The JPEGmini panel open in Photoshop
Business, Photography, Software

JPEGmini Brings Image Compression to Photoshop

The folks who have been making JPEGs awesome out of Lightroom are bringing the same savings to Photoshop with the release of their new JPEGmini Photoshop extension. JPEGmini has one simple mission and performs it extremely well — reduce the file size of your JPEGs without compromising on quality. If anyone is a fan of the show Silicon Valley, JPEGmini is basically the “real life Pied Piper”, and they take photo quality very seriously. Last year alone they optimized over 30 billion photos!

Why Should I Care About Image Compression?

Let’s back up one second and talk about compression in general. If you shoot in RAW (which I hope you do), you’re working with an uncompressed form of data. Everything is recorded in its full glory from the sensor, ready to edit to your liking. Having all of that data is amazing at the start, but once you’re done with your post production and ready to send out your work to your client and archive the final images, you need to generate a finished JPEG file. That finished JPEG file is a compressed version of the RAW file, and you want the JPEG to be as high of a quality as possible while also being as small as possible.

Having smaller JPEG files leads to a lot of benefits down the line in your workflow, including:

  • faster upload times to online gallery delivery systems
  • less bandwidth usage across the board
  • quicker load times on your website
  • faster backups to your archiving system
  • faster download times for clients

If you can get all of these benefits without reducing the quality of the actual JPEG file, that’s a huge win-win!

All That Compression Awesomeness Now in Photoshop

Installing the new Photoshop extension is super simple, and adds a panel to your workspace with an “Export With JPEGmini” button. When you’re ready to generate a finished JPEG from image you’re working on, a click of the button spits out a highly compressed file ready to go. So simple a caveman could do it. It also gives you a fun little counter of how much disk space you’ve saved through using the extension.

The JPEGmini panel open in Photoshop
The JPEGmini panel open in Photoshop

A Few Real-World Examples

I took a few of my favorite photos from 2015 and ran them through the paces with the new JPEGmini Photoshop plugin, putting them up against the infamous “Save As…” dialog and also the “Export As” dialog. Here’s what I found:

Elopement-JillianAndrew-20150406-0023-jpm
Image resolution: 6016×4016 // Image compressed with JPEGmini: 3.2 MB // Save As: 4.1 MB // Export JPG: 6.7 MB
Image compressed with JPEGmini: 2.2 MB // Save As: 2.3 MB // Export JPG: 3,7 MB
Image resolution: 4928×3280 // Image compressed with JPEGmini: 2.2 MB // Save As: 2.3 MB // Export JPG: 3.7 MB
Portraits-IsabelleFrancois-20150513-0007-jpm
Image resolution: 5797×3870 // Image compressed with JPEGmini: 3.5 MB // Save As: 4.4 MB // Export JPG: 7.4 MB
Elopement-CynthiaTabare-20150507-0099-jpm
Image resolution: 4928×3280 // Image compressed with JPEGmini: 3.9 MB // Save As: 4.3 MB // Export JPG: 6.3 MB
Wedding-OzetteRyan-Portraits-20150530-0050-jpm
Image resolution: 6016×4016 // Image compressed with JPEGmini: 4.8 MB // Save As: 8.3 MB // Export JPG: 11.9 MB
JPEGmini Comparison
100% zoom comparison of “Save As…”, “Export As”, and “JPEGmini” results. Check out the weird red cast that “Export As” added!

Conclusion

I’ve been a fan of the JPEGmini Lightroom plugin for over a year now, and its seamless integration into my workflow has highlighted its most important aspect – I never even know it’s there. And that is exactly what I want from an image compression utility.

The JPEGmini Pro bundle now includes the Lightroom plugin, Photoshop extension, and standalone app. For the next week, save $50 and get all three for just $99! And if you’re already a user of the LR plugin, be on the lookout for an email to download the new Photoshop extension.

Jon Lemon is the Editor-in-Chief of Resource Weddings and head of JC Lemon Photography, a wedding photography studio based in New York City. Known for capturing true moments of love in a modern and relaxed style, Jon also specializes in elopements (intimate weddings) in the NYC area. Being a self-taught photographer that slowly built up his business while working a desk job, he knows that any insight into running a better wedding photography business is advantageous in this competitive area of the photography industry.