No more Excuses!

We have all seen it! "Sorry my image looks yucky, stupid Facebook!" Blaming it all on Facebook. I used to do it!  I have even seen some say that Facebook distorts their images. Insert what the heck face here: O_o! We'll talk about why those images look "distorted" later: 2 words; Skin Smoothing.


Any how, now is the time to throw away that excuse. There is a way to get your images to not look "yucky" on ye old Facebook! And, you know what? It's easy!


There are several actions out there for Photoshop to make the process smooth as glass! Here are a few:


My favorite!
MCP Actions - Facebook Fix


Another Favorite:
Paint the Moon - Facebook Resizing


Did I mention those were Free?! If you want more, simply Google: Free Facebook resize actions. You will get a list of others.


Now what do these actions do? Well they do exactly what they say they do! They resize the image which is extremely important, and then they sharpen them which is equally important. Some of the actions will even put them in a story board for you, and give you the option to add watermarks and more. Once you have installed your action, simply hit play once you are completely done editing your image and follow the directions the action gives you.




Why is resizing important? A lot of reasons! Here are a few:


1: Bigger images take longer to load, and may not be viewable on standard monitors. Also, when the image takes to long to load it could bore and frustrate your clients.


2: It helps show the detail, color and more at 72 pixels per inch (ppi) which Facebook automatically sets for you once you upload any image!


3: It helps with images to not be stolen! If you upload at full size, someone could go and take the full size image no problem.


4. Your image is bigger than what Facebook wants it to be, so its going to resize it for you (if you don't) when you upload it. Therefore, destroying any quality the image had! 




This is the way I think about it, a 5x7 frame (facebook)  can only fit a 5x7 picture, right. Well you have an 8x10 (your image), its not going to fit! Of course you can try, you can fold it, crumple it up, cut it, or force it; whatever you want to. But, now its all messed up! It's "yucky." So what you do? Resize it to fit to the 5x7 frame (facebook) according to its regulations! And now its no longer "yucky" its just right!


Another question is, do you upload images to Facebook at High Resolution? No! Never! You are asking for your stuff to be stolen, and printed, and actually it doesn't make the images look any better. Did you hear about the family that went to Ikea and saw their family photo printed in one of their frames? Stolen off of Facebook. Ikea didn't steal it, its people submitting them to any stock photo companies that are stealing them. So, no High Resolution!


Lastly, don't let the resize rules stop at Facebook, these should also be applied for any site! :)


Questions? Let me know!