CS2 image vs. internet image?

[BMWJNKY]

I don't know what is going on but the other day I uploaded some pics for a friend after i tweaked them in CS2 and they looked vastly different. I saved the image in CS2 as a jpeg at the size i wanted it to be. Then I uploaded it to my web space and opened it and the colors on the uploaded version were a lot darker and washed out. I've never had this problem before, does anyone have any idea what might of happened

[Medley]

Two possible causes that I can think of:

1) The color setting on your computer are out of whack. This happens over a period of time and can be remedied by using a colorimeter to tune tyhe color settings. However, if this were true I think (emphasis on "think"; I'm not sure) that you would see both images as being the same and everyone else would see them as being "off".

2) The Gamma setting for the web images is different from the Gamma setting for your computer. The human eye sees more variation in dark tones than in light ones. Consequently, what your computer considers mid-tone grey is generally percieved as being to light by human standards. So the computer compensates, shifting what it considers mid-tone grey to a darker tone. The amount of that compensation is known as the Gamma setting. Problem is, Gamma settings aren't all the same. Macintosh uses a different setting than PC's, for example.

I'd suggest finding out how to calibrate your display. Many systems have an internal calibration system. Going through the calibration process may solve both possible causes.

Hope this helps.

-Joe U.

[BMWJNKY]

Thanks for the tips, I'll look into some sort of calibration when I get home. I've never had this problem before so I was confused to what might be wrong. My first thought was that my moniter color settings were off but like you said if that was the case both the internet version and the version on my HD of the image would look the same. I'll test uploading some other pics later tonight and see if it is something on the web space end. I just find it strange I had the problem the other night cause I've been using the same web space for years with no issues.

[Medley]

Something else just dawned on me. I believe Adobe has its own Gamma setting as well, embedded in the Adobe RGB colorspace. Make sure that you're using the sRGB colorspace for web images. I'd hate to have you calibrating your monitor if it's something as simple as switching colorspaces.

-Joe U.

[BMWJNKY]

My 20D and CS2 are both set to sRGB.

[Photo-John]

This is complicated stuff and you have to set everything up correctly from the start to eliminate any stray variables. I have my camera set to capture in the Adobe RGB colorspace and I have Photoshop set up to use the Adobe RGB colorspace, too. Photoshop is color settings are configured to warn me if there's any mismatch so that I am aware and forced to make a decision about it. I do all of my master file work in Adobe RGB. When I want to make an image for the Web, the last step before I save for Web is converting it to sRGB.

Monitor calibration is also important, although it's more important when going from one machine to another or printing. It's possible that a color setting has been changed in Photoshop. That would explain why there's a big difference between Photoshop and your Web browser.

[masdog]

This is a very interesting problem, Alex. I'm not sure what could be causing it as there are many variables.

Have you tried viewing the images on a different computer?

[BMWJNKY]

This is a very interesting problem, Alex. I'm not sure what could be causing it as there are many variables.

Have you tried viewing the images on a different computer?

Yeah I looked at them with my work computer today and they looked washed out and bland just like they did when I looked at them with my home PC after I uploaded them.

[masdog]

It could be one of two things then. It could be a color calibration issue, an error when you saved the file, or there could have been some issue when uploading the image. Try saving the file on external media and viewing it on another computer without transmitting it over the Internet.

[BMWJNKY]

I just tried another image and it did the samething, made the colors darker and washed out. I edited the image in Lightroom, finish it and save it in CS2 then upload. Now if I upload an image I've already processed and saved from a while ago nothing happens to it, the colors stay the same This new issues is making me not want to clean up and post my pictures

[masdog]

What're the settings you're using when you save?

[BMWJNKY]

What're the settings you're using when you save?

I change it from 16bit to 8bit, then adjust the image to the size I want, redo any sharpening if needed then save as .jpeg at max and 12. I'm tempted to just uninstall Lightroom and just go back to using CS2. But what is annoying me the most is when I first installed Lightroom and processed my photos with it then finished them in CS2 I was getting great results and not having any problems with the uploaded images. I'm at a total loss for what is going on because I've made no setting changes in Lightroom or CS2.

[masdog]

Alright...it sounds like it could be one of three things. So here is what I want you to do.

1) Choose a test image and go through your workflow. After you save an image, close Photoshop completely. open the image. See if it has color problems. This will tell us if the problem is on photoshop's end.

2) If the image looks fine/normal, burn the image to a CD, place it on a USB stick, or email it to yourself. Then open it on another computer. If it still looks fine, then we know its not a calibration issue.

3) Finally, post a copy of the picture to the board and tell us who you're using for an online host. We can then figure out if they're doing something to the image when you upload it.

[Norfindel]

Before saving the modified image to disk, go to "Convert color profile", and select sRGB. The only color profile you can use in the web is sRGB.
I could bet that's your problem.
If this works, check the photoshop settings about color profiles, maybe it's converting all images to Adobe RGB when opening them.

[BMWJNKY]

I figured out what is going on but I have no idea how to fix it. When I open and adjust an image in Lightroom then export it to CS2 it gets changed to a .tiff file. Now when I finish my adjustments in CS2 and change it to 8bit so I can save it as a .jpeg, in the save as window that comes up it says, ICC Profile: Pro Photo RGB, not sRGB like I want it to. How do I get it to go to sRGB when I export to CS2? Because if I open an image in bridge then finish it in CS2 it goes to sRGB with no problem and it shows sRGB in the save as menu.

In the same drop down tab in CS2 where you can change the bit mode there is a check next to RGB. Also I looked in the preferences in CS2 it is set to sRGB.

