Jan 11, 2021
Image Compression/Size and how it affects image resolution on Instagram
To understand the effects of compression and size on an Instagram post is very important if you are working on a project that requires putting together a series of images. Many companies rely on advertising through Instagram and if you are executing the wrong file size it can leave either a good or bad impression on those that are consuming the media. How do we better understand the file sizes we need? And how do we know what types of compression happen after a photo is posted, at times it may look different and for others, it may even look better? I’m going to go through a series of pictures to better understand how Instagram works and see what works and what doesn’t work.
My first goal is to pick a picture, I’ve picked one using unsplash my favorite website to use free images.
I split up the images by different categories of size: Original, Large, Medium, and Small. with each of these photos, I changed the compression percentage to 100, 60, and 20 through “Export As” in hopes that I would be able to spot a difference in each of the photos that are posted.
Each of these photos has been separated into its own folder so that I can better keep track of where they are and keep them together for when I post each of the images. By being able to stay organized it can make the experimentation run smoothly so I am not confused about the different types of images that I am posting. This will hopefully make the transition smoother as I compare each of the photos to see if the size/compression makes a difference on the Instagram platform.
I uploaded the 4 photos of each size and compared them through Instagram. What I found was interesting. It seemed like the Original and Medium sizes are what looked the best. I compared them through different environments; my iPhone, Desktop, and iPad.
By comparing these photos next to each other, I was able to actually tell a huge difference between the large and the small.
SMALL:
This image was small and by importing it through Instagram you can tell that the small image needed to be able to fit on the Instagram platform size, and by doing so it needed to increase the image size. This then turns the image blurrier.
LARGE:
You can tell that with this photo the Instagram platform did not need to inflate the image to fit the standard size which still keeps the integrity of the photo and still looks good.
After experimenting with compression sizes, I wasn’t able to tell much of a difference between the photos that I had collected, however, the sizes compared to the compression did stand out obviously due to the platform making changes to that. It really stood out to me that the size of photo can make such a big difference. By also using a photo in it’s original size that is already big to begin with can make a difference in the app needing to format to fit the size that it has set for certain images. This can be important if you are considering being someone that posts photos as an influencer or for a company, the quality of the photos can really determine the impression that it leaves to the followers on your platform. Quality is important and so the size of the photos can really make a difference.
