I'm Getting Screwed by Facebook

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 19. February 2011 - 8:39

Facebook is the largest photo website on the Internet. There are over 30 billion photos on Facebook. The vast majority of the photos are from smart phones, iPhones and from some from point and shoot cameras. This month, Feb-2011, Facebook changed the rules for posting photos. The maximum size of the photos used to be 720 pixels wide or tall. Now, the maximum size of the photos posted on Facebook is now 2048 pixels wide or tall. This also includes a new photo viewer for paging, saving the photo to your computers…

At 720 pixels, people can print a half decent 4” by 6”. You can even pull a 5” by 7” photo. 2 years ago, I stopped selling 4” by 6” prints. I start with 5” by 7” photos. If the customer insists on 4” by 6” prints and if they buy enough, I will give them for free. Often, I also give away the Facebook size if they want.

Now, with 2048 pixels, you can print a half decent 8” by 10” print! You can even do 11” by 14” prints. I was mentioning it to a couple of friends who replied:

You don't have to give the hi-res, just give them a low-res photo!

What's the difference between a hi-res and a low-res photo?

What the difference between a photo with 2048 pixels at 72 dpi and a photo with 2048 pixels at 300 dpi or 240 dpi?

None They are the same, it's the pixels. The 72dpi, 240dpi or 300dpi is just a flag that you can change yourself. Many programs, like PhotoME, that allow you to edit the EXIF will allow you to change the resolution. You can even do it in Lightroom, by exporting the photo and stating the output resolution. You can even change it by yourself with an HEX editor! An HEX editor is a editor than can edit any file, not just text files.

Hi-res, low-res doesn't exist, except in the mind of many people. The only thing that's important is the number of pixels.

So back to my problem, I still haven't decided what to do about Facebook. I'm still providing the photos as 720 pixels. No customer has asked me yet for a larger photo, but I need to be ready when a customer will ask. Right now, I think that I will keep giving the 720 pixel photos but will charge for the larger photos, unless they buy lots and lots.