Photoshop - Having Colour Matching Problems

Jase · 23 Jul 2009 at 20:55

I'm having problems at the moment with colours not matching

I took a few photo's today (with a Canon 40D) and started editing in Photoshop CS4, I got one of the photo's to what I wanted and then saved to a jpg to email. That' when I noticed the photos look totally different outside of Photoshop ie on a webpage, picture viewers etc. It's really not even close and appears over saturated etc.

In Photoshop I am using a colour settings :

Settings : North America General Purpose 2

Working Spaces :

RGB: sRGB IEC061966-2.1
CMYK: U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2
Gray: Dot Gain 20%
Spot: Dot Gain 20%

Color Management Policies : all set : Preserve Embedded Profiles

I haven't had this problem before and not sure if I've accidently changed some settings or something. I've been through all I can think of but no luck.

I have and use an Eye-One Display 2 monitor calibrator, not sure what else I can tell you.

Here's a screen capture of the comparison I did from Paint.

Compare

Any help appreciated

Jase

Irish_Tom · 23 Jul 2009 at 21:39

I'm not sure about 'Picture and Fax Viewer' but I know that not all web browsers support embedded profiles.

Last time I checked it was only Safari that did but IE8 and FF3.5 may have added this feature.

You're doing the right thing working in sRGB so there's not a lot I can suggest, other than make sure your jpegs have the ICC profile embedded.

It's a tricky business though and I've never got it 100% right.

Panzer

Jase · 23 Jul 2009 at 21:52

I've done the "save for web" tests to but no difference.

I've just downloaded a Stock Portrait Photo, and the same thing...

I'd say the photo's have a dull, probably undersaturated apearance in Photoshop compared with viewing outside say on web, picture viewer etc.

denyerec · 23 Jul 2009 at 22:05

When you view them in PS, they will be shown as they appear, usually, in the AdobeRGB or sRGB colourspace, depends on what the file was tagged with.

Realistically, aRGB offers nothing to 99% of people and sRGB is standard on monitors and most digital printers. (Hint - set your camera to sRGB. Don't believe me, ask Dan Margulis. If it's really important, set your cam to capture in ProPhotoRGB, but unless you're using carefully profilled monitors and printers, the gain for effort is virtually nil. Ignore anyone who mentions larger gamuts until they show you a physical print that you can clearly tell the difference between in a scene you'd shoot for yourself. (EG not a fluorescent green plastic car))

That aside, what PS will show you is different to what unprofiled apps will show you, because the unprofiled apps are just splurging colour to the screen with little regard to the colourspace it was captured in and photoshop is trying to show you what it will look like in the tagged colourspace, if all other variables are removed (Calibration, ambient light, etc).

To edit and preview your image "as it will appear in your email", you need to do two things.

The first is to turn on colour proofing, which you can do by pressing Ctrl+y.

Then you need to set the profile to "monitor RGB" on the View->Proof Setup menu.

In a calibrated system, where you're doing work on a calibrated screen with the intent of sending them to someone else with a calibrated screen, this is heresy. However it will allow you to see what pics are going to look like 1) In a normal app and 2) on YOUR screen. The recipient of the email is likely going to see something *completely* different!

Colour management is a pain.

Irish_Tom · 23 Jul 2009 at 22:06

Having done a quick Google - it looks like it's an issue with Picture and Fax Viewer using its own colour curves to boost saturation. I guess this is to make 'lay-peoples' photos punchier.

Basically I wouldn't worry about it too much and trust the Photoshop colour rather than anything else, especially if you're going to print.

Panzer

Jase · 23 Jul 2009 at 23:01

Cheers guys, getting there... and good explanation denyerec

It does appear that windows Picture and fax Viewer increases the saturation, I've compared it using the stock photo but was more noticable on mine due to the blue sky.

So a couple more questions then, for general editing should the proof setting be : Monitor RGB with Proof colours ticked ?

I've been trying to learn all the keyboard short cuts over the past few days so I probably changed a few things without realising with typo's.

I know one thing, I'm going to have a look around later to see if there's any photoshop/colour management courses I can go on one weekend or something!

Jase

denyerec · 24 Jul 2009 at 01:14

Editing with "Windows RGB" ticked will show you what the colours will look like:

- In an unmanaged application (No colour management)
- on YOUR computer, and your computer only

You can't control what they'll look like elsewhere, you can only guarantee that if:

- You have a calibrated monitor
- The person viewing the image has a calibrated monitor (Calibrated to the same colourspace)
- The image was saved with a colour profile
- The image was opened in an application that honoured the colour profile

If you're printing things yourself, then my advise is forget what things look like "on the internet" and worry about whether your screen matches the printouts. You just can't control reliably what images will look like on the wild wild internet, you'll go nuts trying