Export

Select one photo or a hundred in the grid — or just open one and export it on its own — then click Export. The export form has four parts, and the defaults (full-resolution JPEG in an Exports folder) need no changes. Click Export at the bottom when you are ready, and LightPhotos bakes your adjustments into brand-new files.

The export form

• Destination. Choose Folder or Immich. Under Location, Exports subfolder writes into an Exports folder inside the folder you opened, created the first time you export. In the desktop app, Another folder sends the files anywhere else.
• File. File name is a template: {name} is the photo's own name and {seq} its number in this export, so trip-{seq} numbers the files in order. The form shows an example name as you type. Format is JPEG, PNG, TIFF (16-bit) or WebP (lossless), plus AVIF in the Windows and Linux apps and on recent macOS. For JPEG, File size caps each file, for sites that limit uploads.
• Output. Size is Full resolution or a long edge in pixels. Sharpen For adds sharpening after the resize, tuned for Screen, Matte Paper or Glossy Paper at Low, Standard or High. It is off by default and comes on top of the Sharpening slider.
• Metadata. The capture date, camera, lens and exposure always go into the file, and captions and comments never do. Location (GPS) and Camera serial numbers and owner are off unless you tick them. Type a Copyright line to write it into every export; leave it empty to keep each photo's own.

What exporting does and does not do

• The originals are left exactly as they were. Your edits stay in place too, so you can change a slider tomorrow and export again — exporting never consumes or overwrites anything.
• Exports are ordinary files. Open them in anything, attach them to an email, hand them to a print shop. Nothing about them needs LightPhotos to still exist.
• Nothing is uploaded. The decode, the adjustments and the encode all happen on your own machine, and only the files you selected are written — the rest of the folder is untouched.
• Deleting is different. Delete removes the photo itself: the desktop app moves it to the Trash, and the browser version deletes it from disk with no undo. Exporting is the safe way to make something new.

That is the whole loop. If you have not read the earlier steps, start at opening the app; the keyboard shortcuts are what make the second shoot twice as fast as the first.