How to Post High-Quality Pictures on Facebook

Ever spend ages perfecting a beautiful photo, only to have Facebook turn it into a blurry, pixelated mess seconds after you post it? You're not alone. This guide will walk you through the exact steps to prevent Facebook's aggressive compression and make your photos look sharp, clear, and professional every time you upload them. We’ll cover everything from getting your image settings right on your computer to changing a few simple settings on your phone.

Why Facebook Makes Your High-Quality Pictures Look Blurry

Before we get to the fixes, it helps to understand why this happens. It's not personal - it's all about speed and data. Facebook serves billions of users every day, many of whom are on slow or spotty internet connections. To make sure everyone’s feed loads quickly, Facebook automatically compresses every image uploaded to its platform. Compression reduces the file size, but it often does so at the expense of image quality, resulting in blurriness, artifacts, and washed-out colors.

The good news is that you can work with this system instead of against it. By giving Facebook an image that’s already optimized, you can minimize the damage its compression algorithms do and maintain the quality of your original shot.

Step 1: Get Your Image Settings Right Before You Upload

The fight for a clear photo is won long before you hit the "post" button. Getting your image optimized is the most important part of the process. If you feed Facebook a weak file, you’ll get a weak result. If you give it a perfectly prepared one, you stand a much better chance.

Start with a High-Resolution Source Image

This may sound obvious, but it has to be said. You can't make a low-quality image sharp. Always start with the highest resolution photo you have, directly from your camera or smartphone. Don’t use a screenshot or a version you saved from another social media site, as these will have already been compressed and degraded. Start with the original for the best possible outcome.

Resize Your Photos to Facebook's Recommended Dimensions

Instead of letting Facebook guess how to resize your image, do it yourself. This gives you control over the final look. If Facebook receives a photo that's already the right size, it has less work to do and is less likely to compress it aggressively.

Here are the best dimensions to use for different types of Facebook posts:

• Standard News Feed Photos (Square): 1080 x 1080 pixels
• Standard News Feed Photos (Portrait): 1080 x 1350 pixels
• Standard News Feed Photos (Landscape): 1080 x 566 pixels
• Facebook Stories: 1080 x 1920 pixels

Pro Tip: The constant number here is 1080 pixels on the shortest side (or width for landscape). For most general posts, a portrait orientation (1080 x 1350) takes up the most screen real estate on mobile phones and tends to perform best. Resize your image to these specifications using any photo editing software like Canva, Lightroom, Photoshop, or even a free online tool like Photopea.

Choose the Right File Format (JPEG vs. PNG)

The file format you choose can make a big difference. Here’s a simple breakdown:

• Use JPEG (.jpg) for photographs. JPEGs are great at handling the complex colors and tones found in real-world pictures. When you export, aim for a quality setting of around 70-80% or a "High" quality preset. This strikes a good balance between file size and visual clarity. Also, look for an option called "Save for Web" in tools like Adobe Photoshop, as it further optimizes the file.
• Use PNG (.png) for graphics. If your image contains text, logos, or solid blocks of color, PNG is your best bet. PNG files prevent the blocky artifacts that can appear around sharp lines and text when a JPEG is compressed.

Use the sRGB Color Profile

This one is a bit technical but very important. Photo equipment can capture images in different color profiles, like Adobe RGB or ProPhoto RGB. However, web browsers and mobile devices are optimized to display the sRGB color profile. If you upload a photo in a different profile, Facebook will convert it, and the colors can end up looking faded, dull, or just plain weird.

In your photo editing software, make sure you export your final image with the sRGB color profile selected. In most tools, this is the default setting for "Save for Web" options, but it's always good to double-check.

Step 2: Change Your Facebook Upload Settings

Once your photo is perfectly sized, formatted, and colored, you need to tell Facebook to treat it nicely. Buried in the app's settings is an option that instructs Facebook to upload your media in higher quality. Many people don’t even know it’s there.

Enable "Upload HD" on Your Mobile App

If you primarily post from your phone, this is a game-changer. Both the iOS and Android Facebook apps have a setting to upload photos and videos in HD by default. Here's how to find it:

For a Facebook Account (Personal Profile):

1. Open the Facebook app and tap the Menu icon (three horizontal lines).
2. Scroll down and tap "Settings & Privacy," then tap "Settings."
3. Scroll down to the "Preferences" section and tap "Media."
4. Under "Video and Photo Settings," make sure the toggle for "Upload HD" is turned ON (it will be green or blue).

For a Facebook Page:

The instructions vary slightly per device, but you’re essentially looking for the same Media settings. Once you switch over to your page’s settings, look for Photo or Video quality options and enable them.

Use the "Create an Album" Method

This is a classic workaround that many creators swear by. Instead of posting a photo directly onto your timeline, uploading it to a new or existing album first can sometimes provide a better result.

1. Go to your profile or page and select the "Photos" tab.
2. Click on "Create Album."
3. Upload your photos into the album.
4. Before you publish the album, look for a settings gear or a checkbox often labeled "High Quality." Make sure it’s checked.
5. Once the album is published, you can then share a photo from that album to your news feed. The underlying image will be the higher-quality version stored in the album.

While uploading from a computer browser generally gives you the best quality by default, this method is a solid fallback, especially if a direct timeline post isn't looking as sharp as you’d like.

Bonus Tip: A Light Touch of Sharpening

For those who want to take it one step further, consider applying a small amount of sharpening to your image after you resize it but before you save it. Because you know Facebook's compression process will slightly soften the image, you can counteract that effect by adding a tiny bit of extra sharpness yourself.

In tools like Lightroom or Photoshop (using the "Unsharp Mask" filter), this should be a very subtle adjustment. Over-sharpening can make your photo look brittle and unnatural, so use a light hand. The goal is to make the details - like eyes in a portrait or textures in a landscape - pop just enough to withstand comparison.

Final Thoughts

Fixing blurry Facebook photos comes down to a simple formula: prepare your image correctly before you upload it, and make sure you've enabled the platform's high-quality settings. By controlling the dimensions, file format, and color profile yourself, you give Facebook's algorithm much less room to make a mess of your work.

Once you’ve perfected preparing your photos, making sure they get posted consistently is the next big step in growing your presence. We created Postbase because we, too, were tired of wrestling with outdated social media tools that either made high-quality visuals a headache or failed to publish our scheduled content reliably. With our intuitive visual calendar, you can plan, schedule, and publish all your beautiful content across your social platforms, confident it will look exactly as you intended - sharp, professional, and right on time.