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Lately I have noticed that there is a distinct difference in the colours of my images from lightroom/ps-cs3 to windows explorer.
As an example of what I'm talking about, the first photo looks ok to me in lightroom and photoshop but quite dull in windows explorer. The second one looks ok in explorer but way over the top in saturation in lightroom and cs3
My monitor is not calibrated, but I haven't noticed this problem before.
I haven't made any changes but I have installed all automatic updates to both windows and adobe.
Anyone else have this problem?

I have the same problem with Photoshop and windows explorer... its very frustrating.. and my monitor is calibrated... *sigh*

I also have no idea what causes it... but after reading your post I suspect it may be the updates for if I remember correctly my problem also started after installing the updates...

anything to do with this



i downloaded your first photo and photoshop asked me that... and yes, it looks a lot more vivid in photoshop.

i believe it is because IE works in some colour space and then photoshop works in another.

Wouldn't the mismatch be within your setup as compared to mine? I don't get that message when I open it in photoshop on my computer.

edit: Having said that, I didn't think I was using ProphotoRGB colourspace.

I had a similar problem and it was something to do with photoshop colours setup...

MATT

Windows explorer does not read embedded-ICC profiles.

I believe it uses window's own sRGB profile. Nor that I think browser can display ProPhoto RGB profile, sRGB for sure, and up to Adobe RGB I think.

ProPhoto RGB is a MUCH MUCH wider gamut compared to sRGB and even AdobeRGB colour gamut.

These differences are not much to worry on screen, but when its out to the printers, you must be careful, because ProRGB has much wider array of colours than printers can produce.

Try these:

Open in photoshop, go into Edit->Assign Profile, and select Adobe RGB or sRGB. The colour will change back to 'normal' and should be mostly consistent with both windows and PS.

If, that all makes sense...

Edit:
I did few snapshots of how these relates...

This is ProPhoto RGB vs Adobe RGB

See how much wider (bigger) the colour gamut of ProPhoto RGB is compared to Adobe RGB?

Then Prophoto vs sRGB - You can hardly see sRGB gamut from this...


This is Adobe RGB vs sRGB (sRGB is smaller one)


As not all software can read and reproduce the embedded ICC profile, it is mostly recommended to use sRGB or Adobe RGB when uploading for web.

You're absolutely right Yip. I have no idea how prophoto RGB became the default colour profile, but changing it to RGB fixed the problem.
Thanks mate.

Well done Yi-P!
You hit it on the head first time!

Another odd thing has happened. As from the last batch of photos I took on the 1 8th of December, the first 6 got imported into lightroom as NEF and the following 8 as DNG. They were all taken at the same time and imported at the same time. No changes were made to the camera other then swap lenses. All subsequent photos are now DNG and I can't seem to find a way to go back to NEF.
What's going on?

Yi-P wrote:
ProPhoto RGB is a MUCH MUCH wider gamut compared to sRGB and even AdobeRGB colour gamut.

These differences are not much to worry on screen, but when its out to the printers, you must be careful, because ProRGB has much wider array of colours than printers can produce.

I have set ProPhoto as the default colour space in photoshop as this is apparently what Lightroom uses (as advised by someone on this forum (?)) My D300 is set to Adobe RGB.

I get my prints done from Bond Imaging and when you upload them it has a drop down list for you to select your colour space and ProPhoto is on there.

Are you saying I should not be using this colour space for printing? If not how do you get around the fact that Lightroom uses it?

Another odd thing has happened. As from the last batch of photos I took on the 1 8th of December, the first 6 got imported into lightroom as NEF and the following 8 as DNG. They were all taken at the same time and imported at the same time. No changes were made to the camera other then swap lenses. All subsequent photos are now DNG and I can't seem to find a way to go back to NEF.
What's going on?

Make sure you didn't accidentally click 'convert to DNG' while in Lightroom, that's what I can only think of...

I have set ProPhoto as the default colour space in photoshop as this is apparently what Lightroom uses (as advised by someone on this forum (?)) My D300 is set to Adobe RGB.

I get my prints done from Bond Imaging and when you upload them it has a drop down list for you to select your colour space and ProPhoto is on there.

Are you saying I should not be using this colour space for printing? If not how do you get around the fact that Lightroom uses it?

Yes you can definitely print out of ProPhoto RGB without much problem. But when you do serious editing, some colours may not be showing up on screen. That is why is always best idea to proof the icc profile in photoshop before sending it off to any serious printing...

This might not be eactly true, but at least what the machine tells me. A comparison between ProPhoto RGB and Pixel Perfect's LABMDA printer on Lustre smooth papers...



As colours might be missing and the printer will use the 'closest' matching one, you *might* end up with some clipping over serious edited files or if you are really really picky about colour reproduction. Really in the end, I can't find much colour the LAMBDA can't print...