When it comes to Facebook, photographers seem to either love it or hate it. With somechanges announced late last week, you’re going to love it or hate it in even bigger ways.
Facebook Photo Changes
The most visible change is that Facebook will now support photos up to 2048 pixels wide (larger photos will be downsized). Allowing for 300dpi means that the photos on Facebook will now (for better or worse) be able to be printed at sizes up to 8×10 easily.
In addition to bigger photos, the photo upgrades include a lightbox view when clicking on a photo which allows for a more visually pleasing viewing experience. A new bulk-tagging feature allows for people to be tagged in groups of photos in addition to the one-by-one tagging experience that existed previously.
What Will Facebook Photo Changes Mean for Photographers?
Honestly… not much. I think the folks that are using Facebook to share work with friends, family, and clients will continue to do so, and their contacts will get the benefit of being able to appreciate the work in bigger form. Those who have always hated Facebook will probably continue to do so for all of the same reasons. AsRosh notes in his thoughts on the changes, Facebook has been plagued with poor photo performance and a crappy uploader, and hopefully those issues have been addressed.
I haven’t spent time with the new Facebook photo interface but I look forward to checking it out.
What do you think? Leave your answer on this quick one-question poll about how bigger photos might affect your Facebook usage:
