Desaturation of photos after uploading

[iltby]

Hi all,

Hope this is the right forum for this - I'm thinking this could be a Photoshop issue so I assume so.

Yesterday I uploaded an original to Redbubble and then decided to crop the photo and re-upload it. The original showed up fine when I uploaded it, but for some reason the replacement photo is showing up as being really desaturated and I can't figure out why. I've had it happen before and have never been able to explain it. Can anyone think why this would happen? I hope my explanation makes sense...

This is the photo on Redbubble-

http://www.redbubble.com/people/iltb...52-6-disturbed

And this is it on Flickr-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilovetobeyoung/3250049356/

The shot on Flickr is how it should look.

I could just upload the original again but I cropped it to remove some of the feeder and I'd love to figure out why this is happening.

Thanks in advance.

[ricktas]

the most obvious reason is colourspace

Are they both sRGB? or is one AdobeRGB? Check that, AdobeRGB is the bigger colourspace, but it can also look 'flat'. The internet is generally optimised to work in sRGB, so sRGB photos viewed on the net will look more vibrant etc.

[ricktas]

Looking at it further. I think you have just uploaded the wrong file to redbubble, you say they are the same, but sharpness across the breast of the parrot on Flickr is way better than that on redbubble. It is not the same processed file!

[iltby]

You're right, I have no idea how I've managed that, how annoying...I think I'll start over. Thanks Rick

[iltby]

Argh, I don't know actually, they look absolutely identical on my computer. This is driving me nuts

It wouldn't be anything to do with cropping quite a lot would it? :/

[BLWNHR]

Looking at it further. I think you have just uploaded the wrong file to redbubble, you say they are the same, but sharpness across the breast of the parrot on Flickr is way better than that on redbubble. It is not the same processed file!

I think it is, RedBubble is stretching the image (552 red bubble, 500 flickr). I think that is where the softness is coming from.

My money is on a colour space issue. I know I've had a similar issue when adding a watermark created in a different colour space to the original image.

[iltby]

That's sort of the impression I was getting Adam, but I don't know what to do about it. It's fine when I upload the original which is about 3888 x 2592 pixels, but when I get down to 2200 x 1500 or so it gets desaturated.

Is there anything I can do about it? I don't really have a grasp on colourspace...

Rick, to answer your previous question, they're being saved as 'Camera RGB Profile'

Thanks guys.

[jev]

It might be the same picture, but... the one on Flickr indeed has a color profile attached to it and the image actually *is* in AdobeRGB. You are most probably using a color profile aware browser like firefox or maybe safari on a mac?

Redbubble, OTOH, "optimized" your image for display and removed the attached profile. Even a color managed browser will assume sRGB if no color profile has been attached. Thus the reason that is looks desaturated.

What you need to do is convert the image to sRGB before uploading - that is the only way to make sure your viewers will see what they get!