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AlisonTB

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Hi all:

I need to be able to see the size of images while still in LR; but I need to see it in bytes. The average Jpegs are 10-20 kb; RAWS are 10 mb. I need to see their size before I try to export them, so I know if the resolution is high enough to do what I want with them. Where can I find that?

Thanks

Alison
 
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Alison,

Lightroom does not show you the estimated size of a file after compression. But, I am not sure that file size will provide you with what you need, as compression and resizing are two different actions. You can compress any size image to any degree of compression. If you need to know what the resolution is, then focus on the image's original dimensions. If you are cropping an image, find out what the cropped dimensions are. If you need to resize an image in LR, then do so and then choose the compressoin that meets your needs.

Good luck,

--Ken
 
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Allison What you are asking for is not really very practical. The Export dialog can control the size of the output JPEG and this is where you need to focus your decision process. And this export file size has little relationship to the original which might be a RAW file format, a compressed TIFF, and uncompressed 16 bit TIFF or a highly compressed JPEG. In Develop, LR does not have a clue what you intend to do on Export or even if you intend to Export.
 
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Ok here's my question: I work in a group of designers who need images in various resolutions for their work. I've collected a large library of images, in lots of different resolutions. So if the web guy wants to use a photo, he doesn't need high res. But if the print people want an image it has to be large enough res for them to use. And they don't want to find out after they've gone through the trouble of searching and exporting to find that the image is the wrong res. They want to find out as part of their search... any way to do that? Lightroom stores the images in their original res... so it must know the information. But where?
Thanks!
A
 
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AlisonTB said:
And they don't want to find out after they've gone through the trouble of searching and exporting to find that the image is the wrong res. They want to find out as part of their search... any way to do that? Lightroom stores the images in their original res... so it must know the information. But where?
Thanks!
A
Click to expand...

LR does display the resolution of the image. It is in the Library module on the right panel of the screen along with other metadata.

--Ken
 
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You can also show original pixel dimensions, cropped pixel dimensions, or both in the grid if you wish.

But you say you need to see this in bytes. This doesn't make much sense to me for your use case; what should matter is pixels. What sort of numbers are you expecting to see in bytes that would be appropriate for web or print?

It may be that your designers are used to seeing uncompressed 8-bit TIFF dimensions, which is what Photoshop confusingly calls "size". In this case, it's talking about three bytes per pixel, so a web-sized 0.5-megapixel photo would be 1.5 megabytes, or a 16-megapixel photo would be 48 megabytes. If those are the sort of numbers they're looking for, Lightroom can't easily show it to you. It can show you uncropped megapixels, but not cropped megapixels. The best it can show are pixel dimensions (e.g. 800x600 for the web, or 3200x2400 for print), which are actually much more meaningful than bytes.
 
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So you have your original image in LR. Then you export a low resolution (few pixels) copy to the web guy. And export a high resolution (many pixels) copy to the print people.
 
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Thank you! I'll run this by my people and see if they'll accept it. One of them in particular says Bridge shows them the bytes... and is therefore a better program than Lightroom for designers like her; I would think she'd want dpi or ppi or something... Could be she just resists change. I'll ask for more detail about where she currently finds the info she wants, and then get back to you.
smiles
a
 
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Hi-

Bridge does indeed show them file size in MB, dimensions and resolution in the metadata panel. Are you sure there is no way to find the same info in LR? The idea here is that my people can access the images without me...

a
 
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This the info you need? You've got the file size in MB and the dimensions there. The resolution means nothing unless it's combined with dimensions in something other than pixels, so you/they can ignore that.

Screenshot_11_01_2013_17_50.png

You might also find this useful to find by resolution: http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/megapixel-sort

Or perhaps even this, if they're searching for something specific: http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/extended-search
 
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Victoria, if I understand correctly, the problem is that none of the numbers Lightroom shows for your 2048x1536 pixel JPEG is "9 MB". That's the number that Photoshop would show for this file, and that's probably the way Alison's designers have been trained to think.
 
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Ah, I see what you mean.
 
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Yes, I think thats what they're asking me. But I don't understand why 2048x1546 can be both 1.16 mb and also 9 mb.... and which one is the one that will make them happy (as designers working in print and web) ????
THANKS!
A
 
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The JPG file on disk is 1.16 MB. This is a compressed format, so that more than one pixel can be represented by a single byte, think lots of identical blue sky pixels. When PS decompresses the file for internal use it builds a file with 3 bytes (1 Red, 1 Green, 1 Blue) for each pixel. 2048 x 1546 x 3 is approx 9MB.
 
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"9 MB size" is an oldfashioned way of describing image size. What is really important are the number of pixels.

An image with 2048*1546 will have an uncompressed size of 9 MB. If 9 MB is what your designer people want then thy'll be happy. But they probably don't really understand why. They only know that "9 MB is good quality". But that is not neccessarily true. Lets say you have an image with original pixel dimensions of 1024*773, so only 1/4 of the previous. This image will only be 2,25 MB uncompressed size. But you can easily enlarge those 1024*773 to 2048*1546, thus resulting in an image with 9 MB uncompressed size. But the quality will not be very good, since you have enlarged the original image 4 times. But the design people will probably think they are happy, since the image is "9 MB". Until they actually see it in print.
 
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It is probably time to bring the designers into today's world and language. The OP could probably start by generating a reference table with a few sets of key numbers. For instance, one set would be labeled "web use", then with a PS size - typical pixel sizes - jpeg/tiff/psd -typical file size on hd. Another set could be "print for catalog", etc.
The table would help everybody use the same language and would eventually not be needed.
 
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The PPI (pixels per inch), not DPI (dots per inch), is just a piece of metadata encoded in the file. It is essentially meaningless unless some device (e.g., a printer) uses it for something. Most don't.

There is no way to see this in Lightroom, and of course you can set it to whatever you want when you export. It has no effect on the image data in the file at all unless you also specify your export dimensions in inches or centimeters rather than pixels.
 
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AlisonTB said:
Thank you! where exactly can we find the PPI in the metadata encoded in the file?
Click to expand...

Alison,

Did the possibly mean that they wanted to know the dimensions of the file in pixels? As it was described above, PPI is either a calculated number when you have a desired output size (expressed in inches), or it is an instruction to an output device to create a product at a set size. PPI out of context is pretty much a meaningless number.

--Ken
 
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