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I'm hoping that someone can explain to me why my images look different when open in photoshop compared to when they are uploaded to websites.
The photoshop images look much richer and contrasty. Once they are uploaded they appear dull and lifeless.
For one particular website the images have to be saved with an AdobeRGB colour space. I do this before uploading them but they still don't look like they do in photoshop.
Is it because of the use of different colour spaces? Do different web browsers show images differently?
Thanks!
To my knowledge the majority of web browsers do not respect colour spaces, so the safest way is to change the colour space to sRGB in photoshop.
One other problem you may have is in using save for the Web. I think it automatically converts to sRGB, but that could be a settings/version thing.
Thanks for that John.
I do always save my images as sRGB apart from when they are sent to that 1 website. Also, I never use save for web.
Prints come back looking as they do in photoshop so the problem is purely why do they look flatter once uploaded to websites such as EPZ.
I have just uploaded 1 to here and have it open in PS too. They look very different!
It's all to do with e2 membership Lee; if you join e2 then all your photos automatically look much better 
Just to check, are you converting to sRGB or assigning sRGB as the colourspace. It's important the images are converted and not simply assigned a colourspace. Monitors will not handle the colourspace if it is merely assigned 
Hi Barrie,
I do neither. My camera is set to sRGB and the colourspace I use in PS is sRGB IEC61966-2.1.
The only time I change colourspaces is to upload to fotolibra (I then convert to AdobeRGB profile).
I can't understand how I can have 2 images displayed on my screen - 1 open in PS and the other say here on EPZ - and they look different.
That could be because of your Photoshop settings. Not sure what version of PS you are usinbg but if you look in "Color Settings" it would be worth checking that all of the attributes are as you would want/expect. Don't forget that one of the 'defaults' is to desaturate colours for screen presentation (by 20% if I remember right).
Are you using a calibrated monitor as well and if so, are you sure that your system is using the calibration profile and in addition to that (phew) is you are, have you disabled Adobe Gamma. There are so many issues that affect image presentation - it's a minefield to be honest
By the way, may I ask why you shoot in sRGB and not AdobeRGB. You so lose a considerable amount of colour information shooting in SRB and you can never get it back
I use sRGB because that's what the libraries and mags I work with prefer to use (so I believe!) and how I save images to be sent away for printing.
My CS2 colour settings are the colour space as mentioned before; conversion engine is adobe and intent is relative.
Desaturate monitor colours be 20% is ticked (unticking this changes how images look in CS2 but they still don't match up with the web versions).
Blend RGB is unticked.
Quote: I use sRGB because that's what the libraries and mags I work with prefer to use (so I believe!) and how I save images to be sent away for printing.
I would be extremely surprised to find any library or magazine that wants you to supply images as sRGB.
As for online print shops (Photobox for instance), yes they want you to supply them as sRGB 'cos their too tight to use colour managed machines and the vast majority of their customers will be the 'consumer' type using point and shoot with images saved as sRGB.
I would really recommend everyone to shoot and edit in PS (or whatever) in Adobe RGB only converting to sRGB when saving for web or for print usage as detailed above
Do you have a calibrated system Lee (monitor etc)?
Quote: I use sRGB because that's what the libraries and mags I work with prefer to use (so I believe!)
I infer from this you don't actually know what they prefer?
Others will have much more experience of this, but unsharpened Adobe RGB TIFFs are what I know mags, I have occasionally supplied, prefer. Stock agencies vary much more in their requirements.
hello.
srgb is a smaller colour space which recognises less shades of colour that Rgb,
i learned from experience that images taken in srgb converted to rgb for printing come out consistantly very wishy washy and desaturated. Enquiries i made at the time with SCS imaging and calibration of Sheffield suggested that you cannot actually convert srgb to rgb because you cannot put in information that is not there to start with. The best approach is to take everything rgb for any printing purposes etc and convert to srgb for internet use where resolution and colour information is less critical.
it suprises me though to read that if you take in srgb they dont look correct on epz or any other internet application for that matter. I can see you would have problems shifting them up to rgb.
Hope this helps.
Phil
From the site FAQ's:
Quote: Why do my uploaded images look dull and flat comapred to other images?
This can happen if you use Adobe RGB (1998) colour space.
Make sure that you convert your image to sRGB before you upload for best results.
This must be about the fourth time this has been asked in as many weeks.
The forum search facility and FAQ's are there to help you.
I don't really want to start a discussion on what different clients require! I'm happy that when I get prints back they look like I expect them to do and when my work is used in print it looks the same as it does on my screen. Though I will try a few images using AdobeRGB to see what happens!
The only thing I'm concerned with is that images look different when open in CS2 and on a web gallery.
My screen is calibrated regularly Barrie. If it wasn't I would just expect all the images to be incorrect but that doesn't explain why they look different when open in differeny applications.
I recently received an email from fotolibra showing how different browsers show images differently. I wonder if that has something to do with my little problem!
To throw the cat amongst the pigeons...since I upgraded my monitor to a Dell Ultrasharp 2048 all of my images when converted to sRGB have a very red tint to them. By doing endless research it seems that it's down to the wide gamut of the monitor. It's extremely annoying as all of my uploads to EPZ look very red, but look fine if opened in CS3 (which is a colour managed programme). I use a colour managed workflow - Adobe RGB throughout and a calibrated monitor.
Grrrrraint
Quote: From the site FAQ's:
Quote:Why do my uploaded images look dull and flat comapred to other images?
This can happen if you use Adobe RGB (1998) colour space.
Make sure that you convert your image to sRGB before you upload for best results.This must be about the fourth time this has been asked in as many weeks.
The forum search facility and FAQ's are there to help you.
Thanks for that Doug but if you'd read the topic you would see that I don't use AdobeRGB and I do save as sRGB for the web so your quote's not really relevant.
I second that.
If you are taking shots with your camera set to sRGB you are throwing away colour information. If you then convert to Adobe or Pro RGB you are not getting colour information back as it is already gone.
The normal way would be to capture and keep your images in Adobe or Pro RGB and only covert the export/copy in sRGB for the web or some print labs or when specificaly asked for.
Rick
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