Why do photos look better after they've been uploaded to Flickr?

[yllus]

Photos of mine like this one seem to be sharper and have richer colour than the file on my hard drive. I always thought it was just in my head (mostly due to the photo being displayed at a small size), but my coworker just said the same thing aloud and now I'm wondering what's going on.

Is Flickr applying some filters on our images when they're uploaded? If so, does anyone know how I might reproduce the effect? I'm very curious to what's going on here.

Edit: Here is the same photo uploaded to my personal gallery site. And here is the smaller size pic.

Edit 2: Now looking at it, the photo on Flickr doesn't seem altered at full resolution. But at the smaller size, they do sharpening!

To illustrate best, open both of the links below in tabs and cycle between the two:

Flickr
My Gallery

 

[Steve]

Oh wow, the ol' TTC trains. Haven't seen those in almost 20 years. I remember seeing red ones once in a while.

Is that girl supposed to look like Alizee?

Anyway, to answer your question, I think they have CSI's Enhance filter.

 

[PremiumG]

can you host the original so we can compare?

 

[yllus]

Originally posted by: PremiumG
can you host the original so we can compare?

Good idea, coming right up.

 

[jdini76]

looks the same to me...

 

[FP]

They look pretty similar to me.

 

[sygyzy]

Looks the same to me too.

 

[DanTMWTMP]

I don't see a difference?

 

[Reel]

I agree. I think the colors appear a bit brighter on flickr.

 

[glutenberg]

I'd say it's just the size of the picture that's throwing you off.

 

[Savij]

Picture is smaller so that it doesn't look as grainy as the original. There is less "fuzz" relative to the color in the flickr image.

 

[George P Burdell]

There was an article somewhere describing how Flickr modified user images. I can't remember what it was though. Maybe sharpening, contrast and some other stuff?

 

[yllus]

Okay, here is the same photo uploaded to my personal gallery site. And here's the smaller size.

Now looking at it, the photo on Flickr doesn't seem altered at full resolution. But at the smaller size, they do sharpening!

To illustrate best, open both of the links below in tabs:

Flickr
My Gallery

 

[Steve]

The Flickr one seems a shade brighter.

 

[Savij]

Originally posted by: yllus
Okay, here is the same photo uploaded to my personal gallery site. And here's the smaller size.

Now looking at it, the photo on Flickr doesn't seem altered at full resolution. But at the smaller size, they do sharpening!

To illustrate best, open both of the links below in tabs:

Flickr
My Gallery

Sony camera?

 

[l6873]

http://farm2.static.flickr.com...1533951_cc603ade52.jpg
http://blog.yllus.com/gallery/.../Picture+474-small.jpg

 

[glutenberg]

Now you're messing with my mind. The smaller picture on Flickr now seems to show the subject's face more clearly than the shrunk picture from your gallery. Maybe a sharpening filter before it gets posted?

The Flickr photo definitely seems sharper than the original. The sign on the side of the train, the yellow flooring and the subject's face are all clearer in the Flickr photo.

 

[yllus]

Originally posted by: Savij
Sony camera?

Canon Digital Rebel XT + Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 lens.

Originally posted by: glutenberg
Now you're messing with my mind. The smaller picture on Flickr now seems to show the subject's face more clearly than the shrunk picture from your gallery. Maybe a sharpening filter before it gets posted?

Definitely sharpening. Maybe some brightness/contrast work as well.

 

[biggestmuff]

It looks slightly sharper on Flickr. Look at soft, frilly stuff on the wing on the subject on the right. It's easy to compare the two in FireFox. Load the two pics in seperat tabs, hover your mouse over one of the tabs and use the scroll wheel.

 

[TwiceOver]

After opening them in new windows in the same position over the top of one another the Flicr image is definately sharper. I don't see any color difference though.

 

[MrPickins]

The original sizes look identical to me. Maybe Flickr uses a superior resizing algorithm?

 

[needalife]

Flickr one does look a lot sharper and better.. i wonder what they do...

 

[LS20]

real quick thing to make photos "pop out" is to run Unsharp Mask and a quick increase in Contrast on your photos. obviously, purists wont like it, but for most snapshooters your photos will look nicer

 

[eleison]

the flickr picture is sharpened and more saturated. Canon cameras automatically do in camera saturating . Most semi/prof cameras do not do any pre-processing of pictures. The original pictures that the OP took is more "true to life" then the flickr picture, but in general people like saturated picture because they look more vibrant.

 

[IsaiahT]

Certainly sharper -- check out the girl's underarm -- it's a bit fuzzy on the original but definitely enhanced in the flickr version. Nifty.