15.4. Saving the settings you often use for the same medium as an export preset saves you from setting up all the options again every time: one for social media, one for print, one for sending by message.

Visual evidence

You set up three export presets. For social media, sRGB, a medium compression quality, a long edge close to the size the platform recommends and a light output sharpening for the screen; you remove the location information and keep the copyright information. The best five frames come out under one megabyte each. When you open it on your phone, the portrait of your dark-skinned friend drinking water is as warm and deep as on the screen; there are no blocks in the transition on their cheek.

For print you choose thirty by twenty centimeters, three hundred pixels per inch and a medium output sharpening for matte paper. First you get a test print of two frames: the frame of your freckled friend climbing the hill is good, but in the fountain portrait the shadow side of your friend's face has closed up on paper. You create a virtual copy, open the dark tones a little only for print, and print again; this time the detail of their eyelashes and beard can be made out on paper too. You export the twenty frames for the exhibition with these settings. With the message preset, you also send the portrait to your friend as a small file; the original RAW and all the edits stay in place in the catalog.

Common mistakes

Summary

Exporting produces a new file from the edits without touching the original RAW; for the screen and social media the photo is shrunk by its long edge, compression quality is balanced between file size and blocks in soft transitions, and sRGB is chosen for the internet. For print, the print resolution is calculated, a test print is made taking into account that paper will show things darker than the screen, and output sharpening is applied lightly by medium; personal information like location is removed when exporting. An export preset saved for each medium speeds up the job; checking faces on the phone, on the screen and on paper protects the color and shadow detail of every skin in every medium.

Mini assignment

The first three steps of this assignment are for exporting; the last step is the level's portfolio project.

1. Set up three separate export presets for social media, print and message; in each one, choose the size, compression quality, color profile, output sharpening and metadata.
2. Export the same portrait with the social media preset and open it on your phone; compare the color of the skin and the transition on the cheek with the original on the screen.
3. Calculate the number of pixels needed for the print size of a frame you want to print and get a small test print; compare the detail in the shadows with the screen.
4. Level project: prepare your best ten photos with a consistent editing language, put the before and after versions of each side by side, and share this selection.

Check yourself

• Even though the file you exported for social media is small, are there blocks or steps in the face and the sky?
• How much darker than what you saw on screen did the test print come out, and how did you balance this?
• In every portrait in your portfolio selection, on the phone, on the screen and on paper, does the person's skin stand with its own color and shadow detail?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. What does exporting do to the original RAW file?

• A) It deletes it
• B) It converts it to JPEG and writes over it
• C) It doesn't touch it; it produces a new file from the edits
• D) It shrinks it

2. Which is the safest color profile for a photo to be shared on the internet and on phones?

• A) sRGB
• B) The widest color space
• C) No profile
• D) A print profile

3. If a thirty-by-twenty-centimeter print needs three hundred pixels per inch, about how many pixels are needed?

• A) 1000 by 700
• B) 6000 by 4000
• C) 12000 by 8000
• D) 3540 by 2360

4. In the print of a dark-skinned portrait that looked good on screen, the shadow side of the face closed up. What helps most?

• A) Lowering the compression quality
• B) Opening the dark tones a little in a separate virtual copy for print and getting a new test print
• C) Printing the same file larger without changing the color profile
• D) Setting output sharpening to the highest

Answers

1. C — Exporting is an output; the original and the edits stay in place.
2. A — sRGB lets colors look right even in apps that don't recognize the profile.
3. D — 30 cm comes to about 11.8 inches, 20 cm to about 7.9 inches; multiplying by three hundred gives this result.
4. B — Paper shows things darker than the screen; a light opening specific to print protects shadow detail.

Summary card

• Exporting doesn't touch the original; a separate file for each medium.
• For the screen, shrink by the long edge; choose compression by looking at transitions.
• sRGB for the internet and phones.
• Print: pixels-per-inch math, a test print, open the shadows if needed.
• Light output sharpening, remove location, save export presets.

Bridge to the next lesson

This lesson completed a photo's journey from the screen to paper and the phone; you can now manage a photo's whole life from start to finish, from the shoot to the archive, from the archive to editing. But at the beginning of this journey, before pressing the shutter, the most important decision still stands: light. Looking at the fountain portrait in the test print, you notice that what made it beautiful wasn't the sliders, but the soft light falling on the face from the side that morning. How do you "read" a light? The next lesson talks about the four qualities of light: its quality, direction, color and intensity.