Are you editing for "Big" or have you surrendered to the small screen?

The_Meridian

Senior Member
The problem: I'm editing big on a 34" Monitor that is designed to be a perferct PS monitor colors perfect, everything. Great!

Not great.

Why?

On my screen, I've got skin detail intact, colors are looking great and even...but on FB all the details are lost to 2048 maximum width and what happens is
it looks like I've over-edited.

DSC_0512.jpg
This photo represents case-in-point. The pale skin was a choice, "gothy" but porcelain doll finish was not intended and not what I was seeing in full-res. The problem is everyone is seeing this on FB and Insta on a phone.

I don't want to be this guy...

howtophotoshopfeatt.jpg

How are you all handling this or is my "style" of editing simply not anywhere near what anyone is doing in the first place?

Thanks
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
Sounds like your monitor isn't calibrated. There are two elements to calibrating a monitor, one of the most important is adjusting the monitor's brightness controls within the lighting for the room its in...

Second phase is using a [FONT=&quot]monitor colorimeter[/FONT] to adjust the colors... <--this is a hardware device used in conjunction with software that adjusts and corrects your monitors colors to known standards...

Search for "monitor calibration"...
 

The_Meridian

Senior Member
My Monitor is allegedly already aligned to standards like Adobe RGB which is what I work in. I can tell the difference big time between it and my 2nd monitor. I'm not sure if the pre-calibrated monitor needs more calibration? If so, I quit.

As for the brightness/room...I've heard about this but in all fairness when I'm looking between my phone/tablets/monitors I'm not seeing a brightness or contrast problem only a washout of detail due to image shrinkage, which is what I was writing about in original post.
 

wev

Senior Member
Contributor
It's not you or the monitor. FB's coding trashes all photos. I don't bother anymore.
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
What body are you using? When I upload to Facebook, I upload full size images but haven't experienced your issue. Facebook used to offer a choise of hi-res images or regular although I haven't seen the option in a very long time. The hi-res option downloaded at 96dpi whereas the normal was 72dpi. Is there any way you can find out if you have a choice?

Or can you lower your resolution yourself before uploading to Facebook? But how big are those files before you are uploading them?
 

Browncoat

Senior Member
Everything these days is mobile-first. Make sure your images are:


  • 720, 960, or 2048px wide (height doesn't matter)
  • JPG format, RGB color
  • Less than 15mb

Anything outside of those parameters and you're playing with fire. Facebook will compress, resize and make your images look like crap. Most phones are using AMOLED or QHD displays (many have HDR built in as well), which are different from your PC monitor.
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
I'm using Z6 with 85mm 1.4

So what are you using to upload your images to Facebook? I upload mine directly from my PC. If you are using a tablet or phone, those tend to compress images on their own. If you using one of those, your files might be getting compressed twice.
 

The_Meridian

Senior Member
So what are you using to upload your images to Facebook? I upload mine directly from my PC. If you are using a tablet or phone, those tend to compress images on their own. If you using one of those, your files might be getting compressed twice.
I'm exporting for web (Legacy) out of PS with jpg at 100% and I reduce size to 2048 width.
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
if you are not doing your own resizing specifically for Facebook then that is your problem, not your monitor. Everything I upload gets resized (generally to a JPEG 1920px on the long end saved at 70 for the quality setting) before uploading to avoid FB software changing anything. What I see on my monitor is what I see online, provided that I click on the image and view it expanded and not just embedded in the news feed. It does compress previews for the thumbnails but it doesn't seem to have issues creating them from what I upload.

How you resize also makes a huge difference as well. There's an action in Tony Kuyper's Tool Panel that I've been using that does a wonderful job of resizing to smaller sizes. I'm sure the specific steps buried within are out there somewhere.
 

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
if you are not doing your own resizing specifically for Facebook then that is your problem, not your monitor. Everything I upload gets resized (generally to a JPEG 1920px on the long end saved at 70 for the quality setting) before uploading to avoid FB software changing anything. What I see on my monitor is what I see online, provided that I click on the image and view it expanded and not just embedded in the news feed. It does compress previews for the thumbnails but it doesn't seem to have issues creating them from what I upload.

How you resize also makes a huge difference as well. There's an action in Tony Kuyper's Tool Panel that I've been using that does a wonderful job of resizing to smaller sizes. I'm sure the specific steps buried within are out there somewhere.

Even when taking all steps to ensure your images are uploaded properly, there is still no guarantee that whomever sees them are going to be using a monitor set up to see them properly. Even so, it isn't going to happen if the images are not properly uploaded like you discuss, Jake.

As far as your question is concerned, I edit for me. Hopefully, every now and then I take a shot that I want to print, and that is where the initial shot and editing really matter.

And I got off FB months ago when my work informed me that they pay attention to not only what I posted, but also what others posted on my page and what "friends" posted elsewhere as well.

WM
 
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BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Even when taking all steps to ensure your images are uploaded properly, there is still no guarantee that whomever sees them are going to be using a monitor set up to see them properly. Even so, it isn't going to happen if the images are not properly uploaded like you discuss, Jake.

Agreed 100%. We can only hope that anything we upload doesn't get screwed up too badly by the software on the site we're uploading to (here included), but we can work to make sure that we've provided an image with a minimum chance of experiencing catastrophic change, and that's what I believe I've been able to do - at least on Facebook. That said, as you mentioned there is nothing we can do if the person viewing it is doing so on a device that will not show it well. And since that's the case I've stopped caring. I have two calibrated monitors (and yes, a monitor purchased as calibrated can benefit from additional calibration for the light in the room in which it will be used) and if it's good on them I will not lose sleep caring about what it looks like on yours. ;)
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
if you are not doing your own resizing specifically for Facebook then that is your problem, not your monitor. Everything I upload gets resized (generally to a JPEG 1920px on the long end saved at 70 for the quality setting) before uploading to avoid FB software changing anything. What I see on my monitor is what I see online, provided that I click on the image and view it expanded and not just embedded in the news feed. It does compress previews for the thumbnails but it doesn't seem to have issues creating them from what I upload.

How you resize also makes a huge difference as well. There's an action in Tony Kuyper's Tool Panel that I've been using that does a wonderful job of resizing to smaller sizes. I'm sure the specific steps buried within are out there somewhere.

Question for you Jake, do you leave your resolution at 300 but save the jpeg with 70% quality?
 
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