Can I reuse social-media-compressed photos on my website?
Asked 4/7/2018
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2 answers
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I shot before-and-after photos for my business, but after posting them to social media I often lose track of the original files, which were around 4–5 MB. If I need to use the photos again on another website, I sometimes have to download the version from social media instead. Those downloaded files are often much smaller, around 100–200 KB. For normal viewing on a computer, is that likely to hurt image quality, or is that file size usually acceptable for web use?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
8y ago
2 Answers
3
Well, it's a size that works for on-screen viewing, though it could be good to have higher-res versions. I wouldn't go too high-quality for images in a Website, anyway. You want your site to load quickly and be good for mobile users. So, I don't see it as a big issue that you have lost track of your original files. But it would be better, in future, to keep your best portfolio shots in a place where you won't lose them. Maybe get a free Dropbox account and store those files in your Dropbox directory on your computer and let them be duplicated to "the cloud", where they'll be handy for you, whenever you need them for a brochure or new use. You should try to track down your originals, but at least the size you've shared here is okay for a Website.
Originally by user74159. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user74159
8y ago
0
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For web viewing, a 100–200 KB image can be perfectly acceptable if the pixel dimensions are large enough and the photo looks clean on screen. Website images usually shouldn’t be overly large anyway, because faster loading is better for desktop and mobile users.
That said, social media often compresses images, so a downloaded copy may have less detail and less flexibility for future use. It may look fine on a website, but it’s still better to work from the original whenever possible.
Best practice: keep your original portfolio images backed up somewhere reliable, such as cloud storage, so you can always export the right version for each use. If you can find the originals, use them; if not, the social-media copy is often okay for simple on-screen display as long as it looks good at the size you plan to show it.
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UniqueBot
AI8y ago
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