Exported JPEGs not sharp

[Pati]

The exported images when viewed with Preview.app or from iPhoto do not look as sharp as they do in LR 2, both in the Develop and Library modules.

I usually tweak the WB then edit with Noise Ninja using the default settings whenever I shoot high ISOs, which has been the case when I noticed the softness of my images. I then edit the saved TIFF file to my liking and export them to a folder on my desktop using the export file settings at JPEG, sRGB, Quality at 97 - 1'', Resolution at 3'' without any Output Sharpening applied.

I didn't notice this when I used LR 2 on my PBG4 nor in the previous versions of LR 1.4.x and 2.1.

TIA

 

[Sean McCormack]

The only way to see critical sharpness with these is at 1''%. Also there's very little need to be exporting at 1'' quality, unless you particularly like large file sizes.

 

[Brad Snyder]

Pati, no advice for Mac from a Windows user, but Welcome to the Forums.

 

[Pati]

Thanks for the welcome Brad.

Sean,
When I view both the RAW and JPEG files at roughly 1''%, the JPEG is not as sharp as the RAW file in LR.
I''ll see what happens when I lower the resolution on export.

Thanks.

 

[Pati]

Hi,
I just exported a few JPEGs resized to 36'' pixels on the long side with the resolution set at 75 and they are as sharp as can be.
I'm wondering now why they look soft when exported as high rez full sized images (4672 x 31'4 14MP sometimes cropped) when viewed on both my 15" AlPB G4 high rez screen, and with my 15" MBP 144' x 96' screen.

Thanks for helping me out. I appreciate it.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

I may be missing the point here, but my initial thought was that preview.app is not doing such a good just resampling down.

 

[Brad Snyder]

Sometimes with this stuff, it's hard to tell which is the 'tail' and which is the 'dog'.
Pati, I'm seconding Victoria's speculation, that the problem may reside in the viewing app, as opposed to the production app. I don't know iPhoto from preview.app, from any other Mac apps. Do you have Photoshop, or other image apps installed, just to get some additonal views/info?

 

[Pati]

I may be missing the point here, but my initial thought was that preview.app is not doing such a good just resampling down.

You are correct. I can keep exporting full sized images now that I know it's not LR but Preview.app. Thanks.

Sometimes with this stuff, it's hard to tell which is the 'tail' and which is the 'dog'.
Pati, I'm seconding Victoria's speculation, that the problem may reside in the viewing app, as opposed to the production app. I don't know iPhoto from preview.app, from any other Mac apps. Do you have Photoshop, or other image apps installed, just to get some additonal views/info?

No PS, I can't afford it. I did download Xee a Mac image viewer, and it showed both the full and downsized versions of the same image perfectly whereas Preview.app didn't.

Thanks again.

EDIT: I just came from Apple Discussion Forums and I found out that Leopard's version of Preview.app doesn't display high resolution images at full sharpness. I'll just use Xee as my preferred image viewer from now on until Apple addresses it.