It’s been awhile since I’ve done a post for my fellow photographers, so I thought I’d share a little how-to on getting sharp photos on your Facebook business page!

This isn’t super important to everyone because, quite honestly, it takes a TON of time to keep up with Facebook’s ever-changing sizing guidelines. I personally am SUPER picky about getting sharp photos on Facebook! Facebook may be getting more and more particular with their advertising rules and guidelines for businesses (not cool for small business owners) – however, I am still able to connect with lots of prospective couples on that platform. And if I’m still establishing relationships with future brides and grooms on Facebook, it’s crucial to me that I make a fantastic first impression and ensure that images on my business page don’t look grainy and dull!

SO HERE’S MY PROCESS…

1) OPEN IMAGE IN PHOTOSHOP

Kind of a no-brainer, right? :)

2) CONVERT TO SRBG COLOR SPACE

Edit >> Convert to profile…

sRGB is the color profile used by most browsers to display images. It makes sense to match that profile for consistency’s sake! I actually keep mine set in sRGB and edit in that colorspace since so much of my photography is posted online, but if I’m wanting to be particular and I’m planning on doing some printing, I will load in the ICC color profile from whichever lab I am printing. That way, I can make adjustments to color on the backend if I want. But that’s a whole different topic!

3) CHANGE RESOLUTION TO 72PPI

Image >> Image size…

4) FIT IMAGE

File >> Automate >> Fit image to 960×960

Why not just resize during step 3? Because I’ve tried results from both, and for some reason “fit image” just looks smoother. It’s the little things, people! ;)

5) CREATE DUPLICATE LAYER

Right click on your background layer and click “duplicate” – rename it if you want.

6) UNSHARP MASK ON DUPLICATED LAYER

Feel free to play around with these settings if you like! Just remember that if you feel it’s overboard, you can always adjust the opacity of that layer, as you’ll see in the following step…

7)ADJUST OPACITY OF SHARPEN LAYER TO PREFERENCE

I usually end up around 40-50% depending on the image.

8) ADD “POSTERIZE” LAYER

This reduces the amount of levels in your photo which in turn reduces file size. It’s a really nifty trick! Click the half-shaded circle icon at the bottom of your layers window and select “Posterize.” It’s going to look a little strange – bear with me! THEN grab the posterize levels slider and drag it up just enough so that the banding is gone from the image. Usually this is around 40 or so depending on the image.

9) FLATTEN AND SAVE AS .PNG

10) UPLOAD TO FACEBOOK

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Facebook tends to be forever changing their sizing guidelines so that getting sharp photos on Facebook is quite difficult, but this process has worked (almost) every time for me. THAT BEING SAID… there have been a few occasions where, for one reason or the other, I simply CANNOT get an image to look sharp/clear. When this happens, I just end up not posting it, because for me it’s just not worth it.

I also understand that another easy method is to simply resize to 2048px on the long side and upload as a JPEG. You can absolutely do that, if you like! Personally, I like to upload my images smaller (960px) because the size just makes my images look more crisp. Also, at 960px, each photo displays much nicer on your business page’s timeline, which is your first impression when people land on your page.

Lastly, I also want to mention that the above method does NOT seem to work for personal Facebook pages. :) This is why I just share my favorite images from my business page and onto my personal page if I’m feeling that amped about a photo. :)

Again, this is not the end all, be all to Facebook image uploading, and it quite honestly might not be worth the headache for many other photographers out there! I just wanted to provide some insight on my workflow and a crucial part of my business!

Is Facebook an important part of your photography business? If so, how do you display your images so that they appear their best?