Export Photos for the Web in Lightroom

Lightroom® Classic

You may need to resize your photos to share on social media sites or to display on device screens.

• Most social media sites provide guidelines for image dimensions for different visual elements: headers, profile pictures, posts or stories. 
• You may also want to resize a photo to display well on your computer monitor, tablet, mobile phone or TV. 
• Before resizing a photo, you may need to crop it to specific dimensions or aspect ratios for online sites or display. We’ll cover cropping in another lesson. 

Photos from your camera most likely have very large pixel dimensions and file sizes. In Lightroom, you can downsize the image and still retain high quality. 

View Pixel Dimensions

To quickly view the pixel dimensions of your photo:

1. In the Library module, select the photo in Grid View or Loupe View.
2. Open the Metadata section in the right panel. The dimensions are displayed in that panel. 

From the View menu, you can also set Library View Options for the cells in the grid to show image sizes. 

Export Photos for the Web 

To export a photo:

1. Select the photo to export.
2. From the File menu, select Export. The Export dialog box is displayed. You must save the photo as a JPG or PNG for web display.
3. In the Export Location section:
   • From the Export to: drop-down list, choose a location for the exported file. Choose folder later lets you choose the folder when you click Export.
   • Check Add to This Catalog if you want to add the exported file to the Lightroom catalog. 
4. In the File Naming section, specify how to rename the file.
   • From the Rename to: drop-down list, select a format for the renamed file. 
   • If you choose Custom Name, you can enter a name for the file. 
5. In the File Settings section:
   • Choose JPEG for the Image Format.
   • Choose sRGB for the Color Space.
   • Set the Image Quality to 80 or above. 
6. In the Image Sizing section:
   • Check Resize to fit.
   • Select a method for resizing from the drop-down list.
   • If you select Long Edge or Short Edge, enter a length for that edge. Lightroom will resize the image proportionately. 
7. In the Output Sharpening section:
   • If you are reducing the size quite a bit, check Sharpen For: and select Screen. 
   • Choose Standard or High for the Amount. 
8. Click Export. 
9. In the Choose Folder dialog box, select a folder where you want to store the exported file.