Colors don't look right when viewing pics in Windows picture viewer

[Ultra Magnus]

When I veiw pictures in Lightroom they look considerably different than they do when viewed in Windows picture viewer. If the LR pics are what I consider to be correct, the same pics viewed in Windows look very over saturated and red.

Now, I'm aware of the difference between sRGB and Adobe RGB colorspaces, and it doesn't matter what color space they are saved in, the results are the same. It also doesn't matter if I took the pic or not, raw, jpg, or downloaded a jpg off the interenet. I've had pictures sent to me by friends that were taken w/ their p&s digicams, and it's the same- in LR they look nice but in windows they have a red tone.

What gives?

Exported jpg, shot raw, sRGB color space:


Screenshot from Lightroom:


BM

[SmartWombat]

Your Windows many not have colour management installed.
I have no problems exporting from Lightroom, below are the lightroom image and exported JPG side by side on my PC screen.
I have profiled my monitor with a Gretag Macbeth i1 Match.

[Ultra Magnus]

I have a Spyder 3 Pro and perfromed a calibration on it about a week ago, but I may have screwed it up due to my incompetence. I'm very new to this whole color space profiles mumbo jumbo but want to get more serious about it. A while back we had prints done at Costco and they came out significanlty different that what they looked like on screen, so now I've downloaded the Costco color profiles and bought the Spyder so hopefully we'll get what we want next time we print photos.

I'll run it again and see what happens.

Thanks.
BM

[drg]

Color Management and Calibration may be one possible problem. The other may be where did you take the screen shot, Library or Develop?

There is a slight difference in rendering in the two modules, regardless of calibration which can be made worse by a number of factors. The exported file won't be changed but what you see on the screen can be different and be sure you haven't edited a virtual copy and are exporting an original!

Are you using Lightroom v 2.x?

In the Library Module are you using any thing on import such as an Auto Tone option, or a Custom Preset in the Quick Develp dialog/menus? These can trip you up.

Have you changed any of the import presets or do you treat RAW and JPEG side by side as separate files? You may be editing one and exporting the other.

If you 'export' via print to JPEG you will get a file that looks different as it will have taken on characteristics from the printer driver files.

The EDIT pull down menu has a 'Preferences' menu dialog that includes a tabbed selection for 'Presets' that you could restore the defaults for exports to make sure that something is not stepping on your work.

The quick and dirty 'test' is to import a file to the Lightroom, do nothing to it and export it under a new file name. It should look the same unless some parameters are 'adjusting' it as Lightroom by default makes no changes in a files.

Let me know and I'll see if I can help resolve you problem. It still could be a minor calibration issue, but that is a lot of RED to get added to a photograph!

[Ultra Magnus]

I get what you are saying... Now, I use lightroom 2 for most of my photo editing, mainly my raw conversions. But, if I take a jpg shot w/ someone else's p&s camera, and view it in photoshop (another adobe deal) vs. windows, I get the same result. So, I'm pretty sure it's not a develop / preset on import deal (that was real annoying, btw, when I first started using lr, because I didn't know what it was doing or why), but just a color viewing/rendition thing.

here's a comparison in photoshop vs windows. Same jpg, just opened w/ no edits of any kind.



thanks,
BM

[OldClicker]

I'm guessing that PS uses the color profile from your calibration and that Windows Viewer does not. - TF

[drg]

Something kept bugging me about this and finally it hit me late last night!

Did you install the profile as your 'working' profile in Lightroom?

After you calibrate, there is a file name you save or determine at the beginning of the process where the profile will be stored. It is often just the name of a monitor type (see screen shot).

In Lightroom, you have to call up the Export menu and go down to File Settings and use the Color Space selection to find what is needed. Note there is a monitor listed there (for this system a secondary monitor) that has a profile associated with its 'type' or the .icm extension. When you profile you monitor with a colorimeter a similar type of file will be created.

(click on image for larger version)


To get this selection in the menu, select Custom (at the bottom in blue) then after selecting custom you will see all these choices available. Your list may vary slightly if there are other installed profiles.

(click on image for larger version)


The check box for each type must be selected as needed, and the box at the lower left 'Include Display Profiles' also must be checked. Then what you have chosen will appear in the pull down as in the first screen shot of the Export dialog. Select you monitor profile.

Once this is done, what you edit will appear the same as your output! If you can get an .icc file from your photo finisher then it can be installed to let LR or other ICC aware products match your results to the color space needed to make technically satisfactory prints.

I will often rename a profile such to common type like Adobe RGB after calibration so that I know how I want images to look on the monitor that has been set up for that profile. This is kind of advanced and has some drawbacks if you don't remember (and I'm good at that !) that you renamed the profile!!

Hope this solves your problem. I knew I was missing something obvious when I saw that red image. sRGB always will look red at the lower native Gamma of LR if no profile is installed!

There is a private message also coming to let you know that this post is up!

[Ultra Magnus]

No dice-

Thanks for the in depth reply, and it is nice to know how to do those changes. But, still, the problem persists. Maybe some of you can do me a favor- grab a random snap, and export it in sRGB, Adobe RGB 1998, and maybe your monitor's profiled color space, and grab a screen shot of the same pic side by side w/ the original in whatever adobe prodcut you use (lr or ps), and in windows explorer. EVERY photo, taken with a variety of cameras, look red on my computer in windows picture viewer. Every photo looks less red in LR or PS (green, I guess?). This is not limited to photos that I've exported from LR.

I hope, that since photos taken w/ p&s cameras, jpg mode, also look red, that the problem is not w/ my LR color profiles, but w/ windows explorer/picture viewer.

BM

edit: here's a comparison of a random photo I downloaded from the internet - right click -> save as, no editing, never saved from ps or lr... the one of left is the pic opened in ps, the right, wpv...


thanks...

[Ultra Magnus]

I finally found an answer-

"However, if you order a wide gamut display be sure you understand what that really means. It means that the display is capable of displaying colors with twice the saturation of a standard display.

What this really means is that under Windows any application that does not support color management, including the desktop, Internet Explorer, and most DVD players, will display with wild garish colors. This is not a defect of the display, it is a limitation of Windows (including Windows 7).

On the very positive side, in color mananged applications such as Photoshop your photos will really show their true colors, but only if you calibrate the display with a color calibration devices such as the xRite Colormunki.

Without calibration Windows color management does not know you have a wide gamut display and the gamma curves (basically contrast) will not be correct.

Many people incorrectly believe that calibration will solve the problem, it does not. If it did then no application would be able to access the additional colors this display can render.

Dell tech support does not understand wide gamut displays and if you tell them about the bright florescent colors they think the display is broken and they will want to replace it. A number of people have had their display replaced more than once. It is not broken!

Note that Dell wide gamut desktop displays have a setting to simulate a standard sRGB display which works around this issue.

In general most people will be much happier with a standard gamut display. Unless of course you love wild garish colors!"

BM

[flyinion]

I know you solved the problem, but wanted to add in a bit that I've noticed on my own machine in relation to the windows picture view on Vista. I can edit my photos in PS and then if I view them in say IE after I upload them here, everything is fine. Windows picture viewer however I notice a yellowish/reddish cast and I think it's because the background to the viewer is a very offwhite color like a cream or ivory. I think this messes with your color perception enough that the picture looks "off".