Why your Instagram photos look blurry

Why do my photos look blurry after upload?

Instagram shrinks and recompresses every photo to save bandwidth. The feed displays images at about 1080 pixels wide, so a larger original is scaled down, and the file is compressed with a lossy JPEG setting. Two effects can make the result look soft: the downscale itself, and the loss of fine detail that compression removes first. Textures like grass, hair and text suffer the most.

You cannot turn compression off, but you can give the platform a file that needs less change.

What size should I upload?

1080 pixels wide. If your photo is wider, Instagram shrinks it. If it is much narrower, Instagram enlarges it, and enlarging always costs sharpness. For the height, follow the ratio: 1350 for 4:5, 1440 for 3:4, 1080 for square. The carousel size guide lists the shapes in a table.

How do I fix it step by step?

Go through the list in order:

1. Open Instagram settings and find the media quality option, then turn on the upload at highest quality choice. The wording shifts between versions.
2. Export or prepare photos at 1080 pixels wide.
3. Use one ratio for every slide of a carousel.
4. Save as JPEG, not as a screenshot of the editor.
5. Avoid applying the same filter twice.
6. Upload on a stable connection, since a weak one may trigger lower quality.

Does HEIC cause blur?

Not by itself. iPhones shoot in HEIC by default, which stores a photo in less space than JPEG, and apps convert it when they upload. The conversion adds one more lossy step if an app handles it poorly. If you want fewer surprises, open Settings, Camera, Formats and choose Most Compatible to shoot JPEG, or export JPEG from your editor.

Are screenshots a problem?

Yes. A screenshot of an editor or of a photo on screen is a copy of a copy. It has the resolution of your display, includes interface elements and loses detail. If you need a photo of a design, export it directly. Strewn renders each slide off screen on its own at 1080 pixels wide instead of capturing the editor screen, which keeps the output clean.

Why do carousels look worse than single photos?

Two things. First, mismatched slide sizes force the platform to crop or scale some slides, which softens them. Second, a carousel loads several images at once, and on weak connections the app may show a lower resolution first. Keep every slide the same ratio and the same width, and the second issue fades once everything loads.

Does editing reduce quality?

Every time a photo is saved as JPEG after an edit, it loses a little. Apply edits once from the original, not on top of a previous export. Avoid heavy sharpening. Oversharpened photos show halos that compression turns into smudges. Strewn does not edit pixels. It reads sharpness to rank photos, then frames them and exports.

Does blur ever help a dump?

On purpose, yes. A dump benefits from one loose slide that tells viewers the week was real. Strewn places the loosest readable photo in the chaos slot, usually slide 4, and you can swap it any time. That is a creative blur, and it is different from accidental softness. A soft photo with a clear subject and feeling works. A smeared one does not.

Read the order guide for where to place it.

How can I tell if a photo is sharp before I post?

Zoom to 100 percent in Photos and look at an eye, a letter or an edge. If the edge has a clear transition, it is sharp enough. Strewn does a version of this with a Laplacian filter on a 64-pixel preview, which gives a sharpness score that it uses for the opener and for picking among burst frames. It is a ranking help, not a quality guarantee.

What if everything still looks soft?

Compare one post with a friend's, on the same phone. If theirs looks crisp, check your upload settings and export size again. If both look soft, the culprit is likely the viewing connection or the display. Posting in the evening on a good Wi-Fi network often looks different from posting on a train.