The Best Lightroom Export Settings for Instagram.
Here are the Lightroom CC export settings you want to use for sharp, high-quality images on Instagram.
And then, here are the settings for Instagram Reels if you’re also creating videos in Premiere Pro.
The Lightroom CC Export Panel with the best settings for Instagram.
Lightroom Settings.
Image Type: JPG or PNG
Crop: 4x5
Dimensions: Custom
Short Side: 2,160 Pixels
Quality: 100%
Output Sharpening: Screen
Amount: High
Color Space: sRGB
Now, if you're interested, let's go through these, and I'll explain why these are the settings to use.
You'll also see a couple of other settings in the panel, like Metadata and File Name, but those don't affect image quality, so I'm not going into them here.
File type.
It doesn't really matter if you use JPG or PNG, but the general recommendation is to use JPGs for photos and PNGs for graphic or vector-based art. And since we're talking about images from Lightroom, it's best to use JPGs.
Crop.
The reason to post 4x5 images is because they take up the most real estate in the Instagram Feed.
Smaller image ratios like 1x1 and certainly 4x3 or 16x9 get scrolled past more quickly, and the point, of course, is to have people spend as much time with your content as possible, which they'll have to with a taller image.
Sizing.
The maximum width of any image on Instagram is 1080 pixels wide.
So, why am I suggesting exporting from Lightroom at 2160 pixes?
Well, because it's exactly double 1080, and when the larger image is scaled down, those pixels are combined to create an even sharper image.
Quality.
No matter what, every image is run through Instagram's compression algorithm as it's published, so we might as well give it the highest, 100% quality to work with.
Output Sharpening.
A lot of what's perceived as "high quality" on Instagram is really how sharp an image appears.
Typically, the Standard amount of sharpening is fine, but since your image is also going through Instagram's compression algorithm, which will knock it down somewhat, adding a little more with the High setting will help retain that extra bit of detail.
Color Space.
sRGB is the standard color space for screen displays. Knowing that, you'll want to export your image from Lightroom in sRGB so the colors remain consistent as they go from Lightroom to Instagram.
Instagram Settings.
Lastly, in Instagram, go to Settings and Privacy > Media Quality and turn on Upload at Highest Quality so Instagram isn't throttling your image quality any more than it needs to.
You only need to enable Upload at Highest Quality once for Instagram to always use this setting.
That’s it. Simple, straightforward settings you should use to ensure every image you export from Lightroom and upload to Instagram is as high quality as it can be.
