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It's no secret that Facebook compresses photos. It's also no secret that compression leads to a loss of quality. However, what is a secret to many is how to keep your photos just as beautiful and sharp as they are when you preview in Lightroom.
First, we need to understand why Facebook compresses.
Facebook has a certain size of photos that are displayed when you are scrolling. Too large and they'll reduce your file for you. Too small and they'll enlarge your photo for you. Either way, you're leaving the quality up to them and their solution to fixing your sizing may not have the best results. The best solution is to upload in dimensions that Facebook likes.
I frequently get asked my export settings for photos whenever sharing in photography groups. Facebook is made out to be the enemy with so many declaring "Facebook ruined the quality", but this problem is completely avoidable if you take the right steps. Are you ready for your social media photos to be just as beautiful as in Lightroom? Let's get started!
JPEG (PNG should work just as well, but JPEG is my default).
100 quality.
sRGB.
Don't limit file size.
Resize to Long Edge 2048 Pixels.
300 Resolution (300 is unnecessary for screens, however I keep this set to 300 because unchecking resize to fit retains that resolution value, which means even if you seem to have turned off your social settings it still uses this ppi, which could cause problems later when you export for print and have set a lower resolution.
Sharpen for Screen > High.
That's it!
Make sure to apply these settings to your original files. Pixelation/blurriness that's not in the original photo can occur from a number of practices, including screenshotting, downloading from social media, sending via email, etc. The only way I would expect these settings to work foolproof is in when applied on a computer to the full sized original or edited files in Adobe Lightroom.
Did this help? Let me know in the comments below!