# How to export at 5mb at 100% quality



## free2australian (Feb 11, 2013)

I Have a Mac computer

Lightroom 4

Nikon  700 camera


I have a numbers of photographs that I wish to export through Lightroom Export module for a particular competition. Many of these photos have been cropped to improve the photo.  Some have been cropped in a panorama format

The request is  for jpegs no larger than 5Mb but at the highest quality.

Be grateful if for some  step by step instructions how to do this.   One is think is checking the box limit size -  However what do I put in in the Dimensions file size  as far as pixels is concerned.



I was reading on Flickr Lightroom site that there is a Lightroom plug-in that can assist with this.  Jeffrey’s “JPEG Export Quality Tester” Lightroom Plugin 

has anybody used this - would this of help to me in this instance or in my future efforts to find the highest quality at a small mb size?
A discussion  by a member of the group on  Flickr is exactly what I am trying to undertake.  see below part of the discussion:

"   guess I'm just trying to figure out what File Size (Limit File Size To) I should specify when exporting the JPEG. I retain the full 100% Quality and I don't change the image resolution. I can specify 5MB  this is what I'm trying to figured out

here's advice #2 ... if you want people to print the photos, give them all the pixels you've got. No cropping, no reduction of the image size.

here's advice #3 ... the size of a JPG file tells you nothing about the quality of the image. Don't spend another minute worrying about JPG file size; instead worry about the number of pixels (see advice #2)"

thank you
​


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## clee01l (Feb 11, 2013)

Well,  all you really need to to is set the export size limit to 5mb (5000K) abd the image quality to 100.  For reference, there is no such thing as 100% quality. Every JPEG has compression. Adobe has 13 discrete levels of compression. In PS/PSE these are offered as settings of 0 to 12 In LR the same 13 levels of compression are represented on a unit-less scale from 0-100 (it is not a percentage).  A setting of 93 will give you the same minimum compression that a setting of 100 will give. Your request is for output images no larger than 5mb.  Setting the value of 5000Kb in the "Limit File Size" field will properly compress every file so that it is no larger than 5mb. It may be smaller. LR will reduce the quality setting to always produce a file under 5mb. It may be able to do this if the quality setting is set at 93-100.  If it can't, LR will reduce the quality setting (i.e. increase compression) until the output JPEG fits within these constraints. 

Jeffrey's Plugin produces a series of images at all 13 levels of compression so that you may visually inspect the quality of each. It is a comparative test not a solution.  You don't need it to achieve your goal. You only need to follow the suggestion that I made above for the Image Sizing section of the Export dialog/


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## free2australian (Feb 11, 2013)

Thank  you Cietus


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