What happened to my Image?!

Hi..
I am using Lightroom 3. I took some family snapshots at my brothers wedding. I shot RAW. I uploaded them to facebook and they came out relatively ok (I had resized them for mine so it didn't take forever).

I re-exported the files in original size and burnt them to a disc for her and she's just uploaded them to facebook and they have turned out on facebook VERY grainy and they look awful.. I begged her to take them down but she's left them up - talk about emabrressed!! The images that came out shocking were the photos where I had the ISO upped (1600)

Does anyone know what I have done wrong?

Help!!

First image is from her facebook page and the bottom image is from my facebook page.

I will attach the original image in my next post

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

Full size image uploaded to photobucket (11.2mb)

Well, I agree, the first image looks terrible!

The only thing I can suggest is providing an image that is sized for Web viewing -- say 800 pixels at the widest. See if Facebook does a better job at resizing it.

Firstly, relax.. You need to make peace with the fact that some people will really like photos that you think are terrible, and many people out there could care less about noise. I don't think a week goes by where someone wants a particular photo from me that I would never imagine using for myself. Your photo is very good, and I imagine anyone who sees the noisy version would just assume it's a web/browser thing, not that the original photo is like that..

As far as things to check.. Unless you do "export with previous" in LR3, there is a distinct possibility that your output/export options could've changed between the initial and secondary exports.. However, I think it's very likely that in having to resize the images herself, she chose some program, or set of options, that decreased quality drastically. Here's a tip for us as photographers, and something I learned the hard way myself... drumroll please...

People do not want full size photos (most of the time)!

Ask them what they want. Even if they say they want full sized images, I create an additional folder for them called "Facebook - Web Sized Photos" where I've already re-sized them and got them down to under 100k each. This prevents emails / phone calls / frustration for both parties.

Finally.. looking at the EXIF, there was no need to use that high of an ISO.. You could've easily gotten away with ISO 200. So next time.. expose properly and noise won't be an issue!

ahh.. thanks. I think the issue may have been on her end, but she insisted that she hadn't changed the file!

Thanks Brandon - that is an AWESOME idea. Talk about a lightbulb going off. In future for people I am giving discs to with images I will create a sub folder with facebook/web sized images.
I agree that people tend to like images that I often don't like and wouldn't provide them with.. but I think because I seen the image like that, I know I'm not happy with it and it's a poor representation of the image - It freaked me out thinking I had done something wrong!! Thanks for the ISO tip - I think because I had started drinking a few wines and switched to AV instead of M, I just cranked it up and let it go... Lucky they are snapshots! ]

ta..

Lesson learnt this evening!!

You're welcome, and I really do like that shot, good stuff!!

I learned the hard way that people very rarely want the full-sized images.. My light-bulb was when I had jumped through all kinds of hoops to get a model her images.. zipping them up, hosting them on different download services, signing up for random gallery sites so she could get the full sized images, and then, finally, after I had to mail out a CD, she got them.. and then emails me with... "thanks, but they're too big for facebook!!! Now what?!"

Frustrating, but a valuable lesson.. even if they say they absolutely 100% need the full sized ones, I still give them "facebook" copies. 9 times out of 10, those are the ones they use anyway.

The issue is likely caused by the resizing used by FaceBook or the resizing of a large image down to screensize. In the latter case, the image should look okay at 100% view.

Facebook's max image size is 720px on the long edge, so make sure you resize to that as part of your export so they don't get re-resized by Facebook upon upload.

There are probably more Facebook optimization tips out there, but that's the only one I know. I resize and set to 85% quality to keep the file size slightly down. No idea if 85% is appropriate or not.

Same thing happened to me a few days ago...I solved it by resizing for Facebook...it IS DEFINITELY a facebook (and other websites) problem when resizing big images.

I didn't take it down to 720px, but to 1024, which is still too big for FB, but that was was handled by Facebook well, and compressed without a problem.

This was my thread...you can see the same problem in my images...

https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1031871

Hope that helps.

René Damkot wrote in post #12295507
The issue is likely caused by the resizing used by FaceBook or the resizing of a large image down to screensize. In the latter case, the image should look okay at 100% view.

And you said, "Full size image uploaded to photobucket (11.2mb)", so PB resized them too!
From their support:

If your mouse cursor becomes a (+) when you mouse over the image, then you need to access that larger image that you uploaded. I always click on the image to get the 100% size that I've uploaded, & then use that URL for display.

Thanks for your input all.. Problem solved by exporting as 700 pixels - long edge. Images came out perfectly on facebook (well maybe a little soft.. but drastic improvement from the first image).

Silly facebook.

You can also sharpen the final resolution image for web viewing, so that it does not appear a little soft.

In a typical workflow, you make edits to an image at full size, then repurpose that image for the various output devices, including resizing and output sharpening. So, your full size image may be reduced to 8x10 inches at 240 dpi for print, with the appropriate output device sharpening applied as a final step after resize (version 1), and then the same full size image resized to 700 px wide and sharpened for web viewing (version 2). Each version is saved as a new file, in the most appropriate file format and color space for the output device. Think of the full size edit as the "master" image, and the various repurposed versions as output-specific variants.

Kirk