Why does a photo look blurry in Lightroom Library view when zoomed out, even after building 1:1 previews?
Asked 3/20/2016
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2 answers
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In Lightroom Library view, a single image looks blurry when fit to screen. If I zoom in, it becomes very sharp. When I zoom back out, the sharp version appears briefly, then Lightroom switches to a softer-looking version. I already generated a 1:1 preview, but the zoomed-out view still looks blurry. Is there a setting to control the quality of the image shown when zoomed out?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
1
I think your "sharp" image is downscaled using nearest neighbor interpolation. It just shows some pixels as they are, and drops the rest. It is a very fast method and that's why Lightroom uses it to quickly show something.
The "blurry" one is downscaled with a more sophisticated method, maybe bilinear or biqubic in Photoshop language.
The nearest neighbor interpolation seems very sharp, because light points and sharp edges are not diluted by linear combinations with neighboring pixels. All the micro contrast is still there. Actually it seems even sharper than the full resolution image, because at edges many of the soft edge pixels are left off.
NN interpolation also creates jagged edges, and makes noise look worse. And it has a potential for awful moiré effects.
Originally by user63032. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user63032
9y ago
0
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What you’re seeing is normal Lightroom behavior. A 1:1 preview is mainly used for zoomed-in viewing. When the image is fit to screen again, Lightroom usually shows a standard-size or thumbnail preview instead.
That softer look can happen because Lightroom uses a different downscaling/rendering method for the smaller preview. The briefly visible “sharp” version is likely a fast temporary rendering; then Lightroom replaces it with a smoother downsampled preview. Smoother scaling can look less crisp, even though it is often better overall and avoids harsher jaggies or moiré.
If the blur is only temporary, Lightroom is probably still generating the standard preview. Building standard previews in advance can help. If it never sharpens properly, check your Standard Preview Size setting, since zoomed-out Library display depends on that more than on 1:1 previews.
So: no, 1:1 previews do not control the fit-to-screen image quality, and the main thing to adjust is the standard preview size/rendering workflow.
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