issues uploading quality photos

Photobomber128 · Nov 30, 2014

Hi all!

So when I am viewing my pictures in my editing programs, they look great! They're crisp, colorful, and beautiful. When I upload them to social media... they're GROSS! They're almost blurry and seem to be compressed. Any advice on how to save the files and upload them to have quality shots? Thanks!

Braineack · Nov 30, 2014

follow the specs for each site you upload to.

Ysarex · Nov 30, 2014

You have to prep your photo to the media site's expectations/specifications. Find out if the site has size requirements and how they handle ICC profiles and upload your photos so that the site won't alter them.

For example many hosting sites have a maximum size requirement. Let's say it's 1024 pixels one side or the other. If you upload a full size photo at 3680 pixels they'll take it and re-size it, scale it down for you. There are many different algorithms to do that. Your social media site may not usie one of the better ones.

Step further -- assume the site does accept your full-res image but allows you an option to post it scaled down on a display page. What are the chances they'll use the fast/mangle algorithm or the slow/quality algorithm to do that scaling?

Joe

Buckster · Nov 30, 2014

Resize them to the size they will be viewed at on a social media site. I find that given the space of a typical web page and typical monitor resolution used by most people, a photo doesn't need to be taller than about 850 pixels, nor wider than 1024 pixels.

After resizing it, sharpen to taste at that size. If you don't resize and then sharpen before uploading, a computer on the other end will resize it to fit it onto the page, and it will invariably screw up how it looks in the process.

Finally, when outputting the JPG, be sure to convert the color space to sRGB. That's the color space that web browsers use. If you don't do that, they'll interpret the colors wrong and it will look funky.