The Best Image Quality Options to Use
To get the best results from your online photography, whether you’re sharing your work on social media, a portfolio website, or a stock photography platform, you should focus on several key areas:
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High-Quality Images
- Resolution: Ensure your photos are high resolution. For online use, 72 DPI (dots per inch) is standard, but larger dimensions are better for sharpness.
- Editing: Use photo editing software to enhance your images. Adjust contrast, brightness, and sharpness to make them pop.
- Optimise for Web
- File Size: Compress images to reduce loading times without sacrificing too much quality. Tools like TinyPNG or JPEGmini can help.
- Format: Use appropriate file formats. JPEG is good for photos, while PNG is better for images with text or sharp edges.
When sharing photographs on social platforms, the choice between JPG and RAW formats depends on your needs and the platform’s requirements. Here’s a breakdown of each format and its suitability for social media:
JPG (JPEG)
- Advantages:
- Compatibility: JPG is universally supported by all social media platforms and web browsers.
- File Size: JPG files are compressed, making them smaller and easier to upload and share.
- Quality: With proper settings, JPGs can offer high quality suitable for online use.
- Best Use:
- Social Media Posts: JPG is ideal for sharing images on social media due to its balance between quality and file size.
- Speed: Faster upload and loading times compared to RAW files.
- Considerations:
- Lossy Compression: JPG uses lossy compression, which can reduce image quality, especially if the image is edited and saved multiple times.
RAW
- Advantages:
- Image Quality: RAW files retain all the data captured by the camera sensor, providing the highest quality and the most flexibility for post-processing.
- Editing: Allows extensive adjustments without significant quality loss, ideal for professional-grade editing.
- Best Use:
- Archiving and Editing: RAW files are best for archiving your original work and performing detailed editing in post-processing.
- Professional Use: When preparing images for high-quality prints or detailed edits before sharing on social media.
- Considerations:
- File Size: RAW files are large and not suitable for direct uploading to most social media platforms.
- Conversion Needed: RAW files need to be converted to a more web-friendly format (like JPG or PNG) before uploading.
- Recommendations for Social Media
- Convert RAW to JPG: For sharing on social platforms, convert your RAW files to JPG. This provides a good balance between quality and file size and ensures compatibility.
- Optimise Images: Compress JPG files to reduce file size without significant quality loss. Tools like Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, or online compressors can help.
- Use High-Resolution JPGs: Ensure that your JPGs are of high resolution (following platform-specific dimensions) to maintain quality in your posts.
In summary, use JPG for social media sharing due to its compatibility and efficiency. Save your RAW files for archiving and detailed editing purposes.
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Showcase Your Best Work
- Portfolio: Create a curated selection of your best images. Quality over quantity is key. Keep your audience entertained buy show casing your style.
- Variety: Display a range of styles or subjects to show versatility but keep a cohesive style, otherwise your audience will get bored and move on…
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SEO and Metadata
- Tags and Descriptions: Use relevant keywords in titles, descriptions, and tags to improve discoverability.
- Alt Text: Provide descriptive alt text for images to help with SEO and accessibility. It is the method in which google sees your image and is able to read it and improve your ranking.
- Google my Business: Great for SEO and ranking performance to keep your audience up to date.
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Engagement
- Social Media: Engage with your audience by responding to comments and participating in relevant communities.
- Feedback: Encourage constructive feedback to improve your work.
- Ask Questions: Audiences in general like to have their say and opinion, this will work like a thread and draw more attention and interaction.
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Consistency
- Branding: Maintain a consistent style and tone across your portfolio and social media.
- Updates: Regularly update your portfolio with new work to keep it fresh and engaging.
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Technical Aspects
- Responsive Design: Ensure your website is mobile-friendly and looks good on various devices.
- Speed: Optimise your site’s speed to ensure quick loading times for visitors.
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Legal Considerations
- Copyright: Understand copyright laws and protect your work. Use watermarks if necessary.
- Licensing: Be clear about how others can use your images, especially if you’re selling them.
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Analytics
- Track Performance: Use tools like Google Analytics to track how your images are performing and understand your audience better.
- Algorithms: It is important to stay ahead and understand that google works on algorithms. These Algorithms are changing constantly, so understand what google is requiring to stay ahead before they outdate and have a negative implications on your performance.
By focusing on these areas, you’ll improve the visibility and impact of your online photography, making it more appealing to both viewers and potential clients.
Guidelines for correct dimensions when posting your photos to your popular online platforms
When posting photos to popular online platforms, it’s important to adhere to their recommended dimensions to ensure your images display correctly and look their best through responsive design. Here’s a guide to the correct dimensions for some of the most popular platforms:
- Profile Picture: 320 x 320 pixels
- Feed Post (Square): 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Feed Post (Portrait): 1080 x 1350 pixels
- Feed Post (Landscape): 1080 x 566 pixels
- Stories: 1080 x 1920 pixels
- Reels: 1080 x 1920 pixels
- Profile Picture: 170 x 170 pixels (on desktop), 128 x 128 pixels (on mobile)
- Cover Photo: 820 x 312 pixels (desktop), 640 x 360 pixels (mobile)
- Shared Image: 1200 x 630 pixels
- Event Image: 1920 x 1080 pixels
- Profile Picture: 400 x 400 pixels
- Header Photo: 1500 x 500 pixels
- In-Stream Photo: 1200 x 675 pixels (landscape), 1200 x 1500 pixels (portrait)
- Profile Picture: 400 x 400 pixels
- Banner Image: 1584 x 396 pixels
- Shared Image: 1200 x 627 pixels
- Profile Picture: 165 x 165 pixels
- Pin Image: 1000 x 1500 pixels (ideal aspect ratio is 2:3 or 1:2.1)
- YouTube
- Channel Profile Picture: 800 x 800 pixels
- Channel Art/Banner: 2560 x 1440 pixels (minimum safe area for text and logos is 1546 x 423 pixels)
- Video Thumbnail: 1280 x 720 pixels
- Flickr
- Profile Picture: 800 x 800 pixels
- Photo Display (Standard): 1024 x 1024 pixels
- Photo Display (Large): 2048 x 2048 pixels (for maximum size)
- Behance
- Cover Image: 4048 x 2308 pixels (ideal for full-screen display)
- Project Image: 1400 x 1200 pixels
- 500px
- Profile Picture: 400 x 400 pixels
- Photo Upload: 2560 x 1600 pixels (recommended for high resolution)
- Tumblr
- Profile Picture: 128 x 128 pixels
- Header Image: 3000 x 1055 pixels
- Post Image (Ideal): 1280 x 1920 pixels (for portrait), 1280 x 720 pixels (for landscape)
General Tips
- Aspect Ratio: Stick to the platform’s recommended aspect ratio to avoid cropping or distortion.
- Compression: Ensure images are optimized for web to balance quality and loading speed.
- Consistency: Maintain a consistent style and quality across all platforms to reinforce your brand identity.
By using these dimensions, you can ensure that your photos look sharp and professional on each platform without concerning yourself with size and placement and unpleasant proportional crops that will ruin the photograph you are posting.