New Facebook photo display system - Bad effect on image quality and theft advertising

I don't know if this has been fully rolled out yet (so yours may not have changed yet, or this may be old news to you) but yesterday my Facebook account started displaying photos differently.
Now when you click on a photo in an album it opens in an inset window rather than going to a new page.

This new window resizes dynamically to fit your browser window.

Basically if you're displaying images on Facebook and you want to guarantee they look decent you need to drop the resolution so it will definitely fit this window on everyone's monitor. Facebook's own 720 pixel on the long side size is too big for portrait orientation images on my 1280x1024 monitor.

They've also removed right click saving and added the "Download Photo" option to all images as far as I can see, so photo theft is now being actively advertised.

This affects personal profiles and fan pages.

Noticed my Facebook pictures open up differently too, but haven't noticed a change in quality. I always upload mine pretty small because it used to really mess my quality up when I uploaded with a larger size.

As for theft, watermark your work or maybe just do the same as me and keep the files really small and download tineye. This way the images being small, say less than 500kb they can not be printed at good quality then if somebody steals your work and uploads to the internet then tineye will find it.

There's no download link if you upload a smaller photo to begin with. Mine are at 600px on the long side. No display problems or link to download.

yup always have sesized just for FB...no prob with IQ that way.

cdifoto wrote in post #11782068
There's no download link if you upload a smaller photo to begin with. Mine are at 600px on the long side. No display problems or link to download.

gravy graffix wrote in post #11782128
yup always have sesized just for FB...no prob with IQ that way.

A fact I only recently discovered. I noticed my images were looking like butt when displayed so I started going with 640 on the long side...problem solved.

CDI: You sure about not having a download link? When I dropped the size mine went from saying "Download in High Resolution" to "Download Photo" but it was still there.

DazJW wrote in post #11780936
They've also removed right click saving and added the "Download Photo" option to all images as far as I can see, so photo theft is now being actively advertised.

People need to realise that disabling rigth click will NOT in any way protect your photos. Once they are displayed on the screen they can be saved. I hate any page that disable rigth clicks. Not because I have a habit of saving photos but because rigth click offers other options than saving a photo.

tommykjensen wrote in post #11782224
People need to realise that disabling rigth click will NOT in any way protect your photos. Once they are displayed on the screen they can be saved. I hate any page that disable rigth clicks. Not because I have a habit of saving photos but because rigth click offers other options than saving a photo.

Very true! Saving the screen capture is not the same as downloading the original file in most cases though. Smugmug allows you to limit the display size and disable right clicks- anything saved would make a lousy print.

I'd love to see that option in facebook, but I don't see that as the best venue for photographers regardless. I market a little there, but mostly with links and limited samples.

If you upload it as a small enough file then anybody who right click saves will not be able to have a good enough quality for print.

My website images are around 200k

alabama1980 wrote in post #11782184
CDI: You sure about not having a download link? When I dropped the size mine went from saying "Download in High Resolution" to "Download Photo" but it was still there.

Here's what I see when my images are 600 on the long side:

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

That's the old image page cdifoto, the new pop up one has a black background and the links on the left.

Why are people obsessed with whether an image is a good size for a print? People don't want prints, they want photos. The modern form of photos isn't a print, it's a digital file. I'm sure people buy prints, especially for special occasions, but it's old fashioned now.
If it's only going back up on Facebook anyway then any size will do.

DazJW wrote in post #11793826
That's the old image page cdifoto, the new pop up one has a black background and the links on the left.

Why are people obsessed with whether an image is a good size for a print? People don't want prints, they want photos. The modern form of photos isn't a print, it's a digital file. I'm sure people buy prints, especially for special occasions, but it's old fashioned now.
If it's only going on Facebook anyway then anything will do.

Oh okay. I get a black background on the mobile touch site but I guess the new full version hasn't hit me yet.

Interesting point Daz. Its a changing world for Photogs!

DazJW wrote in post #11793826
Why are people obsessed with whether an image is a good size for a print? People don't want prints, they want photos. The modern form of photos isn't a print, it's a digital file. I'm sure people buy prints, especially for special occasions, but it's old fashioned now.

If it's only going back up on Facebook anyway then any size will do.

A very true, analogy.

A lot of people want digital images these days to put on their social media pages and they don't care about the quality. All you have to do is look at most of the photos posted on Facebook, 80% of them are very poor by professional standards. But the point is the poster doesn't care, they are not trying to display a masterpiece they just want to show their friends what they were up to.

If I sold portraiture prints I would also offer a free CD of low resolution images so the client can post them on Facebook. Better still I would watermark them with my website details.

Photographers need to continue to evolve like the rest of the world.

I still believe prints have value. I can't put my finger on what it is, but there's definitely something to be said for looking at a printed photo instead of a digital display. Maybe it's because the entire concept of calibration, brightness, display fidelity, etc are all unneeded. You're seeing what is, not what might be a little off or unsharp or pixellated due to compression. Prints really are beautiful.

Having said that, everyone gets a facebook sized pic of the photos they order as a print as well as what I put on there to show off....BUT I don't make it a point to give them a disk or thumb drive or anything else that I have to produce. Since I'm only doing portraits I just tag them and if they want to make it a profile pic or copy it into their own albums, all they have to do is click the right link.

the download link is on the bottom left right under the like / comment buttons it flat out says " Download in high resolution"

nice.. Thank you for the heads up on the DL button!

Cdifoto, you are right, prints still have value, and great value. I am finding though that people have stopped caring about quality! I have been to clients homes and have received thank yous from clients that were printed from marked proofs! 72dpi, prints look out of focus and have "PROOF DO NOT COPY" written right across but in a lower opacity. Printed on what looks like crappy walmart brand paper. That is why I have an issue with the 'download" but there is nothing we can do about it..

Those who do that, will continue to do so, no matter what.