JPEGs killing my colour

[NRandall]

Just this week I noticed that photos I have been reducing in size to 1024 then saving as JPEGs for forums and comps lose colour and end up looking a bit boring and flat when compared to the original tifs.
My bad for assuming that everything would come out the same...... but it is very annoying when it was a comp photo for example.
I found I can compensate on my Mac in Preview somewhat, but the controls are not very refined. Is there a better way to compensate for this loss?

[ricktas]

colourspace is the most likely cause. You could be either editing in sRGB and saving in AdobeRGB for your final save once resized, or editing in AdobeRGB and saving in sRGB, etc or something similar. That is known to cause washed out results

[NRandall]

Thank you Rick
I will check this.

[farmmax]

That would be my answer too. Stick with sRGB for the web. If you are in photoshop you may need to check what your working space is set to. Everything on mine is sRGB because most of my work is aimed at screen/web viewing. You may need to check the "proof colours" in photoshop, and in the proof set up I tick Monitor RGB. That gives me the most consistent results.

If your colour looks different between different browswers, some colour manage, some do not. Firefox colour manages, so I turn it OFF so no matter where i view the photos they all look the same.

[Mark L]

Stick with sRGB for the web. If you are in photoshop you may need to check what your working space is set to.

And where would one check for that?

[farmmax]

And where would one check for that?

Edit/Colour settings.

[NRandall]

That would be my answer too. Stick with sRGB for the web. If you are in photoshop you may need to check what your working space is set to. Everything on mine is sRGB because most of my work is aimed at screen/web viewing. You may need to check the "proof colours" in photoshop, and in the proof set up I tick Monitor RGB. That gives me the most consistent results.

If your colour looks different between different browsers, some colour manage, some do not. Firefox colour manages, so I turn it OFF so no matter where i view the photos they all look the same.

Thank you farmmax
I have set my colour settings in Lightroom to RBGs, and I have not yet started using PS
A couple of things I have noticed:
My iMac tends to revert to 'iMac Calibratred' colour, even after changing to sRBG
Also, in Nikonians - the other forum I participate with as a Nikon user, these issues have not come up, although their max file size is a little bigger.
Do different web hosts use different colour settings I wonder?

[ricktas]

Do different web hosts use different colour settings I wonder?

No, but different web browsers do. How you see the image and how I see it could be completely different. I use screens that are hardware calibrated and I use firefox (which can read the colourspace of an image and display it accordingly). Some browsers assume it is sRGB and if it isn't, it may not display correctly.

[NRandall]

No, but different web browsers do. How you see the image and how I see it could be completely different. I use screens that are hardware calibrated and I use firefox (which can read the colourspace of an image and display it accordingly). Some browsers assume it is sRGB and if it isn't, it may not display correctly.

Thank you Rick
This poses an interesting paradox about perceptions even outside photography
Meanwhile calibration seems like a smart idea

[NRandall]

I went through everything suggested and switched to Firefox as my web browser.
I was still getting similar results however when converting tif images from Lightroom.
After doing some reading I found that there was a suggested fix if I go to Photoshop.
The suggestion I followed was to go into Color Settings, and in Color Management Policies, I switched to Working RGB
With a test run converting one of the offending images from tif the results were good.
Apparently there is a way to do this in Lightroom but it looks pretty complicated.
I had been meaning to start using Photoshop soon in any case, still very new to Post Processing.

[mikew09]

I agree with Ricks first comment - you can play around with colour space settings to see real time the impact to your photo and the differences can be substantial. I spend a whole day playing in the abyss of colour space with printing and although a painful experience it does highlight the important of colour space - my vote goes with Ricks response.

[NRandall]

I agree with Ricks first comment - you can play around with colour space settings to see real time the impact to your photo and the differences can be substantial. I spend a whole day playing in the abyss of colour space with printing and although a painful experience it does highlight the important of colour space - my vote goes with Ricks response.

Thanks Mike

I have set everything accordingly, plus the final adjustment in Photoshop and everything seems to be consistent now from beginning to end.

Ruining a few good images on the forums and in comps was enough of a painful lesson!

[NRandall]

I can show an example now that these comps are finished: Left - before calibration, Right, after setting everything to sRBG and switching to Firefox.Best viewed in Firefox!

[Mark L]

#2 seems to have better colour and seems darker?
I prefer the seat and foreground in #1.

[NRandall]

#2 seems to have better colour and seems darker?
I prefer the seat and foreground in #1.

Thank you for your observations Mark

#1 is a mistake, i.e.what happened via mismatched colour management between my computer and Lightroom, and using Chrome as a browser for uploading images. The colour is washed out, hence the brighter looking seat, with what appears to be a slightly greenish tinge overall.
#2 was the image intended as an entry for the 'streetlight' themed week a couple of weeks back, re-posted here via Firefox with calibrated colour. It is more accurate to the dark street-lit scene that was, now accurately matched to the master TIF file post Lightroom.