I know I have certainly been frustrated with the image resolution of photos I upload to Facebook despite capturing images at up to eight megapixels (either with a Digital SLR or the camera in my phone). Seeing stunning images on my computer or on my mobile and then seeing a less detailed version online can be disappointing, especially for the photographers amongst us.
It may come as good news then that Facebook will be introducing support for images up to three megapixels and up to 2048 pixels along the longest edge. Furthermore, new functionality allowing selected photos to be downloadable in high resolution will be rolled out. There will also be an option to upload photos at the existing resolution or high resolution (which is noted by Facebook to take up to ten times longer to upload).
At this stage, it is unclear as to whether or not high resolution uploads will be available from mobile devices but may be understandably absent for a while until Facebook incorporates the changes in a future update. I’d also not be too surprised if the existing resolution is set as the default with users having to actively select the higher resolution.
What will be frustrating is that users with potentially hundreds of photos will probably have to delete and upload their images from scratch to take advantage of the higher resolutions if Facebook hasn’t stored the images at their original high resolution.. This will also create the chore of retagging friends in photos all over again – it’s a pity that facial recognition isn’t up and running yet as it could minimise the pain.
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