12 Replies Latest reply: Apr 13, 2009 8:12 PM by Ramón G Castañeda RSS

    Trouble with color profiles?

    thehearth

      Since installing photoshop, I've had no problems. A few days ago, I accedentally hit some hot key which changed some color profile settings, but I can't figure out which ones. Now, when I save a jpg or gif, the colors are much brighter and more vibrant than my working colors. If I turn on the proof colors preview, I get the true image. However, I never had that set before and it doesn't stay set now. Anyone know what's going on? The proof colors are set to "Monitor Colors".

       

      I attached a sample of the same image open in photoshop and the saved jpg image open in Preview. I'd appreciate any help you can give me!

        • 1. Re: Trouble with color profiles?
          Community Member

          your monitor profile should never be your working space. choose sRGB or Adobe RGB or whaterver but NEVER EVER use your monitor profile. Or your proof colors for that matter.

           

          Nobody but you has your monitor profile.

          • 2. Re: Trouble with color profiles?
            thehearth Community Member

            The work space actually isn't set to Monitor Color. It's set to sRGB. I reset everything to Photoshop's defaults and now proof colors and display colors all match, but saved jpg files are actually much worse. If I use the save for web dialogue and turn off "embed color profile" and "convert to sRGB" then it comes close, but it's still not right. If I leave them on, the color difference is crazy. I attached another example.

            • 3. Re: Trouble with color profiles?
              David Remington Community Member

              Might not be PS. Did you hit one of the Universal Access keyboard short cuts? Check in the Keyboard shortcut pane of the Keyboard & Mouse control panel in System Preferences.

              • 4. Re: Trouble with color profiles?
                Lundberg02 Community Member

                Ramon tells me that you should use the camera icon in your reply toolbar to load images. Attachments a re scanned for virii and take forever to load.

                • 5. Re: Trouble with color profiles?
                  thehearth Community Member

                  Well, I looked through there too, but I didn't see anything that looked even remotely like it would affect the Photoshop file output. Sorry about the attachement problem. I think I fixed it. Here's an example of what's happening.

                  Picture 1 17-47-14.png

                  • 6. Re: Trouble with color profiles?
                    Ramón G Castañeda Community Member

                    This has been discussed ad nauseam here, and there are many existing threads on the subject.  This type of thread can get very long in no time.  I suggest you take a look at them.

                     

                    In a nutshell, you need to calibrate and profile your monitor accurately, select a working color space, honor that tag (color space) in all files you open, and tag all your files with the color profile in which they were created.  Then look at the image in a color managed application.

                     

                    If you choose not to embed the color profile in a JPEG, meaning you end up with an untagged JPEG file, be prepared to see color differences between the appearance of the image in some applications, most especially if you have a wide-gamut monitor.  For instance, Photoshop and Firefox 3.0.8 (the latter with color management enabled, which is not by default) will correctly assume sRGB for all untagged images.  On the other hand, all Apple applications, from the Finder through Preview, Safari, iPhoto and Aperture, just throw monitor profile at all untagged images.  That will produce exactly the effect you show.

                     

                    Similarly, if you leave an image created in, say ProPhoto RGB, untagged, it will look like it's on fire in Photoshop and Bridge, as well as in the Finder, etc.

                     

                    To beging learning about color management, start here:  http://www.gballard.net/psd/cmstheory.html

                    • 7. Re: Trouble with color profiles?
                      David Remington Community Member

                      Ramon,

                       

                      I think you called it. But Your Prophoto example is reversed. A untagged Prophoto edited image will look dull in a monitor space. On the other hand, untagged images from smaller gamut spaces will look look they are on fire in PS if your working space is PP.

                       

                      --David

                      • 8. Re: Trouble with color profiles?
                        thehearth Community Member

                        Thank you guys for the help. I tried to search, but I wasn't sure exactly how to search. I have a calibrator which has been begging for use. I suppose that this is the excuse I need--crippling color variations.

                         

                        Thanks again for the help!

                        • 9. Re: Trouble with color profiles?
                          Ramón G Castañeda Community Member

                          David Remington wrote:

                           

                          Ramon,

                           

                          I think you called it. But Your Prophoto example is reversed.

                           

                          You are correct, of course.  Thanks for catching it.

                          • 10. Re: Trouble with color profiles?
                            Ramón G Castañeda Community Member

                            thehearth wrote:

                             

                            I have a calibrator which has been begging for use. I suppose that this is the excuse I need

                             

                             

                            What?!  What do you mean by "excuse"?

                             

                            Calibrate and profile your monitor regularly and often.  I validate the calibration of my monitors virtually on a daily basis.

                             

                            Would you wait for an "excuse" to brush your teeth?  Yuk!

                            • 11. Re: Trouble with color profiles?
                              thehearth Community Member

                              Maybe I've just gotten lucky. But to be honest, I've never seen a discrepency from computer to computer to browser to browser, even in print, my colors have always been pretty much exactly as I wanted and expected them to be--without ever calibrating. I dunno. Maybe I'm actually colorblind, but no one's ever complained either.

                              • 12. Re: Trouble with color profiles?
                                Ramón G Castañeda Community Member

                                thehearth wrote:

                                 

                                Maybe I'm actually colorblind, but no one's ever complained either.

                                 

                                Possibly.  Few people complain to the offender about his/her bad breath problem either.  Or you're just not that fussy about critical color, or you're just seeing the lowest common denominator across mediocre monitors, or…

                                 

                                The possibilities are many.