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]

  On 9/7/2016 at 5:16 AM, Meaghan said:

The crop ratio is 11X15 300dpi.

Expand  

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

  On 9/7/2016 at 5:16 AM, Meaghan said:

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

Expand  

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

  On 9/7/2016 at 5:16 AM, Meaghan said:

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

Expand  

Yes.  Yes you are.

[Meaghan]

  On 9/7/2016 at 5:49 AM, Damien Symonds said:

What are the pixel dimensions of the files?

Expand  

4206x3054

 

[Damien Symonds]

  On 9/7/2016 at 6:00 AM, Meaghan said:

4206x3054

Expand  

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]

  On 9/7/2016 at 6:04 AM, Meaghan said:

Dimensions are 4206x3054.

I am a bit unclear about imposing a resolution.

Expand  

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

  On 9/7/2016 at 6:04 AM, Meaghan said:

I thought 300dpi was necessary for printing.

Expand  

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.

  On 9/7/2016 at 6:06 AM, Meaghan said:

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

Expand  

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

  On 9/7/2016 at 6:04 AM, Meaghan said:

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

Expand  

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.