Transferring photos from Mac to iPhone, Airdrop vs iTunes sync

[iBug2]

I usually edit my photos on my Mac using Apple Photos and then transfer them to my iPhone for sharing in Instagram. I use Airdrop to upload the photos to my iPhone. But I have no idea about the quality of Airdrop. I'm sure it does compress the files quite a bit before uploading.

Is there any way to upload photos from your Mac Photos library to your phone without diminishing quality? For example if I export a photo as TIFF in full size and then airdrop that to the phone, does it still convert it to JPEG before uploading?

Does iTunes sync upload the files in same quality as Airdrop?

 

[Gravydog316]

Not 1100% sure, but in the old Photos app, when you went to File --> Export, there was an option to export 2 ways:
1: "Export (# of) Photos” and
2: "Export Unmodified Original For X Photo"

...check the Preferences & menus...
===================
Here, I copied this about the old way:
If you use the menu, you’ll see two options when you select Export: “Export X Photos” and Export Unmodified Original For X Photos,” where X is the number of images you’ve selected.

The first option will net you a JPG file, whether or not your original photo is of the same format. It will also be more compressed, as the file size will generally be smaller than the original image. For example, I exported a screenshot I’d taken with my iPhone with this basic Export menu item, and the the file size shrunk from a 3.8 MB PNG to a 452 KB JPG. This is great if you need a smaller file size, but the image quality will suffer.

To preserve the original file, format, and even date created timestamp, use the second option (Export Unmodified Original) and you’ll get an exact duplicate of the photo.

You can do the same with drag and drop. To export a JPG at a lower quality/higher compression, simply drag and drop the image from Photos to your Desktop. If you want to export an exact duplicate of the original file, however, hold the Option key down when dragging – you’ll get the higher quality original photo instead.