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Participating Frequently
March 18, 2025
Question

Blurry photos in Instagram

  • March 18, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 4764 views

Hello Everyone. I've been a lightroom user for at least 5 years. Way back I had export settings saved in my lightroom but recently I had to delete lightroom off my desktop and redownload it. None of the export settings saved unfortunately. Now, when I export photos, and try to upload to instagram, they are extremely blurry. I've used settings people have recomended on youtube but nothing has worked. The ONLY time my photos aren't blurry and look normal on instagram is if I upload more than one photo. If I upload a single photo, it's extremley blurry. I'm beyond confused. Thanks!

2 replies

Participant
October 8, 2025

This is a little late, but I think this is an Instagram problem. I've noticed this recently. Every photo post (not just mine) is blurry unless there are multiple photos, then the first is blurry but the rest aren't. It seems like the posts the algorithm puts on my feed (brands, ads, etc) don't have this problem, but if I look up normal users (friends) it does. It is driving me crazy and I can't figure out how to fix it. 

Legend
October 8, 2025

The photos I post to Instagram show up beautifully sharp on Instagram. I crop to a 4x5 or 4x6 or 6x4 or 5x4 aspect ratio, max pixels on the long side is 1080, image quality slider 75. 

CMass
Community Manager
Community Manager
March 18, 2025

Hey! @cameronp84108591,

Can you share what version of Lightroom you're using right now? You can find this information by going to Help > System Info while in Lightroom. 


^CM

Participating Frequently
March 18, 2025

The version is 14.1.1 Camera Raw 17.1

 

My current export settings are: SRGB, Resize to fit: Long Edge 1080pixels, Don't Enlarge, Resolution 72ppi. I've tried different sharpening settings but it hasn't changed how it looks. I've tried many different settings and the ones listed in this message have gotten me closest to a sharp photo but it's still pretty bad.

Legend
March 19, 2025

Please try some simple debugging. When you export the photo in the case where Instagram is blurry ... does the photo look blurry before you upload it to Instagram but after you export it from LrC? Also, what are the pixel dimensions (width and height) of this exported photo?