Lightroom export settings for client galleries

The Lightroom export settings that work for client galleries: full-resolution JPEG, sRGB, quality 80 to 85, screen sharpening, metadata and naming, and why 100 is a waste.

Export one set from Lightroom for a client gallery: JPEG, sRGB, quality 80 to 85, no resizing, output sharpening for Screen at Standard, copyright metadata kept and location data removed, and a file name that sorts in order. That single full-resolution export is what you upload. The gallery platform makes the smaller copies for screens and phones; you only export a second, web-size set if yours does not.

The rest of this page is the reasoning behind each setting, the numbers to expect, and the 2 presets to save so you never think about it again.

The settings

Panel	Setting	Why
Export Location	A dated folder per wedding, e.g. 2026-06-14-Smith-Gallery	You will upload from it and archive it
File Naming	Custom Name - Sequence, 4 digits	Sorts correctly in every gallery and every lab
File Settings	JPEG, sRGB, Quality 80 to 85, Limit File Size off	Small enough to upload, large enough for any print
Image Sizing	Resize to Fit unchecked	The gallery wants the native pixel dimensions
Output Sharpening	Screen, Standard	Balanced sharpening for the way the files will be viewed
Metadata	Copyright & Contact Info Only, or All Except Camera & Camera Raw Info; Remove Location Info checked	Credit travels with the file, GPS does not
Watermarking	Off	Watermark in the gallery, not the file, if at all
Post-Processing	Do nothing	Upload from the folder

Format and color space

JPEG, not TIFF or PNG. A TIFF of a 45-megapixel frame is well over 100 MB and no gallery wants it; a PNG is larger than a JPEG at the same quality with no benefit for photographs.

sRGB, always. Browsers, phones and most labs assume sRGB. An Adobe RGB or ProPhoto file looks flat and desaturated on any screen that does not color-manage, which includes most phones in most apps. If you edit in ProPhoto, the conversion to sRGB happens at export and you lose nothing the couple would ever see. The one exception is a fine-art lab that asks for Adobe RGB for a specific paper, and that is a separate export for that order, not the gallery set.

Quality 80 to 85, and why not 100

Lightroom’s quality slider does not move in single steps. It moves in bands of roughly 8 points, so 80 and 84 produce the same file, and 85 steps up to the next band. So “80 to 85” is one band, and it is the band where the file looks identical to the original at any normal viewing size.

Going to 100 does not add detail. It stops the compressor from discarding data that no eye and no printer can see, and it costs you about double the file size for it. Rule of thumb on a 24-megapixel camera: about 5 to 8 MB per photo at quality 80, about 12 to 18 MB at 100. On a 45-megapixel camera, roughly double both. Across 800 photos that is the difference between an 8 GB gallery and a 16 GB gallery, which matters for upload time, for storage, and for the couple’s download.

Quality 60 to 70 is where compression starts to show in smooth gradients: skies, out-of-focus backgrounds, and skin in soft light. Do not go there for a delivery set. It is fine for a sneak-peek export destined for a phone screen, unless you plan to reuse those files, in which case export once at 80.

How much storage wedding galleries take has the arithmetic per wedding at these sizes.

Image sizing

For the gallery set, leave Resize to Fit unchecked. The pixel dimensions of the file are what “full resolution” means, and what a 16 x 20 print needs. Resolution in pixels per inch is a metadata field; set 300 if a lab asks, but it does not change the file.

Do not check Limit File Size To. It forces Lightroom to hunt for a quality setting that hits your number, and the result is a different quality on every photo.

A second export at a long edge of 2048 pixels is the standard web size: it fills a phone screen, uploads to social media without being downsized, and prints acceptably to 8 x 10. Most gallery platforms, including ours, generate this copy from your full-resolution upload, so you only make it yourself if yours does not or if you are sending files by another route. Web size vs full resolution covers which one to hand the couple and when.

Output sharpening

Set Sharpen For: Screen, Amount: Standard. Screen sharpening is the middle option and suits a file that will mostly be viewed on a phone and occasionally printed. Matte and Glossy paper sharpening are for a print export where you know the paper, and they over-sharpen on a screen. High amount looks crisp in the export preview and produces halos on hair and edges when a gallery resizes the file down again.

If you already sharpen heavily in the Develop module, use Low or none. The 2 stages add up.

Metadata

Keep the copyright. Fill in the Copyright, Creator, and Creator Website fields in the IPTC panel before you export, and choose either Copyright & Contact Info Only or All Except Camera & Camera Raw Info. The credit then travels inside the file; most reposts strip it, but a publication or a lab that checks will find it.

Check Remove Location Info. A getting-ready photo taken at the couple’s home carries the GPS coordinates of that home unless you strip them, and there is no reason for a guest to be able to read them.

Uncheck Write Keywords as Lightroom Hierarchy and check Remove Person Info if you use face tagging in Lightroom, because those names would otherwise be embedded in the file.

File naming

Use Custom Name - Sequence with the couple’s surname or surnames and a 4-digit sequence: Smith-0001.jpg through Smith-0842.jpg. Four digits keep 0100 sorting after 0099 in every system. Avoid spaces, apostrophes and accented characters; some labs and some older ZIP tools mangle them.

Do not rename by section or by camera. One sequence across the whole wedding means that when the couple says “number 412”, you and your lab and your album designer all find the same file. It also means the Lightroom sort order is the order the gallery receives.

If you deliver a black and white version of a color photo, give it the same number with a suffix: Smith-0412-bw.jpg. The couple can then find both.

Watermarking at export

Leave it off. If you want a mark on screen-size copies, apply it inside the gallery so the full-resolution file stays clean and you do not need a second export. Should you watermark wedding photos covers when it is worth doing at all.

Two presets to save

Gallery - Full Res: everything above.
Gallery - Web 2048: the same, with Resize to Fit: Long Edge 2048 pixels, quality 80, and Sharpen For: Screen. Use it only when your platform does not make web-size copies, or for sneak peeks and vendor sends outside a gallery.

Export the full set to the dated folder, spot-check 5 files at 100% for banding and halos, then drag the whole folder into the gallery. In FOCL Galleries uploads are resumable as long as the tab stays open, and the help center covers the mechanics under upload photos. Keep the export folder until the couple has downloaded, then archive it with the RAW files as part of your backup strategy.