Why do my JPG's look different in PS (against those in IE)?

[Charlie Chalk]

Hi

I mentioned this problem in a post a while ago, and Stubbsy was kind enough to post a link for a solution. Unfortunately this didn't seem to work for me, so if any one else can help...

When I open a NEF file in NC or PS it looks as I'd expect it to look, if I save it (either with or without profile embedded, both sRGB and Adobe RGB) as a JPG and open it in IE/Windows Picture Viewer/Firefox etc etc it looks much lighter (as if its over exposed). I've tried saving it as a BMP, incase its the JPG format, but the same happens.

If I re-open the dodgy JPG in Photoshop it looks ok again, and matches the NEF file.

All very frustrating!

My post showing the ship on the Tyne (here) shows how light the images go, the original NEF and subsequent PSD are far more vibrant and colourful than this washed out effort.

Can anyone offer any solutions?

(If it helps I can post a link to the PSD file)

CC

[Nnnnsic]

I imagine it's a colour space issue.

Have you tried the "Save For Web" function?

[Charlie Chalk]

Gotta type quick...battery failing... (PC's, not mine!)

Yes, tried save for web, with and without profile embeded.

I think I've tried every combination of profile, file format and software I can!

I'm sure its something realy simple that is causing it, but I'll be buggered if I can work out what it is.

CC

[Nnnnsic]

You tried it as a PNG?

[sirhc55]

CC - I work in the Adobe 1998 colour space exclusively. When I am ready to post I just resize the image and save as a jpeg #8.

I don’t worry about sRGB or any other formats. When I view my pics on this forum they look identical to what I have on my desktop.

The biggest problem I have is that I have no idea what my pics look like on a PC system monitor (I am Mac) but would think from the the feedback I get on the pics that they are OK.

[BBJ]

Cant help here but i have a sim problem, my pics are all good here i post to pixspot and then look and they have lost the plot and sometime look horrid.

[Onyx]

I suspect it is due to some subtle details regarding colourspace conversion that's the cause of this.

Sirhc, Macs could have handled things differently. I haven't noticed anything unusual from your posted pics, but I have noted it from the galleries of MattK and Killakoala's (and on earlier occasion from Stubbsy), images lacking saturation that's evident of aRGB98 unconverted when uploading the file to web.

CC - in your Color Settings menu (Shift+Ctrl+K in Photoshop), under colour management policies ensure profile mismatches tick boxes at the bottom are all checked. If they're not, it could be that the settings above it are automatically applied each time you open an image without your knowledge - resulting in acceptable viewing within PS but disappointment outside of it.

[MattC]

CC,

I had exactly the same problem, plus colour shifts when converting from aRGB to sRGB. Nothing looked the way it was supposed to until my monitor was properly calibrated using a spyder. I still do not quite see what monitor calibration has to do with it, but as mentioned, my problems went away.

Cheers

Matt

[dooda]

I just barely rectified this I think. I'm on mac and use PS CS.

Went to Photoshop - Colour settings.

I ticked Ask when opening and Ask when Pasting under Profile Mismatches;
Then in Missing Profiles I tick Ask when Opening. When I'm prompted to choose a colour thing when opening up an image I choose the middle one, I think it says something about convert to PS work palette or something. Anyway my pics look a little better now. Thanks Onyx. I may be doing something wrong but they look better now so that's good. Onyx can tell help.

[Charlie Chalk]

Well I've played round with the settings on my monitor, and things look a little better.

But, and this has got me realy confused, if I view an image in Image Ready it looks washed out. Change over to PS and it looks alot better, more contrast.

I've tried changing both the proof set up and the Colour Settings between sRGB and Adobe RGB in PS to see if either come closer to the Image Ready/IE version of the picture. Neither come close, it still has more contrast in PS.

When I send these off to Costco for developing, which version will the processor see? the nice contrasty version I've edited in PS, or the light washed out version Internet Explorer and Image Ready see?

Don't know if any of you chaps can offer any more light on this than you already have, but I thought I'd share my frustrations with you anyway!

CC