Poor photo quality uploading to FB and other apps

[Xellsama]

Hi all,

I've had the 920 for almost a year now, and this has bothered me for quite a while...When I take a picture with the phone it typically comes with pretty nice quality, like when I connect to computer and pull the photos to view on my computer, they look reasonably great (my laptop has a 17 inch screen, and the photos still look great!). However, if I'm not at home, and what to upload a picture that I just took directly from the phone to Facebook, or Wechat, or whatever other app, the pictures uploaded with have very noticeable lower quality. Like, really really noticeable (you can't really zoom beyond phone screen size to look at them).

Now since I've been touting to others about how Lumias are awesome camera phones, this issue kind of make them go "mmmhhmmmm -__-....." I'm wondering if there's a setting somewhere that I need to change or set so that I can upload good quality photos directly from the phone? Data plan is not an issue for me so I don't really get the benefit of saving data usage on this....

Thanks for all the help!

 

[jlzimmerman]

Facebook and other sites like photobucket have been known to degrade the quality of uploaded images. There may be a setting in Facebook that you can change to make your images higher quality, but that may be unlikely. Images that I want to share at peak quality go to Flickr, then I link my photostream in Facebook.

 

[Shai Petel]

Simply not true, not a Facebook issue.

I have the same experience, but when my wife uploads to Facebook using iPhone images look awesome.
Also from pc they look awesome.
It is a windows phone issue.

 

[Blacklac]

From my experiences, there are very few ways to get a unadulterated image sent directly from the phone. I don't upload to Facebook enough to have seriously looked into if there's one route that's better than directly from the phone to the FB App.

Frankly, I'm amazed how much WP users seem to tout the benefit on Nokia's camera's but don't uproar about the fact the OS completely ruins them if you attempt to send it directly off the phone. Ok, ruins is too strong, but...

 

[Acryion]

Nope, it's a Facebook issue. I uploaded pictures from PC and an Adroid Phone (Gingerbread) and both times the photos uploaded in pixelated quality. The quality improved in the following month however . So it's not a WP issue.

 

[Blacklac]

Nope, it's a Facebook issue. I uploaded pictures from PC and an Adroid Phone (Gingerbread) and both times the photos uploaded in pixelated quality. The quality improved in the following month however . So it's not a WP issue.

Having to go out of your way to get uncompressed images off your phone is a WP issue, regardless of FB.

 

[eric12341]

Per the settings full quality pictures are only able to be uploaded on WiFi. However all the photos I uploaded from my phone weren't drastically degraded to the levels discussed in this thread.

 

[iamtim]

I would not call it a "hands down" Windows Phone issue. It is a known fact that Facebook does compress the image either during or after the upload. So there is that.

There may also be SOME Windows Phone issues as well, but I bet you're going to find a bunch of people on WP who say they don't experience what you're describing. I, for instance, have no problems with the photos I upload to Facebook from my 920. Of course, that might be because I'm uploading them on WiFi and not cellular data.

So you should look at your usage as well: for instance, are you uploading over WiFi or cellular data? Is your phone updated with all the system and app updates? Things like that will have a huge effect on uploading images.

 

[radmanvr]

I am using 8x and it seems to be fine when uploading.

 

[Penny_1]

As far as I can tell, Facebook does compress all of the photos you upload, but there very clearly is a difference in photos uploaded from my computer vs. from my Lumia 928. When I upload directly from my 928, not only does the quality seem more compressed, but the viewable size is even smaller. I'm not sure if this has something to do with Nokia, Windows Phone, or Facebook's mobile upload process, but there is a clear difference.

 

[iamtim]

I'm not sure if this has something to do with Nokia, Windows Phone, or Facebook's mobile upload process, but there is a clear difference.

So you should look at your usage as well: for instance, are you uploading over WiFi or cellular data? Is your phone updated with all the system and app updates? Things like that will have a huge effect on uploading images.

 

[Xellsama]

wow this thread got "revived" after a month.

In any case, I noticed the problem when I was uploading pictures at home, therefore using WIFI. It's a Lumia 920 on GDR2 and Amber, Nokia Cam (updated to newest), so it shouldn't be because of dated firmware. As someone mentioned with a 928, the viewable size of the picture was also reduced when uploading to FB. It almost feels like FB compressed the pic to only fit for mobile screen.

And I guess, by reduced quality I don't mean very pixelated. The images are comparable to what my friends upload through their iPhone 5 and such, but since I have seen the original picture and know the quality of it, the difference is clear. I'm just a bit disappointed that now to them they see no difference in their cam and ours (except low light photos, we always win on that), when in reality we have actually captured much better photos...

 

[Blacklac]

If your concerned with quality, maybe upload the images to a free hosting site that retains all image quality and simply "share" either the image, or the link, via Facebook? May be a better, albeit annoying, option.

 

[Arclight]

reviving it again since there's a lot of confusion out there.

"I would not call it a "hands down" Windows Phone issue. It is a known fact that Facebook does compress the image either during or after the upload. So there is that."

Hands down it is a Windows Phone issue which is exactly why it's being tackled in different ways by different manufacturers and even Microsoft themselves who as a "new" feature of 8.1 brag about finally being able to send full quality videos and photos to Skydrive. Note they still dont talk about actually attaching those same high quality photos and videos to emails or uploading them to anywhere else, just Skydrive.

Facebook's compression of photos is 100% separate and has absolutely nothing to do with the issue. Yes FB does compress anything you upload. and No it has nothing to do with this issue.

Somewhere in their intelligence they made the decision that they would save bandwidth and dumb down all uploaded/shared/attached photos and videos. The only way you have actual access to the full resolution, un-tampered un-recompressed file is either via USB connection and file system navigation, or via the new Files app.

And agreed with the above. Extremely stupid - tout the image capture abilities of WP's flagship phones... oh except we dont actually allow you the user to access the high quality images unless you either connect your phone to your computer or you upload them to our cloud storage service.

The argument about file sizes is pretty moot. This issue for example comes up with the 1520 whose full res 19mp images are like 4mb or less. Nothing dissimilar from what you'd see on let's say a Galaxy S4 or S5. But the version that you can attach or upload directly is chopped to more like 1mb and is a drastic reduction in size and quality.

Videos get recompressed too. Again the only way youre getting access to either save, post, or attach the full quality video is to hook up via USB or go through skydrive. So no matter what you do one extra significant step in the process that other OS's dont force you to take.

So here is the rundown - when you post to FB it is going to be much worse and smaller than what it could have been had the phone allowed you to upload the original. Pull the original via USB and upload and compare and you'll see. You'll also see its quite a bit bigger size file than the size of file it says it's attaching to let's say an email, when you attach that photo within WP. So when it appears on FB it has been compressed once by WP and again by FB, because WP at the OS level will not allow share-capable apps direct access to the full res original.

Which is why apps like Phriz.be exist to get around that. even then it isnt a direct solve since you have to go thru extra steps with Phriz.be. Due to the innate workings of WP that make it difficult to access the original directly for attaching or sending.

It is a Windows Phone problem that Microsoft is only band-aiding. It's extremely weird because Android for example doesn't make you go through any of this. And Microsoft doesnt seem capable/willing to fix it. Only give you the ability to send to Skydrive in full res but no where else.

Given that they want to differentiate further on photo quality in upcoming hardware it is very, very, very illogical. To me personally, I would say it's dumb, and the only things sabotaging Microsoft in the smartphone market come from Microsoft themselves.

 

[Dratwister]

Isn't the best resolution for FB image is 2048px maximum? And doesn't current FB app of WP allow user to upload at 2048px?