image quality differs on different websites

[enoeske]

Picasa: Looks like it does on my computer

Facebook: Looks very noisy and grainy not like on my computer (might not show up due to facebook privacy, but I will fix it if it doesn't


Model: PENTAX K20D
ISO: 100
Exposure: 1/200 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Focal Length: 300mm
Flash Used: No

Additionally, the image looks good in the Windows picture and fax viewer, but looks noisy and grainy when placed on the desktop. Its not a zooming problem either -- no noise in the image with viewed at 100%

Are these two images looking odd to anyone else?

[YJD]

Some website, when uploading images, re-compress the in jpg which could be the bad effect you have on Facebook.

[enoeske]

yea, it looks like a resize/compression issue. When I resize the image to 640px in PS, and then upload, it looks fine. I guess issue solved?

[Ash]

Good reason to avoid Facebook links.
Even photos uploaded into this forum's gallery haven't come up as sharp as my Flickr-linked images.

[code4code5]

I quit using windows live spaces as a photo gallery because they changed their compression ratios (not to mention the whole interface). You're not crazy... Different sites use different compressions and facebook is absolutely the worst I've found.

[Marc Sabatella]

Pretty much all sites will resize or recompress an uploaded file to fit within their specs, and that will hurt IQ. Best results will be obtained by doing the resizing and/or compression yourself, before uploading, to get the image within their specs so their upload software won't have to do the job again. That's assuming you can figure out how to get better results than they do, but usually that isn't a problem. It also assumes their upload software isn't dumb enough to resize and/or recompress an image that is already within their specs. Real photo sharing sites are probably that clever, but I wouldn't count on it with Facebook.

[Gooshin]

make your photos 600pix or less on the long edge and facebook wont wreck them.

[Jim Royal]

Let me echo Gooshin's comment: Facebook accepts images up to 600 pixels across. Larger images are resized automatically.

However, I would avoid posting images to directly Facebook. The reason is that Facebook reserves the right to reuse your images as it sees fit as long as they are stored on their system. I prefer to upload to Flickr and then link the Flickr images on Facebook, which provides a clickable thumbnail.

[Marc Sabatella]

Originally Posted by Jim Royal

However, I would avoid posting images to directly Facebook. The reason is that Facebook reserves the right to reuse your images as it sees fit as long as they are stored on their system. I prefer to upload to Flickr and then link the Flickr images on Facebook, which provides a clickable thumbnail.

Flickr claims the same right. So do all photo sharing services. It's absolutely required for them to put that in their terms of service or they couldn't legally offer the service. Without a license to use your work, simply providing the service they do would put them in violation of copyright law ("hey, that's *my* image - how dare you allow someone else to view it!").

The only real difference between Facebook and others in this respect is that a few months ago someone actually *read* the fine print in the Facebook terms of service and got all up in arms about it, whereas no one has apparently ever read the fine print of any other service's terms :-). OK, that's a little harsh - the issue acutally was that for a very brief period of time, Facebook changed their wording to give them broader rights with respect to archiving your images after you closed your account; they've since changed that to be more specific that the only content that will be archived permanently is content of your that other people have saved in their personal inboxes and so forth.

There might be other subtle differences between Facebook's terms and those of others, but it's mundane details, not anything substantial.

[reeftool]

Facebook is going a little far with their policy of reusing images. They sell profile pictures to dating service site ads for one and claim its in their right to do so. I would not put a picture on Facebook.