# HOW TO RESIZE IMAGES TO 5 MB



## DAVID NG

This is my first post so please forgive the obvious ignorance involved. I have been using LR Classic 7.1 for over a year and have never come across the following problem before.  I have also read and tried out tips on several video-help lines and in a LRQ thread initiated by Harry. But all to no avail. I am trying to upload images to a  competition website where entries have to be made within essentially next 24 hrs. Uploaded images have to be between 1 and 5 MB. I have previously uploaded several times with no problem. All images I wish to uploaded have been shot in RAW and the files are large.  But, all of a sudden, for no apparent reason, LR exports are either (a) way below 1 MB or way above 5 MB and I cannot work out why, having tried every which way on the basis of what I've read on the internet and in the thread with Harry.  Can anybody please help ? Also I'm not at all clear whether there is a joining fee for this forum. It is 01.16 in London now and I can stay up a little longer to see if there any replies; otherwise I would have to try and deal with this tomorrow p.m. Many thanks indeed to anybody who can help ?


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## Jimmsp

See


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## Jimmsp

Sorry to be so quick and dirty. Just check the box to limit the file size, and set it at 5000k for 5MB


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## MarkNicholas

If the files are coming out below 1MB then try upping the quality and do not resize.


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## DAVID NG

Dear Jim and Dear Mark
Many thanks indeed for your prompt and helpful responses. But I have tried both these suggestions to no avail. I have just again tried to export a 25.8 MB file with a limit of 5MB - as per the attached screenshot - but the only result I get is a 660KB file. I guess I'm doing something fundamentally wrong but i have no idea what and this has never happened before, so far as i am aware. So i would be hugely grateful for any further suggestions. Thank you and best wishes David NG


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## DAVID NG

Dear Jim and Dear Mark
Many thanks indeed for your prompt and helpful responses. But I have tried both these suggestions to no avail. I have just now again tried to export a 25.8MB file limited to 5 MB - as per the attached screenshot - but all i get for the export is a 660KB file. I feel sure that i must have hit some button by mistake somewhere but I just cant work out where i have been going wrong and, so far as I'm aware this has never happened to me before


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## Kierphoto

Under “Image Sizing” uncheck the “Resize to fit”  or you have two  resize actions.


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## DAVID NG

Dear Jim and Mark

Since my earlier reply a few minutes ago, I have had a further look at Jim's screenshot and increased (a) the long edge pixels to 1,500 and (b) the Resolution to 300dpi. and I'm now getting an exported file of 1.1 MB which is sufficient to enable me to enter the competition ; so very many thanks. However, i still don't understand why the export won't produce  a larger file subject to the 5MB limit. I'm convinced I'm doing something wrong - i.e. what if i wanted to send this image to a printer rather than upload it onto a competition website ?  One more small query please : is the sRGB setting still appropriate for export a BNW version of the original colour image or does this have to be changed too? Thank you again. David NG


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## DAVID NG

Kierphoto said:


> Under “Image Sizing” uncheck the “Resize to fit”  or you have two  resize actions.


ah, thank you so much Kierphoto. So I just did that and got an export of 4.1 MB, which is much better - though I'm not at all sure I understand the logic and mechanics of what is actually happening. Thank you again. David NG


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## Johan Elzenga

DAVID NG said:


> Dear Jim and Mark
> 
> Since my earlier reply a few minutes ago, I have had a further look at Jim's screenshot and increased (a) the long edge pixels to 1,500 and (b) the Resolution to 300dpi. and I'm now getting an exported file of 1.1 MB which is sufficient to enable me to enter the competition ; so very many thanks. However, i still don't understand why the export won't produce  a larger file subject to the 5MB limit. I'm convinced I'm doing something wrong - i.e. what if i wanted to send this image to a printer rather than upload it onto a competition website ?  One more small query please : is the sRGB setting still appropriate for export a BNW version of the original colour image or does this have to be changed too? Thank you again. David NG


I think you misunderstand this option. This option does not *produce* a 5 MB file, it *limits* the output to that size by increasing the compression if needed. If you export a relatively small size in pixels, then the file size will be lower than 5 MB even with very little compression.


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## Kierphoto

If you have a "clean" Tif/PSD and NOT jpg!  picture and want it to be 5Mb it measures 1320x1320 pixels. (Resolution dosen`t matter)
Choosing jpg. the file size depends of the complexity af the picture, since the jpg algorithm makes calculated blocks of. 8x8 pixels.
Making high ISO pictures to jpg are MUCH larger jpg than same picture with low ISO, since grain calculation are a part of the picture details.


