Posting images on Facebook

[gnwatts]

I have been getting a little frustrated on the quality of the images I have posted on Facebook, particularly with areas of blue and red mixed together (sunsets etc). Frankly they look like dog squeeze. Having said that I am wondering if any of the photographers on BCP have had the same issues, and how they deal with it when they post their images.
I have been saving the files as Jpegs, sized to 2048 pixels in the long side, 70% quality in Lightroom. I then open them in Photoshop, and save them with the "save for the web" option.
They look awful after uploading them to Facebook. I know part of the problem is the way Facebook treats the image files when downloaded, but I see beautiful images posted so I know there is an appropriate work flow to get them right. Any help would be appreciated.
Greg

Edit
I just looked at some images on my Dell monitor on a PC (I have been using my IMac 27" predominantly, not my PC). They look a lot better. Go figure.

 

[Nick]

Exporting them at 70% and then opening them in photoshop and saving for web is double compressing your images. You only need to do that once, and there's really no need to drop it down to 70% even. Maybe drop them some so they upload faster, but Facebook is going to crush them all they want anyway, so start with a better file.

 

[Bob]

Most pics on Facebook appear good on my phone and computer. The photoshopped pics look photoshoped and the untouched pics look untouched. Colors are fine... But what do I know my eyes are 66 years old.

 

[Artemus]

There used to be a pixel size you could upload to FB in which they did not re-compress the image or didn't too badly damage it anyway. I think that there may be several "target" sizes and these targets may not be reliable now - FB has a way of changing things without asking or notifying their users (google, anyone?).

I used to have luck uploading at:
2480 pixels on the long edge

and changed to a smaller size for various reasons and they aren't badly damaged at this new size IMO.
1280 pixels on the long edge with a watermark/label

BTW these are the same sizes, as export scripts from LR, that I use for here at BCP.

 

[gnwatts]

Thanks everyone. I am such a Luddite.

 

[Artemus]

Thanks everyone. I am such a Luddite.

Nah. You are greatly skilled digital photographer working in the high technology fields of architecture and architectural photography. Don't get to play that card

 

[gnwatts]

Nah. You are greatly skilled digital photographer working in the high technology fields of architecture and architectural photography. Don't get to play that card

Oh stop!
Thanks for the comment.
Facebook is the only place I have any issues regarding image quality.
@Nick, I have tried uploading directly from Lightroom, with varying degrees of file size, and they all look similar. I have seen that facebook has a "high quality" setting when you upload to an album, but that option is not available when I create an album.
I don't know why they look ok on my cheap Dell monitor, but nasty on my expensive Imac.

 

[Nick]

I don't know why they look ok on my cheap Dell monitor, but nasty on my expensive Imac.

That is quite likely because your fancy iMac has a retina display and your cheap Dell monitor does not. On a regular display, your image displays the pixels exactly as they are, so if FB crunches it to say 1000x1000, then you see 1000x1000 on a normal screen, but on a retina, you basically see that zoomed in, or at like half the actual pixels, roughly. Good web design nowadays involves coding in multiple sizes for graphics and images so that it loads the appropriate size for the pixel density, or just loads a higher res image and resizes dynamically. But due to the space and bandwidth of storing and transmitting billions of photos, I doubt Facebook does that.

Just for an example, the displayed resolution of your current cover photo on FB is only 1024 x 682. That's not going to look awesome on any retina screen unless it's really small on the screen.

 

[Artemus]

Facebook is the only place I have any issues regarding image quality.

Facebook is a place that most of us have issues over most stuff. They are on the verge of getting fired, by me, every week of the year since they are so flippant about misuse of our privacy and our data. If it wasn't so important for sharing family and friends that can share no other way I would have.