# How keep edited photos as large file size



## agunnoe (Mar 21, 2014)

Hello,
   I'm a beginner to Lightrooma and one of the reasons I wanted to try this software was so I could edit my photos without having to have them substantially reduced in size and quality.  

I was using picasa, but after editing photos thats that were 6000 x3368 they would be reduced to a substantially smaller size, so when they were printed at larger than 5 x 7 they wouldnt look high quality.  

I've been playing with lightroom, but when i edited photos it exported them as 640 x 349.  

Does editing photos necessarily reduce the quality?

How do I keep the photos as large as possible even with editing?

Thank you in advance
Andrew


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## Tony Jay (Mar 21, 2014)

agunnoe said:


> Hello,
> I'm a beginner to Lightrooma and one of the reasons I wanted to try this software was so I could edit my photos without having to have them substantially reduced in size and quality.
> 
> I was using picasa, but after editing photos thats that were 6000 x3368 they would be reduced to a substantially smaller size, so when they were printed at larger than 5 x 7 they wouldnt look high quality.
> ...



Hi Andrew, welcome to Lightroom Forums!

Editing images in Lightroom should not reduce their quality or size per se.
If you happen to be editing 8-bit JPEGS there are necessarily compromises in quality on export (as far as tone and colour are concerned) but not on pixel dimensions.

Unless you are cropping there is no reduction in pixel size by editing at any time.
Exporting images is different story but you are able to control every aspect so if a full-size image is required it can be delivered, in fact, it is possible to uprez an image if required.

It may be helpful to explain your workflow (or intended workflow) in a bit more detail.
Knowing whether your master images are RAW or something else is helpful.
Also the use of any exported images is helpful for us to guide you.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Tony Jay


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