Saving Images to Desktop loosing file size

[Nick Snell]

I am trying to save an image from Affinity Photo to my desktop to enter a competition. The original photo file size is 38.5mb.

When I resize the image in Affinity in order to comply with the competition size of 1280 pixels and 1-5mb file size the image is reduced to below 1mb (780kb)

Are there any instructions or ways in which I can save the image to desktop without loosing the file size below 1mb?

Regards

Nick

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums.
Where you are saving to isn’t part of the issue.
The main things you need to look at are your Export options.
However, I would be curious to know why the competition requires a file that is greater than (or equal to) 1MB. If this is just some kind of oversight by the person writing the rules then it might not really be an issue for you. Probably best to check to see if that is a real requirement before you go looking to change your Export options.

[Nick Snell]

Hi Gary - Thankyou for your reply. I do check all of the options to the best of my knowledge although I am a bit of an amateur at the whole thing really. I resize the image to 1280 and then export it but it seems to loose the image size. The rules state that the file must be as stated 1 - 5mb. The competition is Landscape Photographer of the Year and has been running for several years so I would be surprised if they have changed this. I will check however. Thankyou for your reply. Nick

[GarryP]

You’re welcome.
I’ve just had a look at the rules and it is indeed 1MB minimum size, which seems a bit odd but maybe they’re trying to make sure they don’t get tiny images that are unusable.
As you are exporting to JPEG, you could try upping the Quality setting in the Export Dialog to 100%.
If that doesn’t work you can try changing the Document DPI (menu “Document → Resize Document”) to something larger than whatever you have now and exporting from that, but that might cause some issues with the photo depending on various things that I’m not an expert in – resampling etc.
If neither of those work then maybe someone else can advise better.

[GarryP]

On top of my suggestions above, I’ve just done a quick experiment and adding a Live Add Noise Filter (Non-Monochromatic) of just 1% took a test image from 860KB to 1.03MB. Not a perfect solution but it may be something worth trying if other solutions fail.

[Nick Snell]

Hi Garry - Thankyou. Will try these options. Many thanks Nick

 

[GarryP]

Other people may have better solutions so it’s probably best to keep popping back for a while to see if one of the experts has posted a good answer.

[Nick Snell]

Thankyou

[GarryP]

You're welcome. And good luck in the competition.

[R C-R]

Nick, from your second screenshot it looks like the original file is a RAW format one stored in the Apple Photos library. If so, maybe try exporting the original RAW CR2 format image in Apple Photos, using that app's File > Export > Export Unmodified Original menu item. Then open that exported file in Affinity Photo. (If you did it right, it should open in the Develop Persona.)

Next, optionally perform any edits you like in the Export Persona, click the "Develop" button to switch to the Photo Persona, & do any edits/retouching in that persona you want. Finally, export to JPEG, experimenting with the export settings & watching the estimated file size to see if (hopefully!) you get something within the allowable file size range.