Image quality on Directory is very poor

I was just called as the ward photographer and am trying to successfully upload images that don't look totally compressed. I have kept to the 375x500ppi image size. Tried jpg and even png since that seems to be what the processor changes the files to... why, I cannot imagine.. but I'm a photographer, not a site developer. I even lowered my file size quality to an 8 rather than a 12 (in jpg). Then I tried to see if uploading from my phone might make the image quality better. The reason I tried that, or even imagine image quality could be better, is because the images in my personal profile that were uploaded from my phone all look great. Everyone else's? Terrible. Even those uploaded by the previous photographer. Everyone's directory images look great on my phone but when the directory is viewed on a desktop, it is difficult to even see what the people look like it is sooo pixelated.
I noticed there aren't any other complaints about this. Am I the only one experiencing this problem, or is this the wrong place to bring this up??

stacieannsmith wrote:I have kept to the 375x500ppi image size.

I assume you mean 375x500 pixels -- 375 or 500 ppi would be far higher resolution than is reasonable for this application.

stacieannsmith wrote:Tried jpg and even png since that seems to be what the processor changes the files to... why, I cannot imagine.. but I'm a photographer, not a site developer.

As long as you upload a 375x500 pixel JPEG or PNG, you should have good results. The files seem to be appearing as JPEG, as near as I can tell.

stacieannsmith wrote:I even lowered my file size quality to an 8 rather than a 12 (in jpg). Then I tried to see if uploading from my phone might make the image quality better. The reason I tried that, or even imagine image quality could be better, is because the images in my personal profile that were uploaded from my phone all look great. Everyone else's? Terrible. Even those uploaded by the previous photographer. Everyone's directory images look great on my phone but when the directory is viewed on a desktop, it is difficult to even see what the people look like it is sooo pixelated.

I'm not sure what's going on; this certainly sounds odd. Have you tried viewing the directory on someone else's computer? It would be helpful to narrow down whether the photos themselves are the problem, or the way you are viewing them on your desktop.

stacieannsmith wrote:I noticed there aren't any other complaints about this. Am I the only one experiencing this problem?

As near as I can tell. Some people have uploaded very low quality images (such as the 100x135 images that used to be used in the Classic Directory) and been disappointed, but I haven't heard complaints about the kind of pixelation you are describing.

stacieannsmith wrote:...is this the wrong place to bring this up??

This is fine. I did move your post from the Beta Directory forum to the actual Directory forum, since your issue is with the current Directory.

Thank you for your response. I was also thinking it might be my computer, except that no other images look so terrible on any other sites. And the inconsistency between iPhone images (they look great) and SLR images (which look terrible) is a bit difficult to explain if it really is my computer. I'd think that it would all be bad or all be good.
Also, I tried loading images on my phone last night, and some did not load and just leave an empty space. I've tried to load my personal family image several times with no success. Is it because we have individual shots for the parents? I think about 1/5 of my images actually took and can be seen. I hope all the bugs are fixed soon. Frustrated since the plan to upload images of all members isn't really working out.

Oh, and I can only get to the spanish site. and I cannot load anything on firefox. Just explorer. Hahaha! Ohhh. Crazy.

[Moderator note: The topic of this thread is the image quality of photos on Directory. All other topics such as uploading issues and language issues should be discussed in other threads in which those topics are discussed or new threads started if the topics do not already exist. Please abide by the Code of Conduct which states, "Do not start a new topic in an existing thread; instead start a new thread."]

The language problem is discussed in the wrong language thread in the Directory forum. In the LDS.org Website forum it is discussed in the Website in Spanish (or other languages) thread, the Why does my LDS.org default to Spanish? thread, and resurrected in the lds.org has changed to a foreign language thread.

The photo upload problem for Firefox is discussed in the Firefox picture upload broken thread and the Firefox picture upload broken thread.

Are there any plans to increase the photo quality of pictures in LDS Tools and the online directory?

In my experience, only about half of the pictures end up being useful if you are new to a ward.

Some suggested solutions:
- increase max picture size
- enable cropping when uploading pictures (so people can zoom into the face)
- allow zooming on pictures when viewing

One more suggestion: increase the quality (dpi) when printing the photo directory to .pdf.

jscottym wrote:Are there any plans to increase the photo quality of pictures in LDS Tools and the online directory?

In my experience, only about half of the pictures end up being useful if you are new to a ward.

Some suggested solutions:
- increase max picture size
- enable cropping when uploading pictures (so people can zoom into the face)
- allow zooming on pictures when viewing

Currently, if you click on a photo is does zoom. Maybe it doesn't zoom enough, but I find it to be quite useful.

A while back the church was beta testing an enhancement to the directory that allowed cropping the photo. That beta was canceled without ever going to production and we don't know why. Maybe some day they'll work on it again.

mevans wrote:Currently, if you click on a photo is does zoom. Maybe it doesn't zoom enough, but I find it to be quite useful.

I'm using LDS Tools v. 2.3.1 on an iPhone 6+ and pictures on ward members and families don't zoom for me. Am I missing something?