


Today’s Question: When exporting from Apple Photos to Lightroom Classic by choosing File > Export from the menu, what options do you recommend selecting? The size is a question I am wondering about. I would guess Actual Size but that of course takes much longer and I would imagine requires more space. But if the goal is to get the best quality to edit in Lightroom Classic, what is the best way to proceed?
Tim’s Quick Answer: If you’re exporting from Apple Photos to import into Lightroom Classic, I recommend using the File > Export > Export Unmodified Original command so you can import a copy of the original capture into Lightroom Classic. You could also import directly from your iPhone to Lightroom Classic to bypass the export process.
More Detail: When importing photos into Lightroom Classic that are being managed by another workflow, such as with Apple Photos, I recommend importing the original capture exactly how it was saved by the camera into Lightroom Classic. You can import directly into Lightroom Classic, such as by connecting a smartphone to your computer, or by downloading photos from the smartphone to your computer using other software so the images can then be imported.
I don’t recommend making a copy of the original photos in a different file format, as there will generally be some disadvantage to doing so. For example, exporting to TIFF files won’t provide an improvement in image quality, and will dramatically increase the size of the file for each image.
In Apple Photos you can export copies of the original image in the original capture format using the File > Export > Export Unmodified Original command. This will enable you to import into Lightroom Classic copies of the original images exactly as they were captured by the camera.
If you had been using the JPEG format for capturing photos on your smartphone, for example, then you’ll be getting copies of those original JPEG images, complete with the risk of potentially visible compression artifacts in the images.
If you want to optimize image quality in this context, the key is to use the optimal capture format at the time you take the photo. For a smartphone, the best option would be to use a raw capture format, which could include using the option to capture images as Adobe DNG images in the Lightroom mobile app. If you want to capture images with smaller file sizes, I suggest using the HEIC option rather than JPEG. But whatever format you’re using when the photo is captured, I recommend importing that same file into Lightroom Classic.