Another Colour Management Issue

[mal from cessnock]

Hi, Newbie here.

I work for ages on my images and they look lovely in Photoshop and other image viewers, but when I view them in my browser they look washed out and lifeless.

I am learning about colour space at tafe. I've calibrated my monitor and set PS to adobe 1998.

The colours that appear washed out and dull are mainly greens and blues.

Checkout this image (last image on the page)
http://crafthouse.net.au/ellalong.php when viewing this image in PS and Windows Image Viewer it looks the vivid, with nice deep greens (same for images with blues) but as you can see it is lifeless in your browser. I've tried IE Firefox Chrome

Can anyone shed any light on the problem?

I've got to get my head around this cause most of my images atm are captured specifically for my website.

Cheers, Mal from Cessnock
http://crafthouse.net.au/index.php

[jev]

I work for ages on my images and they look lovely in Photoshop and other image viewers, but when I view them in my browser they look washed out and lifeless.

I am learning about colour space at tafe. I've calibrated my monitor and set PS to adobe 1998.

The colours that appear washed out and dull are mainly greens and blues.

There really should be a FAQ explaining this somewhere...

Many browsers (IE and Chrome amongst them, FireFox varies) are not color managed. They don't know about colorspaces but simply assume all images are in sRGB (the standard color space for the web!). That's why they look washed-out...

When posting images on the web, always convert them to sRGB and include a color profile (just to make sure). I don't want to sound pedantic or anything, but don't they teach that at tafe?

[mal from cessnock]

Thanks Joost, can you offer a little advice here please?

You suggest to convert to sRGB and include a colour profile.

Can you explain how to do this. I can probably work out how to convert to sRGB (but that would be helpful too) the "include colour profile" is where I'm stumped.

Your help is very appreciated.

[jev]

You suggest to convert to sRGB and include a colour profile.

Can you explain how to do this. I can probably work out how to convert to sRGB (but that would be helpful too) the "include colour profile" is where I'm stumped.

In short: convert to sRGB, than choose "Save for the web". In the dialog that shows up, make sure "ICC profile" is ticked. That should do the trick...

Note: I don't use PhotoShop (Aperture usually is enough for me!) but this is what I remember from the workshops I attended.

[ricktas]

Yep Joost is right. The web is built on sRGB, so any photo with the AdobeRGB colourspace will look flat and less vibrant if viewed in an sRGB environment.

Some newer browsers (Firefox 3.5) are now colourspace aware and will read an display an AdobeRGB photo correctly, but the significant majority of browsers don't. So when uploading photos to the web, make sure they are sRGB.


Joost, Good idea about the sticky on colourspaces. Will see what I can do about that one.

[Kym]

We already have some colour space information in NTP
http://www.ausphotography.net.au/for...445#post232445

Maybe beef that up and link it into the site matters how to post an image thread?

[jev]

Some newer browsers (Firefox 3.5) are now colourspace aware

Caveat: as earlier pointed out (by Kym I think?), with the move from LCMS to QCMS in FireFox (release 3.5 and later), ICC V4 profiles are no longer supported. Also, in 3.5 (and in 3.5.1) there is a nasty bug that can create havoc in color reproduction.

As far as I know, the only browser that seems to handle colormanagement correctly is Safari (and the now out of date FireFox 3.0).

[mal from cessnock]

Thanks Joost and the rest of the board - problem overcome. At least is appears to be and since it's all about appearance I guess my problem is now fixed.

Let me run it by you.

Joost's help led to this outcome.

PS/Edit/Colour Settings/Setttings/
From the pull down list I selected "Monitor Colour" - I formerly had "North American General Purpose 2" selected.

PS/Edit/Colour Settings/Working Spaces/RGB/"*"
I selected the profile * generated by Spyder3 Pro tweak

Brought problem image into PS and was prompted to change to the new profile. Saved it and now the image looks the same in my browser.

[edit] I have been preparing images for the web for many years - the recent problem arose after getting my Spyder 3 Pro and calibrating my monitor. [/edit]

If I have further problems I'll let you know.

Very positive experience from new member.

Thanks guys