How to improve quality of exported images from LR?

Not hip on the nomenclature, but the low resolution to the left of the baby's head is horrendous. The original file in LR 5.5 looks good with no issues. When I export it to my PC, it shows up. Then when I upload to Flickr, it worsens and you see what we have here. Is there any way I can minimize this before I export? In LR, I cranked up the image quality to 100%, and messed with some other settings but no dice.

I'd like to export it as tiff or jpg to upload to flickr.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/nUqG​5i

I'm sorry, but I'm not sure what you are referring to here...? When you say "to the left of the baby's head", are you referring to the dark background to our (camera) left? Or to the dark/shadowed part of her face to our left?

It's actually both sides of the baby's head (more evident in the background). See the tonal effects?

can you screen print it in LR so we can see the before and after(ish) for comparisons?

I think you're just being too obsessive for the web. No one will want to download a file big enough to eliminate the problems you're referring to (compression artifacts) in order to view it. Concentrate on getting your exposures more correct. Unless of course you underexposed this one intentionally.

cdifoto wrote in post #17008830
I think you're just being too obsessive for the web. No one will want to download a file big enough to eliminate the problems you're referring to (compression artifacts) in order to view it. Concentrate on getting your exposures more correct. Unless of course you underexposed this one intentionally.

The underexposure is what's causing the color banding. Here's the same pic with exposure increased (and black point moved for contrast):

I do see the banding you are (apparently) referring to. There are also some other problems. It is in Adobe RGB, which means it will not be seen properly by viewers unless they are using a color managed browser and profiled monitor. Export it in sRGB.
Also, it is (to my taste) too saturated. I would reduce saturation by 25%. And lighten it a bit more than you already have (although it's hard to say how much without knowing the child's ethnicity.)
As to the banding: unless the A7 has serious low light problems, it was caused by your processing. My guess would be excessive lightening of an underexposed 8 bit image. But it can be only a guess because your posting has neither Exif nor XMP metadata so we can't know how it was shot and processed and so can't say what to do differently. My suggestion would be to make the original Raw available.

tzalman wrote in post #17008841
I do see the banding you are (apparently) referring to. There are also some other problems. It is in Adobe RGB, which means it will not be seen properly by viewers unless they are using a color managed browser and profiled monitor. Export it in sRGB.
Also, it is (to my taste) too saturated. I would reduce saturation by 25%. And lighten it a bit more than you already have (although it's hard to say how much without knowing the child's ethnicity.)
As to the banding: unless the A7 has serious low light problems, it was caused by your processing. My guess would be excessive lightening of an underexposed 8 bit image. But it can be only a guess because your posting has neither Exif nor XMP metadata so we can't know how it was shot and processed and so can't say what to do differently. My suggestion would be to make the original Raw available.

How can you tell that it's in aRGB? Did you just compare in both a color managed and non-color managed browser?

frugivore wrote in post #17008844
How can you tell that it's in aRGB? Did you just compare in both a color managed and non-color managed browser?

First I copied to clipboard the photo location URL and opened Jeffrey Friedl's on-line Exif viewer http://regex.info/exif​.cgi
which gave me the embedded color space. Then I saved the image to my Desktop and opened it in PS which confirmed the space. I converted it to sRGB, opened Levels and set the color balance from one of the white polka-dots, white point to the specular highlight in the left eye, black point to the darkest spot between the folds of whatever that is in front of her, and brightened the gamma to -1.30. Then I reduced saturation by -30 and got this:

I would think moving from AdobeRGB to sRGB as your colour space will also help you a lot. Viewing AdobeRGB images on a non colour managed browser will leave your images looking dark and muddy, even before any issues caused by the image being underexposed.

Remember also that the standard Windows image viewing application on most PC's is also not colour managed. So you will see the issues when simply looking at an exported image from within Windows.

Alan

john crossley wrote in post #17008930
Quite suppressed that no one had thought about sharpening the image.

Levels adjustment: Desaturation: USM


[ HOSTED PHOTO DISPLAY FAILED: ATTACH id 689090 has been deleted. ]

I sharpened only the face. Maybe I should sharpen the background? That's where the color banding is.

cdifoto wrote in post #17008830
I think you're just being too obsessive for the web. No one will want to download a file big enough to eliminate the problems you're referring to (compression artifacts) in order to view it. Concentrate on getting your exposures more correct. Unless of course you underexposed this one intentionally.

Yes, it was under exposed intentionally--or rather I darkened the background on post.

tzalman wrote in post #17008841
I do see the banding you are (apparently) referring to. There are also some other problems. It is in Adobe RGB, which means it will not be seen properly by viewers unless they are using a color managed browser and profiled monitor. Export it in sRGB.
Also, it is (to my taste) too saturated. I would reduce saturation by 25%. And lighten it a bit more than you already have (although it's hard to say how much without knowing the child's ethnicity.)
As to the banding: unless the A7 has serious low light problems, it was caused by your processing. My guess would be excessive lightening of an underexposed 8 bit image. But it can be only a guess because your posting has neither Exif nor XMP metadata so we can't know how it was shot and processed and so can't say what to do differently. My suggestion would be to make the original Raw available.

I actually didn't lighten anything. I darkened most of the photo.

BigAl007 wrote in post #17008884
I would think moving from AdobeRGB to sRGB as your colour space will also help you a lot. Viewing AdobeRGB images on a non colour managed browser will leave your images looking dark and muddy, even before any issues caused by the image being underexposed.

Remember also that the standard Windows image viewing application on most PC's is also not colour managed. So you will see the issues when simply looking at an exported image from within Windows.

Alan

It was originally srgb but it provided the same results.

john crossley wrote in post #17008930
Quite suppressed that no one had thought about sharpening the image.

Levels adjustment: Desaturation: USM


[ HOSTED PHOTO DISPLAY FAILED: ATTACH id 689090 has been deleted. ]

I can't really see the details in your pic too well on my smart phone. Is the color banding reduced?

Here's a shot of the paint brush settings for the background. Please let me know what i may have done wrong. As you can see, the color banding and the fringing on the left side of face is not there pre export.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/obAF​xz

If you use AdobeRGB, you must use it from start to finish AND THEN convert within your AdobeRGB workspace to sRGB before uploading to your hosting site.

If LR set to AdobeRGB and is outputting an AdobeRGB file into PS and you are using sRGB there, you will have a problem immediately on opening in PS. So I'd check all these settings, decide on a color space, and stick with it in camera, in LR and in PSCS.

Just to clarify, AdobeRGB is NOT the problem. However, misuse or inconsistent settings could be. It can be quite a pain to keep it all straight, which is part of why people say "keep it simple and use sRGB"

just FYI I tend to stay with AdobeRGB all the way through.

p00kienrayray wrote in post #17009205
I can't really see the details in your pic too well on my smart phone. Is the color banding reduced?

Well, to be absolutely honest with you, I can't see anything wrong with the original image you posted, apart from the fact that it needs sharpening.