Color Problems

[riced]

Hey guys, I know some of you are pretty good photographers and I need some help on this issue.

In short, I process my RAW files in CS3.. when it's all done and good (after white balance, brightness, etc)... I go to save it as .jpg. When I locate it (wherever it is on my computer - My Pictures, for example), and open it up in either Picasa or Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, the colors are greatly desaturated. It's pretty disappointing because inside of photoshop, they look great and after saving, they turn out almost like crap.

Whats the problem?

I shoot in sRGB, my color settings in CS3 is set at sRGB.. I think I'm missing something?

[D'z Nutz]

What are your colour settings in photoshop?

Edit > Colour settings

[adam c]

have u tried saving in different photo formats? different qualities?

try saving in png?

[riced]

my colour settings are at sRGB in both photoshop and my camera

I've saved in both PNG and JPG, but to no avail. I know the problem is somewhere in between processing and saving, I'm thinking that something has to be tweaked?

[Superesc]

monitor profile??

[Mitsu3000gt]

This same thing happened to me. When I use programs like FS viewer and Microsoft Picture/Fax viewer, the pictures look different (worse) than they do in photoshop. For example, some highlights may be totally blown when viewing in another program, but have full detail in photoshop (and print with full detail). I'd trust what you see in photoshop providing you've calibrated your monitor. My prints come out exactly to how they look in photoshop, and not necessarily the same as FS viewer or Windows picture/fax viewer. I wouldn't worry about it too much - try print a picture you know your happy with in photoshop and see what happens.

[Bukka]

I thought things like Windows picture/fax veiwer are colour space un-aware, and in turn gives you akward colours compared to what you see in Photoshop. Though I guess sRGB should work..I've only seen the difference when I shoot and process in Adobe RGB.

My whole workflow is just in between Adobe Light room, and Adobe Photoshop CS2 for unsharp mask, so I haven't really had a chance to look at it in anything else.

[AccentAE86]

that's strange. But I guess I exprerience something similar. I get a slight shift in orange saturation when a convert to jpeg. But for the most part it looks fine to me.

[blam]

your pictures will look different in a non-color managed program(explorer, firefox, most picture viewers vs photoshop. I always "save for web devices" which helps a bit with the color change and what you see on screen is what you'll get in a non-colormanaged program.

[riced]

thanks for all the help guys. Thought I'd update this thread if someone else might run into the problem.

Turns out that I needed to convert the profile in Adobe to sRGB. I shoot in sRGB, and everything, didn't know I had to change the profile as well.
Turns out, I don't have to "save for web" either, I can just save normally ("Save As") but at the highest quality image.. being 12.
The pictures are able to be viewed in Windows P&F viwer, Picasa, IE, Firefox and they all look quite similar.. you'd have to be REALLY picky to even notice anything if anything at all.

Thanks again guys, hopefully this mgiht help someone downt he road.

[crazedmodder]

Is this the problem you were having:
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/6573/bsnz3.th.png (http://img246.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bsnz3.png)
?

This has been killing me for awhile now and I don't even know what the hell it's called. These are both the same image, one open in windows image viewer and one open in Photoshop and both have been directly exported from Lightroom 1.1 at 100% quality, sRGB (same as my camera), 8 bit depth (only option for jpegs) and 72 pixels per inch. They're jpegs but same thing if I export to psd then save as png/bmp/etc. It happens mostly in darker images with beige tones (I have pictures of a beige Tahoe and it's the same shit). Tried exporting to PSD then saving as jpeg to no avail. I don't print my images either, I take pictures for fun, look at them on my computer and share them with friends so this is pissing me off :(. Sorry for the hijack but I didn't want to start a new thread and assumed this was related.

Thanks.

[riced]

I can't see from the crappy monitor at work. but it SOUNDS like you are having the same problem I'm having. Is it desaturated a bit? (I'll take a look again when I get home)
I did everything you did, exported with different file types, saving with different profiles. It ALWAYS looks good in the processing program, however.. the problem lies in "saving".
Try converting your profile in Photoshop to sRGB. It's different when you save with sRGB and when your profile is sRGB. Unless yo've already tried that.

[crazedmodder]

I get a banding effect in the shadows :(. I switched Photoshop and Lightroom to Adobe RGB and it works fine now :dunno: Weird thing is when I sent the pictures to my friends they didn't see that stuff, maybe they just don't notice it :dunno: Oh well it works now, thanks :)