I don't get why it stared doing this to my images, I had no issues the first week I used lightroom. I can't find anywhere in lightroom to set a default color space.

If I can't get this problem sorted out by the end of the weekend I'm deleting lightroom.

[masdog]

I figured out what is going on but I have no idea how to fix it. When I open and adjust an image in Lightroom then export it to CS2 it gets changed to a .tiff file. Now when I finish my adjustments in CS2 and change it to 8bit so I can save it as a .jpeg, in the save as window that comes up it says, ICC Profile: Pro Photo RGB, not sRGB like I want it to. How do I get it to go to sRGB when I export to CS2? Because if I open an image in bridge then finish it in CS2 it goes to sRGB with no problem and it shows sRGB in the save as menu.

In the same drop down tab in CS2 where you can change the bit mode there is a check next to RGB. Also I looked in the preferences in CS2 it is set to sRGB.

I don't get why it stared doing this to my images, I had no issues the first week I used lightroom. I can't find anywhere in lightroom to set a default color space.

If I can't get this problem sorted out by the end of the weekend I'm deleting lightroom.

Don't delete Lightroom. We've narrowed the problem down to a settings issue - something that we can change by selecting a different working space color profile. Thing is...I don't recall how to do that off the top of my head.

I'll post something more on it tomorrow when I've had a chance to play around a little.

[Asylum Steve]

You may want to check your photoshop Proof Setup. It's the first menu item under the View pulldown on the top ps menu bar.

If your proof setup is anything other than your working color space, ps may be adjusting the monitor screen colors to simulate an output source (such as a CMYK printer).

Then, when you post an image on the web, you will view what may be more "accurate" colors, and a bit different than what you see in editing in ps...

As for the larger picture, you really do lose some control over the way photos look on the web no matter what your workflow in ps, as a web browser does a fairly poor job of handing color spaces.

[BMWJNKY]

You may want to check your photoshop Proof Setup. It's the first menu item under the View pulldown on the top ps menu bar.

If your proof setup is anything other than your working color space, ps may be adjusting the monitor screen colors to simulate an output source (such as a CMYK printer).

Then, when you post an image on the web, you will view what may be more "accurate" colors, and a bit different than what you see in editing in ps...

As for the larger picture, you really do lose some control over the way photos look on the web no matter what your workflow in ps, as a web browser does a fairly poor job of handing color spaces.

I'll check that when I get home from work. I just don't understand why the problem started happening even though I made no default setting changes and everything worked fine the first 2 weeks I had lightroom on my computer.

[masdog]

I did a little searching on this. From what I have found, Pro PhotoRGB is the default color space of Adobe Camera Raw. Your tiffs are in that colorspace because that is what Camera RAW, and Lightroom, use when working with RAW files you create.

http://www.outbackphoto.com/color_ma..._06/essay.html

As for your output settings in Photoshop, go up to Edit > Color Settings. This will show you what your working spaces are. I'm not an expert on this, so you're going to have to post your settings and hope another forum reader can provide more information. You can also assign individual color spaces to an image by going to Edit > Assign Profile or Edit > Convert to Profile.

And finally, when you go to save (File > Save As), you have the ICC profile box checked, correct?

***Note: After poking around in Lightroom, it doesn't seem to have settings for altering color balance, so you'll have to do it in Photoshop. However, my poking around wasn't very thorough either.

[SmartWombat]

In Lightroom's File Export dialog there is a Color Space dropdown.
It seems to be remembering either the camera's setting of sRGB colour space, or my setting of sRGB that I used last week.
Along with the size constraint of 640 pixels on any side and quality of 80.

[BMWJNKY]

Here are my color settings from CS2.

[BMWJNKY]

Here are my export settings in CS2

[Medley]

On the Color Settings dialog box, check the "ask when opening" box under the Color Management Policies section. This will prompt Photoshop to tell you when you are importing a file that is not sRGB, and give you the option to use the colorspace of your choice. The options come up as "use embedded profile" (which would presumably be ProPhoto RGB from Lightroom), "use working spce",(which is set to sRGB), or a third option of "discard embedded profile, don't color manage". Choose the "use working space" option to have Photoshop convert the image to sRGB on the fly before opening the image. This should solve the problem.

Personally, I also uncheck the "use dither" box under conversion options. Photoshop dithers an image by adding noise at the edges to make them look smoother. In reality though, I've never seen much of a difference either way. I think it's kind of similiar to jpeg compression- do it once, and you won't see much difference, but do it 20 times and things start to break down.

Hope this helps.

-Joe U.

[BMWJNKY]

On the Color Settings dialog box, check the "ask when opening" box under the Color Management Policies section. This will prompt Photoshop to tell you when you are importing a file that is not sRGB, and give you the option to use the colorspace of your choice. The options come up as "use embedded profile" (which would presumably be ProPhoto RGB from Lightroom), "use working spce",(which is set to sRGB), or a third option of "discard embedded profile, don't color manage". Choose the "use working space" option to have Photoshop convert the image to sRGB on the fly before opening the image. This should solve the problem.

Personally, I also uncheck the "use dither" box under conversion options. Photoshop dithers an image by adding noise at the edges to make them look smoother. In reality though, I've never seen much of a difference either way. I think it's kind of similiar to jpeg compression- do it once, and you won't see much difference, but do it 20 times and things start to break down.

Hope this helps.

-Joe U.

Thanks for the tips, this fixed my problem. I just don't understand what happened cause I didn't have to click the use working space when I was first using Lightroom.