# Grainy photos after resizing! Please help....



## Olive Sky (Aug 10, 2014)

I'm new to Mac and Lightroom, and have been experiencing with a few different tools to edit and resize my images. After familiarizing with LR, I've decided to stick with it but ran into this resizing issue that I can't seem to figure out why. 

For blogging purposes, I resize photos to 600 x 400, after some editing and cropping. I've resized in two different ways: (1) exporting original size from LR then using Preview in MAC to adjust size, (2) change "Imaging Sizing" under LR export. *Both methods produced grainy photos*, especially the background area of a closeup food shot, as if a low pixeled photo is enlarged. 

And the odd thing is, after I crop and edit with LR, resize using Preview, under "Tools" -> "Adjust Size", it shows that the resulting size is larger than the original, for example, "resulting size 97KB (was 70KB)". I'm no expert but I can see it means enlarging the photo of the same pixels thus producing the grains. And I can see how cropping contributed to the size difference on the original file but I don't know why it's affecting the sized down photo, and if it's the core of this issue.

When I use another tool, such as Pixelmator, to crop and edit, then resize using Preview in MAC, I get perfectly fine photos without the above mentioned grains, and under "Adjust Size", it shows "resulting size 97KB (was 317KB)", which is how it's supposed be -- resized from large to small. Online photo resizer gives me the same result, after using LR to crop and edit. (And when I was on PC using a basic photo editing software, I've never come across this issue -- downsizing the photos "hides" the grains and imperfections instead of the opposite.) But now when I use LR to edit and crop, then resize to 600 x 400 either at export or using Preview in MAC, I get these horrible grainy photos......please help if you know why....much appreciated!


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## clee01l (Aug 10, 2014)

Welcome to the forum.

Could we see a screen shot of the Export dialog section showing the File setting and Image Sizing sections?


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## Olive Sky (Aug 10, 2014)

Thank you, Cletus! 

Here it is:


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## Olive Sky (Aug 11, 2014)

And what puzzles me is that, when images are exported from LR (say the original size), shouldn't they now be "independent"? So if I use Preview to adjust them to a smaller size, it should be the same quality whether I did editing in LR or another program such as Pixelmator or iPhoto? I don't understand why LR edit/crop combined with Preview resize gives me grainy photos but Pixelmator edit/crop combining with Preview resize works just fine. And LR edit/crop with online resizing tool works fine too!


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## Replytoken (Aug 11, 2014)

What was the original resolution of these images?

--Ken


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## Jim Wilde (Aug 11, 2014)

Try increasing the Quality setting. Start at 100, if that's OK you can try reducing it in stages if you need to keep the file-size down.


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## Olive Sky (Aug 11, 2014)

Replytoken said:


> What was the original resolution of these images?
> 
> --Ken



Hi Ken, it was 3500 x 2300.


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## Olive Sky (Aug 11, 2014)

Hi Jim, thanks, it worked! I didn't think of changing the Quality setting because I read somewhere that it wouldn't make a noticeable difference as long as it was around 60-80. I guess it makes a difference on a smaller image or whatever the reason might be? 

One of my problems is now solved but I still have another: Why does the resizing tool in MAC Preview produce grainy photos after I use LR to edit? When I use another app to edit, Preview resizing works just fine! But what photo editing tool I use shouldn't matter, should it? I rely heavily on Preview to resize as I don't want having to go through LR all the time. Does anyone have experience with both LR and Preview resize? And I'm still confused by the fact that when I size down an image in Preview (after LR editing, it shows the resulting size is larger than the original, which should be the opposite....


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## Jim Wilde (Aug 11, 2014)

Sorry, no idea why that happens with Preview. I guess I'm not really following why you need to use it for resizing, as I do all such work using Lightroom.


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