Having issues with quality transferring into Facebook & other online sources

[PaulWog]

I've shot my photos in raw, I edit them in lightroom, and then I export them as a jpeg once I've edited the photo to my liking. I then open the photo in CS5, do any additional editing (in this case none), and resize the image down to an acceptable resolution for Facebook (in this case around 1400 or less pixels for width, and 1400 or less for height). I make sure the file is saved correctly in CS5, and there we go. I then view the photo in various photo viewing programs, looks fine and consistent in each one... and finally, I upload the file to Facebook... and bam... it looks bad. I've tried uploading as a PNG and as a Jpeg, no luck. The issue really shows up with photos of people... it looks like Facebook adds noise, especially to the skin of the subject, and the sharpness degrades enough to make a sharp 1/1000 second shot look like it was a make-shift 1/100 second shot at 85mm (loses that nice finished feel).

I'm wondering if there's any way to really preserve the quality of the image when uploading to Facebook. For landscape photography, pictures of buildings, etc, the effect isn't noticeable really. However, for skin, I find it's really a big deal, and it's limiting what I can show on Facebook at the moment until I get this sorted out.

Shooting on a Nikon D5200 with the 16-85mm lens, 35mm 1.8G lens, and 70-300mm VR lens. Using photoshop lightroom, photoshop cs5, and of course Facebook. Shots look fine when uploaded to imageshack or any other image uploading service, however when uploaded to Facebook for an album, there's where the issue lies. I figure I need to limit the range of colors/tones in the image in order to avoid this issue (I really don't know), but I want to figure it out asap.

Any input? Thanks.

 

[The_Traveler]

Upload it at the size it will display on the application. (It won't show at 1400 on FB)
That way the servers won't have to resize it.
Convert it to sRGB color space.

Then try it again.

 

[DiskoJoe]

you dont have to resize for FB. So dont.

 

[leighthal]

I get consistent results with Facebook by saving at 92 dpi.

 

[manicmike]

I don't know man. Every time I upload an image online it goes soft and looks terrible. I think my save settings are messed up somewhere.

 

[j-digg]

I've been having a similar problem lately. Worse than usual, or maybe it's just that I can tell a bigger difference now that I shoot full frame hah... but I searched on FB help and it said something along the lines of "yeah we've been having issues lately and we're working on it."

Bunk...

 

[Buckster]

After you've uploaded your image to FB, look at it on a typical FB photo display post; the popup that happens when someone clicks on a photo in your timeline or news feed.

Now do a screenshot of that screen with the popup on it. Open the screenshot in Photoshop, and crop away everything but the photo itself.

What size is the result in pixel dimensions? Use that as the size to make your photos for uploading to FB.

Anything larger is just going to cause a reduction in size by FB, without regard for your preferences in quality or clarity or anything else.

 

[KmH]

I get consistent results with Facebook by saving at 92 dpi.

You're actually saving an input file at 92 ppi.
Print and other output devices use dpi resolution.
PPI is meaningless for online or electronic display. Pixel dimension are all that count.

 

[Buckster]

PPI is meaningless for online or electronic display. Pixel dimension are all that count.

Isn't that what "PPI" stands for? Pixels Per Inch?

Also, how is a pixel fundamentally different than a dot on the screen?

'Nuther dumb question from me:

Print and other output devices use dpi resolution.

Isn't a monitor an "output device"?

ETA: Oh yeah... It is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Output_device

Very interesting...

 

[DBA]

Facebook has two main sizes (that I'm aware of) that they don't resize, 960px and 2048px. Try uploading a 2048px (wide) and 95% quality jpeg. The reason for the 95% quality is because since they degrade it no matter what size/quality it is, why not start really high?

Depending on your browser window size they'll give you either the 960px or the 2048px version. Here's a recent one I upload with the above settings.

960px - https://sphotos-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/969934_684229221602864_976837289_n.jpg
2048px - https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/1071433_684229221602864_976837289_o.jpg

 

[KmH]

Computer or electronic displays are not affected by the PPI setting used to save an image. If set, the value is ignored. Pixel dimension are all that count.

Try it yourself. Post a 1000 px by 800 pixel image that has been saved at 1 ppi, and then post the same 1000 px by 800 pixel image saved at 300 ppi.
I've posted that same kind of demo post several times in the past here on TPF.

TFT-LCD computer displays use pixels. Thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Martin Evening and Jeff Schewe both cover the details of PPI, DPI, and LPI in their books.
In the case of inkjet printers the term dpi is used to describe the resolution of the printer head.
Inkjet printer heads come in 2 types - thermal and piezoelectric - and the resolution can range from 3 dpi to 2880+ dpi.

While a correlation can be made between the pixel size of an image and the 'dpi' setting for the printer, it is mimportant to realize that the number of pixelsper inch is not the same as the number of dots per inch created by the printer. - Martin Evening

For example - a 1200 dpi printer uses 1200 dots of ink every inch to render the colors that are in 300 PPI worth of image.

 

[j-digg]

Facebook has two main sizes (that I'm aware of) that they don't resize, 960px and 2048px. Try uploading a 2048px (wide) and 95% quality jpeg. The reason for the 95% quality is because since they degrade it no matter what size/quality it is, why not start really high?

Depending on your browser window size they'll give you either the 960px or the 2048px version. Here's a recent one I upload with the above settings.

960px - https://sphotos-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/969934_684229221602864_976837289_n.jpg
2048px - https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/1071433_684229221602864_976837289_o.jpg

Yeah, I have tried 960 on FB and it still looked pretty crappy. Is there a reason to use 95% as opposed to 100?

Edit: Wow, great luck with uploading at 2048px, a HUGE jump in quality :thumbup: thanks a bunch.

 

[DBA]

Facebook has two main sizes (that I'm aware of) that they don't resize, 960px and 2048px. Try uploading a 2048px (wide) and 95% quality jpeg. The reason for the 95% quality is because since they degrade it no matter what size/quality it is, why not start really high?

Depending on your browser window size they'll give you either the 960px or the 2048px version. Here's a recent one I upload with the above settings.

960px - https://sphotos-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/969934_684229221602864_976837289_n.jpg
2048px - https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/1071433_684229221602864_976837289_o.jpg

Yeah, I have tried 960 on FB and it still looked pretty crappy. Is there a reason to use 95% as opposed to 100?

Edit: Wow, great luck with uploading at 2048px, a HUGE jump in quality :thumbup: thanks a bunch.

Honestly I don't know why I use 95% versus 100%. Glad I could help.