I have been uploading full resolution 6000x4000 approx. 20 meg pegs. to google maps. When I see them from maps, the resolution has been reduced considerably. This seems to just been happening recently. What is the reason?
New post:
older post:
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Please share the links to two such images for a check. One of each.
Are you concerned about 360 photos or flat photos?
Cheers
Morten
Thanks, @bjwhite66212
It would be beneficial if you would use the tagging tool when replying to someone here on Connect. Type @ followed by the username. Type slowly. Then we get an e-mail notification and you are more likely to get a prompt reply.
What you call lower res is the tennis pic. In it’s highest resolution on the server it takes up 10,9 MB (11.505.664 bytes) = 6047 x 4023 pixels
What you call the older/better res is the grass pic. Its size is 8,92 MB (9.355.264 bytes) = 4000 x 3000.
Taking the aspect ratios into consideration I doubt there is much difference.
When requesting a photo from one of the photo servers the needed size can be specified. This is done openly in the URL. This might be what you are seeing.
I recommend comparing only the highest res versions. You can get these by starting to flag an image on a desktop, and then hitting Save as.
Obviously, Google Maps is not a free storage service for high res images. Most often only very tiny versions are displayed on mobile devices. So anything higher than 9-11 MB is not really needed.
Does this help?
Cheers
Morten
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What about phone your camera or phone camera?
I am a bit confused about this post, and about the terms Higher, Lower, New and older.
@MortenCopenhagen already responded about the resolution, and the fact that what you call Higher in fact has a lower number of pixel than the one you define as “lower”
In addition I can add that the one defined Older / Better resolution has been taken in August 2022, while the last uploaded by you (the tennis field) is part of a set taken in March 2022.
The only real way to understand the degradation of a photo is to compare the original file (the one uploaded in Maps) with the photo displayed in Maps. Comparing two different photos of different places, taken in different seasons, with different light conditions doesn’t really means anything.
Also please remember that resolution (Number of pixels) doesn’t mean quality. Quality is a combination of a lot of different elements, all interconnected to each other.
The light and the lenses are the most important, because they determine all those factors which influence, together with the focus) the quality (or at least the sharpness) of a photo, as they influence the depth of field and the color saturation.
Paradoxically, the photo of the tennis court is very difficult to make, because the light is lower than the one taken outdoors, and there are both close and very distant elements in the frame. Considering the minimum dimensions of a regulation tennis court, the first net is 17 meters away from you, while the back wall is 85 meters away. What did you focus on in this image?
In the second image instead the attention falls on the gazebo, which is the only subject of the photo. The nearest and most distant trees are not in focus, but we don’t notice them, because they are only elements of the contour.
If we still want to focus only on the number of pixels, then I have to ask you more questions:
Were the images stored at their original resolution directly from the device they were taken with, or from a personal computer without being altered? Or were they first stored in online storage like Google Photos? In the second case, with which settings were they stored? Native Resolution or “Storage Saver”? In the second case, Google Photos reduces the size of the images to 16 Mpx, as indicated in…Choose the upload size of your photos & videos
However, as I explained before, quality and resolution are two very different things, so to make a comparison we can only compare the original image with the uploaded one.
I apologize for the use of technicalities, but if we want to talk about better or worse photos we must necessarily use some reference parameters
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@ErmesT Thanks very interesting, how do you determine distance of objects in the picture? What is the tool?
The files were uploaded to Google Maps directly from the PC. I was concerned with the pixilation I noticed in straight lines and detail, not the file size or image dimensions. The jpeg size of the tennis court was 11,000 kb 6047x4023 cropped Nikon D780. The image that Google Maps presented of the Tennis court was 390x259.
The Gazebo was taken with a DJI Air 2S,
DJI Air 2S Drone Specs
Sensor Type 1"-Type CMOS Sensor 20 MP (5472 x 3648) 20 MP (5472 x 3078)
Google maps presented the picture as 364x273
Haha, no secret at all, @bjwhite66212
The size of a tennis field is defined by international rules, and the same is for the minimum space on the sides.
A tennis field is 36 feet (10.97 meters) large and it must have at least 3.05 meters of free space on each side. It means that every single field is using at least 17 meters. There are 5 tennis fields in your photo. Do I need to add more?
Please check the reply by @MortenCopenhagen about the size of your photos in Google Maps. He wrote: "What you call lower res is the tennis pic. In it’s highest resolution on the server it takes up 10,9 MB (11.505.664 bytes) = 6047 x 4023 pixels
What you call the older/better res is the grass pic. Its size is 8,92 MB (9.355.264 bytes) = 4000 x 3000."
So the one of the Tennis Court seems to be unchanged.
The size that you are writing here are the ones of the thumbnails, not the ones of the photos.
Of course several platform apply a kind of Image compression, when we upload them, and this can of course reduce a bit the quality, even if (I agree with Morten) this is irrelevant in Maps.
As bot files are lower than 16 Mpx, can you upload them in Google photos and share the link with us? In this way we will be able to see the effective loss of quality
@ErmesT The link to google photos that contain the pictures. https://photos.app.goo.gl/sKdFPgQ6vFVgyJqQ6
Do you want me to explain better and with some examples how the photo servers are able to generate low-resolution copies depending on what is needed? It seems that you might not be aware of this.
Cheers
Morten
@MortenCopenhagen Sure, explain this to me.
It seems that Google maps is reducing the resolution more for some of my pictures than for others.
Is This an example of what you are talking about?
@MortenCopenhagen Yes, please Explain
It seems that Google maps may be reducing the resolution of my uploaded pictures inconsistently.
Is this what you are talking about?
Okay, @bjwhite66212
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipP9Ndh3Gd6GUSt5OUxEG2Wpv62nL-nsdqe3piDh=s0
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipP9Ndh3Gd6GUSt5OUxEG2Wpv62nL-nsdqe3piDh=w938-h757-p-k-no
See the difference?
And there is a super tiny version:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipP9Ndh3Gd6GUSt5OUxEG2Wpv62nL-nsdqe3piDh=w100
It is all defined in the URL. So it makes no sense to discuss or compare the resolution of Maps pics if you don’t take this aspect into account.
Cheers
Morten
2 Likes
@MortenCopenhagen Great, that makes sense.
How is this image size selection done by Maps? I am not, when I click on a picture of a business. I change the final parameter of the URL and get most any size up to the original. So Google Maps has stored the original, but the web page, javascript or programming is adding the size parameter when it is rendered in the browser.
What do I need to learn before you can help me.
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The size and aspect ratios are selected by the application or the website showing the images to the users. The photo serveres are really amazing. They respond super quickly and the capacity is fenominal. There is nothing to learn. I just wanted you to understand that the quality of Maps pics depend on the size requested by the app. The servers can also deliver circular cut-outs.
Cheers
Morten
1 Like
@MortenCopenhagen Good info, Tell me more about the size parameters of Google maps pictures, Where is it documented?
I found out about this by studying the html source texts from Google Maps on Desktop. I have not seen this explained by Google.
You will need to do the same if you want to know more than what I explained above.
Cheers
Morten