I just downloaded Lightroom yesterday to try it out for 30 days. I have a question regarding exporting your photos once you have edited them. Does it matter what the dpi is set at? For example, my 20D files are 72dpi. Lightroom defaulted to 240dpi. I looked at the original vs. the Lightroom export and the images are the same size just with different dpi properties. So I'm assuming that the images are the same size. Does anyone have a preference for this dpi setting when exporting from Lightroom?

Thanks!

Unless you're setting a custom size too, it shouldn't matter.

Thanks for the quick response Matt! I was waiting for someone to respond before I did any more work on this particular wedding.

It doesn't matter at all. Resolution just determines the number of inches the file will be set to, but the number of pixels (the true measure of an image's resolution) won't change.

You can see this for yourself (and if you don't quite understand resolution/dpi/etc., you should try this!):

Open Photoshop
Create a new document: width 10 inches, height 10 inches, resolution 72 pixels/inch
Pull up the image size dialogue (image/image size)
Turn OFF the resample image check box.
You'll see you have an image that is 720 pixels by 720 pixels (which makes sens: 10 inches x 10 inches at 72pixels/inch)
Change your resolution to 300 ppi
You will see the width and height change to 2.4 inches, but the number of pixels hasn't changed.
IT IS STILL THE EXACT SAME FILE. The same resolution, the same amount of data. You're just representing it with different math.

This is all that's happening on the export in Lightroom. Some magazines require a certain resolution, so LR put the res option in the export. E.g., you may be required to export a file at 4x4 inches at 300 dpi. That's a 1200x1200 pixel image. You could export it at 12x12 inches at 100 pixels/inch and you'd have the exact same file, but the magazine may whine at you.

Hope that helps some!

Thanks swan...makes perfect sense now.

I would set it for 300dpi... just to make things easier on me and in case you send your files to a lab they usually prefer this.


Carlos Andres

Thanks Carlos...that is what I was thinking too!

I have another question regarding the Noise Reduction settings. I don't seem to see any change when I move the sliders. Why is that? I have an image that was too dark so I adjusted the exposure and gave it some fill light. It is a litte grainer than I prefer, so I tried using the Noise Reduction settings to help, but I don't see anything happening. Am I doing something wrong?

Are you shooting and editing JPEGs? I don't think the noise reduction works the same on JPEGs as raw.

My name is Matt...and I'm a jpeg shooter...

Now you say, "Hi Matt, you are still welcome here even though you don't shoot RAW."

Once I decide to purchase a program like this, I might think about becoming a RAW shooter.

There are some things (like noise, sharpening, etc.) that don't apply on a JPEG. Just fyi.

What??? That is discrimination agains jpeg shooters!!! I guess I really have to consider shooting in RAW now because I'm quickly falling in love with this program.

Thanks!

Eh? It seems to work to me?

Do a test between a JPEG and a raw image for noise reduction and sharpening. The raw shows significant changes compared to the JPEG. Just my experience here...

I started a test just before you suggested it...and you are right. The noise reduction works a lot better with RAW files.