I’m hoping you can help me – Why do all my photos look blurry on my blog?
I swear they are sharp in Lightroom, and I think I’m exporting them at fairly high quality… but somewhere between that, and uploading them to Flickr and then embedding them into WordPress, something is going wrong. I find the same thing when I use the WordPress “add media” tool. I’ve always noticed that my photos come out slightly worse quality when I make collages with PicMonkey, but that seemed understandable. Even my header image looks blurry to me!
So, there’s one obvious reason, perhaps… I definitely noticed the blurriness after I got a new laptop with higher resolution screen. Is that all that’s changed?
If it’s just that I’m seeing more clearly, what settings should I export from Lightroom at to get a clear picture on my blog? Or is it Flickr or WordPress messing things up? I will say I notice other blogs with similarly fuzzy images, which makes me wonder what’s going on.
Help! I’d love to know if my blog pics look a bit blurry to you, and if you have any solutions!
Ps. While we are talking photos… do the photos in this post show as full-column width (same as the text) for you? I’m trying to make sure I’m using the right size, but not so huge that the photos are overwhelming! Thanks!
Crafting A Rainbow 
The photo of you is not full column width, but close. The crafting a rainbow header is full width. My husband agreed with me that it is most likely the new laptop. Especially if the new laptop has a retina screen or something fancy like that. Also, the add media tool ALWAYS makes my photos look worse. They must compress them to an unpleasant size or quality. PS: New laptop’s are fun! For years as a teenager I called them labtops, because I thought only scientists used them haha!
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It IS a retina screen! Damn you, fancy new computer! (JK, I love you.)
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My husband (a designer) says if you know the width that you want your final photo to be, make the size of the photo 1.5 to 2 times bigger. Then when you place that in, it will show up the same size but it will have a higher density of pixels. Does that make sense?
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That is so helpful! Thank you, designer husband! I’m not actually sure how to a) figure out how wide I want the photo to be and b) make it twice as big! I inserted the pics of my face at 685×1024 from Flickr, and I’ve been exporting about that size from Lightroom with 300pixels per square inch. Should I increase the export size or the pixels? (Thanks Chuck!)
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The width needs to be 748. When you export it from lightroom, export it at 1122 pixels wide (for 1.5 times bigger) or 1496 pixels wide (for 2 times bigger). The pixels per inch can be ignored. Does that make sense?
I looked at “inspect element” to discover your column width, and it said your crafting a rainbow picture was 748×170 but naturally 1496×340. Your face photo is sharp but isn’t the full column width. Maybe reinsert it at 1122 and then at 1496, and see which one you like better.
You want to hit that sweet spot on in focus but not super gigantic file size.
I hope this helps!
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Thank you so much! I”ll play around with all of that. Much appreciated!!!! 🙂
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Glad my few webskills are still applicable! Don’t look at my poorly ignored blog as a sample. I used iPhone photos, and they are often terrible. I have no energy to blog, all my energy goes to sewing.
I still read your’s often though!
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I”m always happy when you blog – but I know that even when your blog is quiet, you are sewing up and storm and/or busy being a great mom!
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Hi Gillian! You could try a retina wordpress plugin like this one: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-retina-2x/faq/ to help you get crisp images on your new laptop (and other lucky ducks with retina screens like you :P).
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I had no idea such a thing existed! I’ll try it out! Thanks Helen!
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Honestly Gillian, your photo above looks really clear though the depth of field may have shifted which parts are clear. Your arm and face are sharp while your hair is a little blurred. Perhaps the F stop you’re using has very little tolerance? Hope thats helpful; cheaper than a visit to the optometrist!
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Yes, definitely a shallow depth of field! It’s not a problem for my regular pictures though where I’m farther away. Good suggestion though – I should check my camera settings!
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Photo in my email on my iPhone is correct size as per what your after. 🙂
Sent from my iPhone
>
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Oh good! Thanks for letting me know! 🙂
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I have a Macbook with a retina screen and I don’t think your photos look blurry at all! I can almost see all of your pores on that photo above – you are crisp and clear!
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Perfect! That shot IS rather close-up, isnt it? Hello, undereye wrinkles!
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On my iPad it looks smashingly sharp, and full column. But that’s probably not very high res. 😉
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Excellent! Thanks!
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SUPER sharp pic on my screen.
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