Image fuzzy and pixelated when exported

[yamurbina]

Hello!

I have a problem with an image, when I exported and I open it it looks great, but when I upload it to Spotify the image becomes pale and fuzzy and pixelated.
I had this problem before with another one, I solved searching for the same image but bigger resolution. I had to change some configuration in the image size section, if I'm not mistaken I changed the resolution from 72 to 300, and made the image(file?) larger than the picture I was using. When I upload it to spotify it didn't got pixelated anymore.

This time I have a 1280 x 857 image, I converted the text to smart object because I wanted to play with perspective, I added a ''leak light'' effect with a new layer- Screen (blending mode for the layer) and then a brush with bright colors. And now the same, when I open it it looks great, but when I upload it to spotify it becomes fuzzy and pale.
I've tried different things, changing resolution (Although I don't exactly know what I'm doing.) Even taking out the leak effect, but didn't change anything.
I had the same image but with flat text no other effect and it was perfect on spotify. Not sure what is happening to this exact project.
Image was exported in .JPEG since is the only format spotify accepts, 300 x 300 minimum resolution, and no bigger than 4MB.
Could have something to do with color profile?

I would really appreciate your help, I've been using photoshop and illustrator because I like to learn new stuff, and achieve better results than with a smartphone application.
Thank you very much!

 

[gedstar]

Just a thought but have you tried the Save for Web option?
http://sixrevisions.com/web_design/comprehensive-guide-saving-images-for-web/

 

[yamurbina]

Hello gedstar! I tried using it, I help me with the colors. It doesn't look pale anymore if I check convert to sRGB, but the text still looks pixelated.
I choose JPEG, progressive, maximum, quality 100.
Hope that helps to see what is causing the text to be like that.
Thank you so much for your help!

 

[Tom Mann]

1. COLOR ISSUE: Your original was in Adobe RGB. This can be seen by looking at the 4th screen shot you posted, ie, the one that shows the "Save As" dialog box. Down near the bottom of that dialog box, you can see that the working color space that you used for that image was Adobe RGB.

Within the last couple of years, most popular browsers and image viewers have been updated to correctly handle color spaces such as Adobe RGB, so when you inspect the image using one of these, it will look fine.

However, the reason the colors in your image looked better in Spotify when you used "Save for Web" and "convert to sRGB" is almost certainly because the Spotify upload software does not properly display any color space except sRGB. They likely need to get with the program and update their software.

From your point of view, the simplest solution for you is to do exactly what Ged suggested and use the "Save for Web (sRGB)" option.

If the images you are working on in PS usually wind up on the web (ie, not as paper prints), then set the preferences in your copy of PS so that the working space is sRGB, not Adobe RGB, and this problem will disappear, and you can use either the ordinary "Save As" or a "Save For Web" command interchangeably.

2. SHARPNESS ISSUE: One of the most common but mysterious reasons that images get blurry is because the user (knowingly or not) changed the dimensions of the image in pixels multiple times. Every time you do this, you introduce a small bit of blur. For example, if you send a 1280x857 (width by height)image to a website (eg, Spotify) whose images are, say, displayed 1000 pixels wide, the website's software will automatically resize your image down to 1000 pixels. This will soften it slightly. If the forum's software needs a larger version, it will attempt to up-rez your image and up-rez'ing (ie, increasing the number of pixels) will DRAMATICALLY soften it.

The problem is often even more complex than the above paragraph would suggest because some websites will resize your image differently to fit different areas on their pages, so, in this case, you can not simply do an exact downsizing yourself. In this case, your best option is to supply the website to which you are contributing, a version of the image that is at least several times larger (in pixel dimensions) than the largest version they will need. When down-rez'ing from a much larger image, the loss of sharpness is minimized.

This is probably what you did when you changed the resolution, but without knowing more details about the exact process you used, it's hard to tell. The bottom line is: for web use, just ignore any reference in Photoshop to the dimensions of your image in physical (ie, inches or cm) units, and only pay attention to its dimensions in numbers of pixels, and then submit the largest (in number of pixels) they will accept.

HTH,

Tom M

 

[yamurbina]

Hello Tom! Thank you for explaining the whole thing. Great info there!
To be honest I didn't change anything in this project, I only added the perspective text and leak light effect and when I exported it and upload it to spotify it appear fuzzy unlike some other version of the same project. And there is where I began to play with image/pixel size with no results. But however its not like photoshop did it by itself, so I guess I must have done it and I don't remember or I didn't notice it haha.
Actually I got to solve it by cropping the picture (square) which I suppose has to do with what you mention about how different websites compress pictures.

Thank you very much both Ged and Tom for your time and help guys!