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## DAVID NG

Thank you so much, Kier and Johan. I'm beginning to understand this a bit better thanks to your very helpful comments (changing from Aperture ,when Apple ditched their support, to LR has been something of a nightmare for a 75 year old with no computer training at all ! ) Given that i export JPGS  mostly to post on Instagram and enter competitions rather than TIFFS to print , aiming to achieve exported files of around 5MB seems  a reasonable thing to do. But are there  optimal export settings in terms of File Settings and Image Sizing ( not at all sure i understand the difference) to achieve this or does it depend on the qualities of each image - i.e, high or low ISO,  complexity, graininess etc  so that the size of the exported file might be a bit of a lottery with trial and error being the only solution ? David NG


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## Johan Elzenga

DAVID NG said:


> Thank you so much, Kier and Johan. I'm beginning to understand this a bit better thanks to your very helpful comments (changing from Aperture ,when Apple ditched their support, to LR has been something of a nightmare for a 75 year old with no computer training at all ! ) Given that i export JPGS  mostly to post on Instagram and enter competitions rather than TIFFS to print , aiming to achieve exported files of around 5MB seems  a reasonable thing to do. But are there  optimal export settings in terms of File Settings and Image Sizing ( not at all sure i understand the difference) to achieve this or does it depend on the qualities of each image - i.e, high or low ISO,  complexity, graininess etc  so that the size of the exported file might be a bit of a lottery with trial and error being the only solution ? David NG


It's basically trial and error, but if you participate in a competition and they say for example that the maximum image size is 2500 pixels widest side and 5 MB file size, then set the 'Resize' option to that 2500 pixels widest side and check the 5 MB maximum file size. Don't send a substantially smaller image (smaller in pixels), because that will be projected smaller and so the jury will not be impressed when they compare your small image to the 2500 pixel images of the other contenders. That's psychology rather than technology, however...


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## Kierphoto

Hi David. Rule of thumb for digital imaging:
For all uses:  web, tablets, phone, and best print, Letter/A-4 make picture minimum 3500 Pixels on longest side. (Completely independent of resolution)
End user can then crop/scale down but will have best start point.
IMAGEQUALITY are  Pixel number on longest side  (And can not be better than original chip size in camera)
RESOLUTION are display quality.
In LightroomClassic under Export you can choose resolution.
In LightroomCC you do not have any resolution but only Image Size


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## DAVID NG

JohanElzenga said:


> It's basically trial and error, but if you participate in a competition and they say for example that the maximum image size is 2500 pixels widest side and 5 MB file size, then set the 'Resize' option to that 2500 pixels widest side and check the 5 MB maximum file size. Don't send a substantially smaller image (smaller in pixels), because that will be projected smaller and so the jury will not be impressed when they compare your small image to the 2500 pixel images of the other contenders. That's psychology rather than technology, however...



Thank you so much Johan for being so extremely helpful, patient and supportive. I've been experimenting but with mixed results which I still don't completely understand. My last export was as per the attached screenshot - ie with no "resize to fit", resolution 350, and limit to 5,000K. this achieved a file size of 4.1 MB. i would have preferred 5 MB but couldn't find a way of doing that. The previous export was of a very "arty", blurred motion, image  which achieved a file size of 4.9MB. But despite trying different file sizes, the competition website simply wouldn't upload the image. I clearly need to study more and compete less !!


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## DAVID NG

Kierphoto said:


> Hi David. Rule of thumb for digital imaging:
> For all uses:  web, tablets, phone, and best print, Letter/A-4 make picture minimum 3500 Pixels on longest side. (Completely independent of resolution)
> End user can then crop/scale down but will have best start point.
> IMAGEQUALITY are  Pixel number on longest side  (And can not be better than original chip size in camera)
> RESOLUTION are display quality.
> In LightroomClassic under Export you can choose resolution.
> In LightroomCC you do not have any resolution but only Image Size



Thank you so much Kier - very helpful and supportive and really, really appreciated. Here is what i have just sent to Johan Elzenga who advised trial and error. But I'm also very grateful for your rule of thumb advice - particularly as I hadn't realised that one could go as high as 3,500 pixels longest side. Also, I've clearly been confusing ppi ( LR) with dpi ( Aperture) so need to get on top of that too. 

As sent to johan Elzenga : thank you so much Johan for being so extremely helpful, patient and supportive. I've been experimenting but with mixed results which I still don't completely understand. My last export was as per the attached screenshot - ie with no "resize to fit", resolution 350, and limit to 5,000K. this achieved a file size of 4.1 MB. i would have preferred 5 MB but couldn't find a way of doing that. The previous export was of a very "arty", blurred motion, image  which achieved a file size of 4.9MB. But despite trying different file sizes, the competition website simply wouldn't upload the image. I clearly need to study more and compete less !!


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## Kierphoto

Maybe this can make light to Resolution,Dpi/Ppi and Image size:

Photoshop/Lightroom: Are Resolution outdated? | Photoshop Family Customer Community


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## Johan Elzenga

DAVID NG said:


> Thank you so much Johan for being so extremely helpful, patient and supportive. I've been experimenting but with mixed results which I still don't completely understand. My last export was as per the attached screenshot - ie with no "resize to fit", resolution 350, and limit to 5,000K. this achieved a file size of 4.1 MB. i would have preferred 5 MB but couldn't find a way of doing that. The previous export was of a very "arty", blurred motion, image  which achieved a file size of 4.9MB. But despite trying different file sizes, the competition website simply wouldn't upload the image. I clearly need to study more and compete less !!


Check what the website says about image size. If you do not check the resize option, then the image size will be the size of the original image. That may be too large for the competition. Note that 5 MB is quite large for a jpeg image. Like I said, that 5 MB is the *limit* for the file size, not the *target* file size. There is also no reason to consider it a target. If your image looks good and without any artefacts at 4.1 MB, then it won’t look any better if you would manage to get if to 5 MB.


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