JPEGs suddenly saving very small in Photoshop CC

[Meaghan]

During my last editing process (a newborn shoot) my JPEG images suddenly began saving as much smaller files than usual, including the image below.  I shoot in raw and I haven't touched anything in Photoshop CC and cannot seem to find what has changed.  I have found no love on other sites with quite a bit of assistance.  My Jpegs normally save as a 7-9/10mb file but it has been down in the kbs.  If I push the slider to maximum resolution (12) they are larger but still only 1mb.  The images are cropped but not significantly.  The crop ratio is 11X15 300dpi.  Normally I save at 8 resolution on the slider.  I will include screen shots below. 

PS:I have a PC laptop running Windows 10 and Photoshop CC. It is under 2 years old, and has 1001 bytesGB of RAM. Its hard drive has 677GB free out of 3.00 TBGB. The last time I shut down was more than a week ago, because I'm an idiot. I rarely run a cleanup program.

[Damien Symonds]

What are the pixel dimensions of the files?

[Damien Symonds]

33 minutes ago, Meaghan said:

The crop ratio is 11X15 300dpi.

This is REALLY bad.  You must NEVER impose a resolution when cropping to 11:15 shape.

35 minutes ago, Meaghan said:

t is under 2 years old, and has 1001 bytesGB of RAM.

If you only have 1GB of RAM, it's a wonder your computer even starts up.  Are you sure about this figure?

36 minutes ago, Meaghan said:

The last time I shut down was more than a week ago, because I'm an idiot.

Yes.  Yes you are.

[Meaghan]

7 minutes ago, Damien Symonds said:

What are the pixel dimensions of the files?

4206x3054

 

[Damien Symonds]

Just now, Meaghan said:

4206x3054

And that's the same (or similar) to the other files that saved at the 7-10MB size?

[Meaghan]

Dimensions are 4206x3054.

I am a bit unclear about imposing a resolution.  I learned the 11x15 from your course but I haven't looked at it for a while.  I thought 300dpi was necessary for printing.

 

[Meaghan]

Yes the sizes are similar.  My larger files are around 3447x4700

[Damien Symonds]

2 minutes ago, Meaghan said:

Dimensions are 4206x3054.

I am a bit unclear about imposing a resolution.

It's ok, you must have done it right.  If you had imposed a resolution, the dimensions would have been rounder numbers than that.

3 minutes ago, Meaghan said:

I thought 300dpi was necessary for printing.

For many labs it is, yes.  But when you're cropping to 11:15 shape, you're doing so because you're NOT printing.  Therefore, 300ppi has absolutely no relevance.

1 minute ago, Meaghan said:

Yes the sizes are similar.  My larger files are around 3447x4700

Excellent!  Then all is well, you have nothing to worry about.

Actually, you do have something to worry about - all your old files are MUCH too big.  7-10MB is outrageous for jpegs.  It means you must have forgotten to remove the noise.

http://www.damiensymonds.net/2015/08/about-jpeg-file-size.html

http://www.damiensymonds.net/2010/07/raw-noise-removal.html

5 minutes ago, Meaghan said:

I learned the 11x15 from your course but I haven't looked at it for a while.

Do you mean the sharpening class?

[Meaghan]

Printing?  Perhaps sharpening.  I did the sharpening too.

Thanks for the advice.  On my way home now and got to feed a child but will read the jpeg link when all is quiet.

[Damien Symonds]

Just to reiterate, if you're ending up with 1MB jpeg files, pat yourself on the back.  It means you're shooting beautifully clean images.

[Damien Symonds]

If your sharpening class membership has expired, I urge you to consider renewing it.  The new module will BLOW YOUR MIND, and it's very relevant to this discussion.

It's only $20 to renew.