Color changes when saving from PSD to JPEG...

[aaronavtr]

Hey all,

I've run into a problem that I'm sure has been a popular one for many. I recently edited a photo of mine in Photoshop CS5 and when I save it to JPEG format and open it, the color is completely different. I've searched the web and have tried some of the solutions that have seemed to have helped others but for me it hasn't worked such as using sRGB and changing the working spaces to adobe RGB (1998). Both of which hasn't worked.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[JJMack]

No answer but a few questions.  What color space was the image edited in? When you saved it as a Jpeg file did you save it with an embedded color profile? When you opened the jpeg images did you open it with a color manages program like Photoshop or a non color image viewer or non color managed web browser?

[aaronavtr]

Seeing as I'm a "newbie" when it comes photoshop, but to take a stab at your

first question, under Edit> 'Color Settings' it is set to 'North America General Purpose'.

2). If I saved it with an embedded color profile, I'm not even sure how to tell.

3).No I opened it using Microsoft Office Picture Manager and/or Windows Picture and Fax Viewer

[Lundberg02]

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/color-settings/

Read. Learn.

[aaronavtr]

Thanks Lundberg for the insight. I went ahead and adjusted the work space to ProRGB and proceeded to edit a photo. Then I started over and used the Adobe RGB (1998).

Both worked a little better than the Default profile that I'd been using. However, the colors still aren't spot on as they were in Photoshop once I'd saved them over from psd to jpeg.

[Lundberg02]

You're not doing it right and how are you viewing the end result?

You have to save with a profile under most circumstances.

[Lundberg02]

Do you have a calibrated monitor? That's almost always not the case when newbies fool around with image processing apps.  You need to be viewing your jpg in a color managed app also, such as a color managed browser or Preview on a Mac, Irfanview on a PC.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

What are your Edit > Color Settings (screenshot please)?

If you embedded the profile with the jpg and Photoshop is set to Preserve Embedded Profiles the jps should look pretty much identical to the psd in Photoshop at View > Actual Pixels (save for the jpg-damage).

[aaronavtr]

My color settings are...

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Couls you please post a screenshot of psd and jpg open side by side in Photoshop?

And could you please set them to display their Profiles?

Because quite frankly I’m having a hard time believing the described behaviour.

[aaronavtr]

This is the photo once I've edited it with the above color settings and have saved it in Jpeg format...

and this is the same image that I've saved in Jpeg format when viewing it in Microsoft Office Picture Viewer...

[c.pfaffenbichler]

It seems you had not mentioned that the offending beaviour occurs in another application and not in Photoshop.

I’m a Mac-user so I don’t know if Microsoft Office Picture Viewer is color managed.

[aaronavtr]

document profile for both pictures is 'Adobe RGB (1998) (8bpc)

[aaronavtr]

time to get a mac i guess...thanks anyway for the help. I guess my issue is that I need to find a picture viewer that supports or morless has color management

[c.pfaffenbichler]

time to get a mac i guess

That’s not my point at all – Mac OS has issues and I don’t consider it superior to Windows.

I just don’t know Microsoft Office Picture Viewer, so I don’t know how to trouble-shoot it – and the issue seems to be with that application if the image has an embedded profile and it is disregarded.

[aaronavtr]

c.pfaffenbichler wrote:

That’s not my point at all – Mac OS has issues and I don’t consider it superior to Windows.

I know...just humoring myself. I am going to trouble shoot the program and research it a little further to see if I can get down to what is causing this issue. Thanks a lot thought, you all have been quite helpful and enlightening.

[aaronavtr]

Interesting tid bit....

I took the image (the "second" one that I took a screenshot of in post 10 on the bottom) and uploaded it to ImageShack. When I opened it in ImageShack, I see that it looks just the way it did in Photoshop.

However, when I go back to my desktop and use the Micorosoft Picture Viewer program, it comes out slightly distorted. So I can atleast deduce the fact that the issue lies within the viewer.

[gator soup]

aaronavtr wrote:

I can atleast deduce the fact that the issue lies within the viewer.

Photoshop is a color-managed viewer — its reads a source profile (or applies its working profile) and Converts it to the monitor profile for a theoretical true-color display.

Your Microsoft Picture Viewer program — if it is not matching Photoshop — is more than likely not a color-managed viewer (or the document does not contain an embedded ICC profile) — Microsoft Picture Viewer is more than likely merely sending the source RGB straight through to the monitor unchanged.

This would be very easy to prove in Photoshop by opening the image in Photoshop so it appears correctly, then: View> Proof Setup: Monitor RGB

[emil_emil]

First,  open the image in the program that you call "Microsoft Picture Viewer program" and read carefully the name of the program. The name of the Microsoft programs is usually on the top left corner of the title bar and may be proceeded with the name of the currently open file. If you can't find it look Help > About menu of that program.

On Windows 7 the default image viewer is called "Windows Photo Viewer" and is fully color managed - it will display images with any profile with identical colors as Photoshop.

If the program that you are using to view the image is not color managed it cannot display identical colors with the color managed programs like Photoshop unless the image is in the color space of your monitor (not affected by color management)

Second, any changes in the color settings in Photoshop will not have any effect on the currently open images with color profiles. So, before starting anything to do with color management of an image the first step is to check what is the current color space of the document. In post #10 c.pfaffenbichler told you how to check that.

[masterdrew]

When saving i had this same issue.

for some reason when saving it would distort my colors like radial colors.

so i learned that the ICC profile pro photo was checked on. Uncheck it and see if that helps

[D Fosse]

Stripping the profile solves nothing, on the contrary.

Color management isn't difficult, it just has to be there. But in many applications it isn't, and then everything breaks down unless you take your precautions. Not using ProPhoto is one of them. Stick to sRGB.

First question to ask in color management troubleshooting: Is the application color managed at all? You'd be surprised how many aren't.

[Justin_Engelman]

This is a few years old but I had the same problem and I found this solved it: go to 'Edit > Convert to Profile' and choose 'sRGB IEC61966-2.1' or perhaps whatever you have that starts with sRGB?  After doing that when I save as JPG and open using the default Windows 10 photo viewer the color looked a lot better than before.  There have been a number of responses here but what has not really been addressed is I want to make sure the image will look the same to other people on other computers in whatever web browser or photo viewer they are using, which we have no control over.  And if I cannot get it to look the same (with the exception of perhaps monitor settings and/or ambient lighting conditions) on two separate applications on my own computer with the same monitor and ambient lighting how can I expect my clients will see what I am seeing?

[D Fosse]

Justin Engelman wrote:

what has not really been addressed is I want to make sure the image will look the same to other people on other computers

It has been addressed very effectively, and it's called color management. This is precisely what it was invented for.

Obviously, color management has to be there. Without it all bets are off and you have no control whatsoever.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Obviously, color management has to be there. Without it all bets are off and you have no control whatsoever.

And with mobile phones and tablets it is not there …

[Justin_Engelman]

What I meant by not addressed is that for example your previous reply states that many applications do not have color management which is indeed a problem which we have no control over when other people are viewing our images.  You did mention to stick with sRGB but I did not make the connection on what that meant in terms of what to do in Photoshop with my image, thus my response. 

Something else to note which I only now found based on this discussion and might be useful to people is if you are using Lightroom under 'Edit -> Preferences -> External Editing' I had to change the Color Space under the edit in Adobe Photoshop section from ProPhoto to sRGB to make it the default.