Tutorial - Quality Facebook photos

http://jpphotography.c​o.nz …-quality-facebook-photos/

My first tutorial let me know what you think

Thanks for taking the time to do this!

My comments are about the resizing you do using the crop tool...

First off, when preparing an image for viewing on the Web (or other "generic" computer viewing) the "Resolution" value (DPI/PPI) is irrelevant because your typical Web site or image viewer will either display images "full size" or will resize to match a viewing "preset" (which Facebook does) and the dpi/ppi "tag" gets ignored.

In fact, the one use of that tag in Photoshop would be to preview a "Print Size" via the View menu, if you are in fact printing at a specified size in inches and a specified ppi value, which you would never want to be "72 ppi"!

And, for viewing on a monitor, be aware that 72 ppi does not "reflect" any modern monitor. Our monitors actually are typically around 100 ppi in actual screen resolution.

Also, you might want to give some thought to whether a person wants to resize the image but keep the original composition, or crop the composition but keep the original aspect ratio, or crop but change to another aspect ratio. These considerations are choices between cropping or possibly using the Image/Image Size function.

At any rate, my only other comment is that Facebook can handle images quite a bit larger than 900 pixels without "mangling" them. In fact, they have in recent months introduced a "Full Size" view mode which can, well, fill your screen if your uploaded image is of sufficient resolution and a "proper" aspect ratio. So, suppose you are viewing on an "HD" resolution screen, as in 1920x1080 pixels, you could view an image that has that resolution or more and Facebook will display the image to fill your screen, up to certain "limits" (it may resize a bit, I don't recall the exact "specs"). If the image has a different aspect ratio the image will "fill" to the appropriate aspect ratio. If the image exceeds your actual screen resolution FB will fill to match your screen.

So, in other words, what image resolution you use is a matter of choice/preference. Some folks stick to a low resolution to protect the images from being downloaded and printed. But the actual viewing size is flexible.

As to sharpening, I haven't tried different methods in Photoshop because I put out images to Facebook from Lightroom, which has built-in "Output Sharpening" functions which meet my needs. I honestly don't see Facebook "mangling" my pics, possibly because my uploads don't require a lot of resizing by them.

Main reason i like using 900 px, is because its an amount that i know most peoples screen resolution will be under.

I like the crop tool because it's quick, if you leave one side blank and select the entire image it is just esensialy resizing, keeping the ratio the same etc.

Cheers for the feedback

wildcatnzl wrote in post #15361838
Main reason i like using 900 px, is because its an amount that i know most peoples screen resolution will be under.

Understood, although you might want to clarify that in your tutorial, since first Facebook will "fit" the image view to your screen, in fact for the "default" view it shows it smaller even if your original resolution is larger!

But there is also the option to view images of a larger resolution, my suggestion is that you "expand" the tutorial a bit!

[quick]I like the crop tool because it's quick, if you leave one side blank and select the entire image it is just esensialy resizing, keeping the ratio the same etc.[/quick]

Gotcha, I'm just used to using the cropping tool to crop, and the "Image Size" tool to resize!

[quick]Cheers for the feedback

Hey, thanks for taking the time to "spread some knowledge"!

It's my understanding that the max file size,when the hi-res box is not checked, is 960px (used to be 720), and that the max size with hi- res checked is 2048 px.

I read somewhere that sizing your images to be 960 px on the longest side gives the best quality for FB. I also read a convincing argument that saving your files in .png format, rather than jpeg gives better results.

May be worth mentioning.

My default settings are 960 px on the longest size, 96 ppi, and .png format.

Cheers guys ilI add some more detail.

I haven't encountered "serious issues" with Facebook IQ. My tyical uploads have been about 1080 pixels in height, so approcimately matching a 1080 screen. For landscape-oriented shots, my earlier ones were all 1024 pixels wide (sized for POTN) but in recent months I've been sizing them to about 1600 pixels, making better use of the Full Screen View mode.

If anyone is curious about those sizes and IQ, feel free to check out some of my shots, a good place to look is my Miscsllaneous album, about the first 15 show the "older" sizes, and then as you go you see bigger shots. Please play with the Full Screen mode so you get a "feel" of the difference it makes!:

http://www.facebook.co​m …74.100000706727​496&type=3

Basically, I think Facebook has gotten a "bad rep" that it doesn't necessarily deserve, at least not from me!