Color issue please help!

[jstpeter]

I was hoping someone out there can help diaganose a problem I am having. I work off a calibrated LCD monitor and recently I feel as if I get very random colors. This is not a matter of different colors at different times but different colors in different programs? I don't ever recall this but just recently started noticing the way my photos look in photoshop is a lot different then in windows picture viewer or on the web. Here is a picture that shows what I am talking about. The color in windows picture viewer is much closer to the colors I see when I load the photos to the web. The problem now is my view in photoshop can not be trusted and I wantmy finshed photo to reflect what I see in PS Any thoughts on what causes this or how to fix it?



The same picture on my website can be seen here - You can see it is closer Windows color
http://www.pbase.com/jstpeter/image/84779572

[jstpeter]

Here is another example. My pictures are showing in the windows viewer and online very flat and lacking color. I noticed they also print out this way as well and a little darker on my inkjet printer, but in photoshop AND lightroom it is bright and vibrant. There has to be something going on right? Again I have only noticed this in the last month or so.

[billbunton]

I'll guess the images are in the Adobe RGB color space. In which case, what you are seeing would be normal, as Elements is color managed and will display it correctly, while picture viewer isn't and won't. If it's important that images display nicely in a non color-managed environment, convert (not assign!) to sRGB.

[Texentric]

I agree with Bill, it is not Photoshop that's the problem but the browser and Windows picture viewer. You should in fact be trusting Photoshop and not the other programs, as it is color managed.

Do as Bill says and convert to sRGB color space before posting to the web. For prints, ask your lab what color space they prefer.

[jstpeter]

Thanks! I just noticed my default export setting in lightroom was changed to Pro RGB and not SRGB. Anyone care to give me a quick difference of the two and why you would use one over the other.

Bill what to you mean by "not assign" If I export from RAW to sRGB- Jpeg am I converting or assigning

[CobyPhoto]

Originally Posted by jstpeter

Thanks! I just noticed my default export setting in lightroom was changed to Pro RGB and not SRGB. Anyone care to give me a quick difference of the two and why you would use one over the other.

Bill what to you mean by "not assign" If I export from RAW to sRGB- Jpeg am I converting or assigning

Read through this post and alot of your questions will be answered about color space and which one to use:

http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum...ht=color+space

CJ

[billbunton]

Originally Posted by jstpeter

Thanks! I just noticed my default export setting in lightroom was changed to Pro RGB and not SRGB. Anyone care to give me a quick difference of the two and why you would use one over the other.

Read the thread Coby pointed you to, or do a search on ProPhoto and read one of the (probably many :-) threads you'll find.

Originally Posted by jstpeter

Bill what to you mean by "not assign" If I export from RAW to sRGB- Jpeg am I converting or assigning

Well, you never said how they're getting to be in Adobe RGB -- in particular you didn't say anything about Lightroom. (In Lightroom, as you have found, you can just change the target color space and re-export). So I assumed these were probably JPEGs from the camera that had been set to use Adobe RGB. In Elements you should be able to either convert or assign the color space of an image -- in full PS it's under the Edit menu.

You have basically two options to change the color space of an image, assign or convert. Assign says "these numbers really apply to a different color space". This is NOT what you (would) want in this case, as it's what is causing the problem -- Windows picture viewer is essentially assigning sRGB to the image and displaying it. The convert option would actually change the numbers for each pixel to represent the same color (as close as possible) in sRGB instead of Adobe RGB -- in other words, would try to make the photo look the same in the new color space.

[Dobick]

Originally Posted by billbunton

Read the thread Coby pointed you to, or do a search on ProPhoto and read one of the (probably many :-) threads you'll find.



Well, you never said how they're getting to be in Adobe RGB -- in particular you didn't say anything about Lightroom. (In Lightroom, as you have found, you can just change the target color space and re-export). So I assumed these were probably JPEGs from the camera that had been set to use Adobe RGB. In Elements you should be able to either convert or assign the color space of an image -- in full PS it's under the Edit menu.

You have basically two options to change the color space of an image, assign or convert. Assign says "these numbers really apply to a different color space". This is NOT what you (would) want in this case, as it's what is causing the problem -- Windows picture viewer is essentially assigning sRGB to the image and displaying it. The convert option would actually change the numbers for each pixel to represent the same color (as close as possible) in sRGB instead of Adobe RGB -- in other words, would try to make the photo look the same in the new color space.

Awesome explanation. I too have always wondered this. Thank you!