Instagram Export Settings for Photographers (Size, Color, Sharpness)
You spent twenty minutes editing a photograph and Instagram spent two seconds ruining it. The fix is on your side of the upload: give Instagram a file it doesn't have to guess about, and its compression becomes nearly invisible. Here are the numbers, and the reasoning, so you can stop re-deriving them every time.
The numbers
| Post type | Ratio | Export size |
|---|---|---|
| Portrait (use this by default) | 4:5 | 1080 × 1350 px |
| Square | 1:1 | 1080 × 1080 px |
| Landscape | 1.91:1 | 1080 × 566 px |
- Format: JPEG
- Color space: sRGB, no exceptions
- Quality: 80–90%
- Sharpening: applied after the resize, judged at 100% of the export
Why 1080 wide, and why 4:5 first
Instagram stores feed images at 1080 pixels wide. Send it 6000 pixels from your Alpha and Instagram's server does the downsize with settings you never see; send exactly 1080 and the only resize is the one you controlled in your editor, with your choice of resampling and your sharpening on top.
The 4:5 portrait ratio exists because feeds scroll vertically. A 4:5 frame occupies roughly twice the screen of a 1.91:1 landscape, and screen time is attention. Crop with intent: if the composition genuinely needs to be wide, post it wide, and accept the smaller footprint. For everything else, build the edit around 4:5. A crop tool with real overlays helps here; composition survives recropping better when you can see the rule-of-thirds or golden-ratio grid while you work.
The washed-out photo mystery, solved
Your photo looks rich in your editor and gray on your phone. The culprit is the color space tag. Wide-gamut spaces like Adobe RGB and Display P3 describe more colors than sRGB, but Instagram's pipeline and most phone screens assume sRGB. Colors get squeezed and skin goes dull.
Keep the wide gamut for print and for your archive. For Instagram, and for the web in general, export sRGB. This single setting fixes the most common complaint photographers have about how their work looks online.
Sharpen for the destination, not the negative
Downsizing from 24 or 33 megapixels to 1.4 megapixels softens detail; that softness is why exports look mushier than your editing view. Apply output sharpening after the resize and evaluate it at the export's actual size. On a 1080-pixel file, sharpening that looked subtle at full resolution turns crunchy, so use less than instinct suggests and check edges on fine detail like hair or branches.
Put your name in the file
Instagram strips visible credit the moment a screenshot exists, but embedded metadata still travels with the original file you posted and with every copy you send elsewhere. Embed your name, copyright and license terms in the JPEG's IPTC fields at export. It costs nothing and settles authorship arguments before they start.
Or skip the checklist
These settings never change, which makes them a perfect thing to automate. RevelRaw ships Instagram export presets (4:5 and 1:1) that bundle the size, sRGB conversion, quality and output sharpening in one click, alongside presets for Flickr, 500px, Adobe Stock, print and web. Your author profile and copyright embed automatically on every export. Edit the .ARW, pick the platform, done.
One click from RAW to a feed-ready file. RevelRaw is free to download with one full-quality export. Get it on the Mac App Store (macOS 26 or later).
Related reading: Getting the film look from Sony RAW · RAW vs JPEG on a Sony Alpha