resizing for web

[Diana]

When choosing to show portrait proofs online, or sharing a landscape on Facebook or Instagram, what px size & resolution do you choose?

I've given models web-sized images before, and had 1 young woman complain that they looked grainy when she put it online. When I posted her photos, using the same exact web sized image, they were fine to my eyes.  I have been using an action that came in a set I bought before I found out about your wonderful classes. Her complaint made me wonder if I am doing it right. I want to make sure I am doing it right.

I shoot with some extra space normally. So my workflow is a general loose crop to your 11x15.... still leaving room for cropping an image to clients requests. After finishing my PS edits I save my PSD and then make a web size jpeg for a proof or to share online if it's a landscape. My web sizing action sizes my 11x15 cropped images to: 600x818px @72 dpi, then it gives you an option for quality. I looked on your blog and saw that you recommend 800x587, but it does not list a resolution.

I did see that you have a web resize action, but it looks as if you need to input the size. I do use a watermark. I just place it....easy peasey.

[Damien Symonds]

23 minutes ago, Diana said:

So my workflow is a general loose crop to your 11x15.... still leaving room for cropping an image to clients requests.

Whoa.  Wait, wait, wait.  This sentence sounds like you crop during editing?  You must NEVER do that.

[Diana]

Even if you shot out past your background? I need to leave parts of my garage wall with bikes on it...in a photo? 

[Diana]

Or like the one I am working on now... I brought a backdrop stand to clients home & because of how small their home is I shot past my backdrop & you can see parts of their walls.

[Damien Symonds]

Well crap, you DEFINITELY wouldn't do 11:15 for that.  Just crop just enough to get rid of that clutter.

[Damien Symonds]

But the blunt truth is, if you left that clutter in your frame in camera, it sounds like you need the space around the subjects.  So no, you wouldn't crop at all.  You'd fill the space with new background.

[Damien Symonds]

1 hour ago, Diana said:

When choosing to show portrait proofs online, or sharing a landscape on Facebook or Instagram, what px size & resolution do you choose?

Remember that for web, the resolution doesn't matter a single bit.  It could be 300, or 72, or 1000000000, or 12.  It's completely irrelevant to the file.

The three standard Facebook sizes are 720, 960 and 2048.

• 720 is very small for these modern times, and I don't think anyone uses it any more.
• 960 is also a bit on the small size, but is still adequate for most browsing, and of course is quite quick to load.  Also, it's too small for anyone to steal and print (print nicely, anyway).
• 2048 is big enough for everyone's screen, no matter what size, but of course it takes the longest to load, and it's VERY printable, so if you choose 2048, make sure you watermark prominently.

[Damien Symonds]

1 hour ago, Diana said:

I've given models web-sized images before, and had 1 young woman complain that they looked grainy when she put it online.

This is such a fraught issue.  It's so hard to be sure what happened.  It's perfectly possible that she'd somehow re-saved your files at lower resolution before she posted ... or attempted some cropping ... or even tried running an awful snapchat filter or some shit, and ruined it that way.  Did you actually get to see the photo she'd posted?

[Damien Symonds]

1 hour ago, Diana said:

My web sizing action sizes my 11x15 cropped images to: 600x818px @72 dpi, then it gives you an option for quality. I looked on your blog and saw that you recommend 800x587, but it does not list a resolution.

As I said before, the resolution is completely irrelevant, that's why I didn't mention it.

That article is very old, before Facebook even became a thing.  800 is no longer relevant.

1 hour ago, Diana said:

I did see that you have a web resize action, but it looks as if you need to input the size. I do use a watermark. I just place it....easy peasey.

Oh no.  My action takes "easy peasy" to a whole new level, trust me.  You must use it.

[Diana]

2 hours ago, Damien Symonds said:

This is such a fraught issue.  It's so hard to be sure what happened.  It's perfectly possible that she'd somehow re-saved your files at lower resolution before she posted ... or attempted some cropping ... or even tried running an awful snapchat filter or some shit, and ruined it that way.  Did you actually get to see the photo she'd posted?

No, I did not get to see what she was claiming. I just reminded her that she needed to download the Dropbox file to her home computer so that it would not get compressed/ruined. Then she could then upload it to a website from there. She never told me where it was going. I've looked at her Instagram account and FB and never saw it. She never answered me back after that. It was a TFP, as we call a "trade time for pictures". I was portfolio building & practicing some posing with her.

[Damien Symonds]

What size did you decide to go with?