Colour Problems when exporting JPEGs

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laulon

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Hello all,

Just wondering if anyone can help... I have been trying to catch up with a lot! of editing recently, use a colour calibrator on the computer screen to make sure the colours are spot on. They look great, but when I then export them as high res jpegs the colours are very different! I was viewing them on the same screen as I use with Lightroom, but it was as if the colour had drained out of them. Any ideas why that might be the case as they still look fine in Lightroom? :help:
 
Have you checked what profile your exporting them as?

You could be working with one profile (i.e. AdobeRGB1998) but then exporting as another (i.e. SRGB.)

I mean its a long shot but its all I can think of.

If your monitor is calibrated then its got to be software side and miss-matching profiles are the most common for this.
A great example is when you edit all your pics in AdobeRGB1998, then send them off to print... except the printer is working in SRGB. You then scratch your head and blame the monitor! lol

ADDED: I assumed you are using a hardware calibration device, if your using a software based one that takes you through a series of test to match up the colour profile I would blame that because they are not 100% accurate.

Phil
 
I dont know what the options are when you save an image in lightroom but with NX2 if the 'save ICC profile' isnt selected then it does this. The images will look fine in NX2 but washed out when the saved jpg is view. It could be the lightroom equivalent of this.
 
Thanks for the advise.

Ok, so I have now changed the export colour profile to the screen profile (Spyder express 2) and the colours now look as they were when editing! The only thing I'm now worried about is how these will appear when I get them printed, as I assume I will need to import, edit and export the images using the colour profile of the printer... Does this sound right?

What are the sort of standard settings I should have lightroom set to for importing and exporting?
 
laulon said:
Thanks for the advise.

Ok, so I have now changed the export colour profile to the screen profile (Spyder express 2) and the colours now look as they were when editing! The only thing I'm now worried about is how these will appear when I get them printed, as I assume I will need to import, edit and export the images using the colour profile of the printer... Does this sound right?

What are the sort of standard settings I should have lightroom set to for importing and exporting?
Click to expand...

You should not be exporting images with either the monitor or paper profile. the monitor profile belong to the monitor, the paper profile belongs to the printer/paper. What you need to be working with your images in is a colourspace such as sRGB, AdobeRGB or ProRGB.

Colour spaces describe the range (please note it does not affect the number of colours. This comes from the bit depth of the image) of colours available. sRGB has the narrowest gamut, then AdobeRGB and finally ProRGB which means that ProRGB has a wider range of colours than sRGB. You might thing this means that ProRGB is better, but it also has downsides. Most monitors can display a wider range of colours than sRGB, but not quite as many as AdobeRGB or ProRGB. This is fine if you are working in a colour managed program such as Photoshop or Lightroom as the colours get remapped to appear right on your monitor. However as you have found out, of you then display it outside of a colour managed program you end up getting something called gamut clipping. This is where the extremes of colour in the image fall beyond the gamut of the monitor, so you don't see the full colour range and the image looks flat and desaturated.

So sRGB is better? Well yes and no. Because if you try and send an sRGB image to an output device with a wider gamut (such as a printer) then you are wasting potential colour range. So the rule of thumb; If you intend the image to end up on the screen (On the web, or just to be viewed on the computer) then save the image with the sRGB colourspace. If you intend to print the image, then save it in the AdobeRGB colourspace.

It might be worth doing a bit of reading into colour management. It can get very confusing but knowing the basics will greatly help your workflow and final results. :)
 
Messiah Khan - Nicely put.
 
That's great! Thanks for all the advice!

One last question though:

Should I be editing in, say, sRGB and then exporting as sRGB (if I want to put the pictures on the web), or the screen calibrated profile and then export as sRGB?
 
This thread was so handy and explained the exact problem I have. I suspected the issue and then this has confirmed it. But here is where I am confused. I have edited my pictures in CS3 and the Photoshop PSD and jpgs made from them with sRGB look the same and fine in Windows Photo Viewer. However if I use another programe to view them i.e. Nero Photo Snap Viewer it ignores the sRGB and the colours look muted and less saturated.

I want to send digital images by email to a competition. How can I be sure they will see the sRGB image? if they use a viewer that ignores the profile they will see the less saturated image?
 
BlackCloud said:
I want to send digital images by email to a competition. How can I be sure they will see the sRGB image? if they use a viewer that ignores the profile they will see the less saturated image?
Click to expand...

And the same problem is they used a non-calibrated, or poorly calibrated, monitor to view them. There's not really much you can do except hope they're knowledgeable enough.
 
Messiah Khan said:
You should not be exporting images with either the monitor or paper profile. the monitor profile belong to the monitor, the paper profile belongs to the printer/paper. What you need to be working with your images in is a colourspace such as sRGB, AdobeRGB or ProRGB.

Colour spaces describe the range (please note it does not affect the number of colours. This comes from the bit depth of the image) of colours available. sRGB has the narrowest gamut, then AdobeRGB and finally ProRGB which means that ProRGB has a wider range of colours than sRGB. You might thing this means that ProRGB is better, but it also has downsides. Most monitors can display a wider range of colours than sRGB, but not quite as many as AdobeRGB or ProRGB. This is fine if you are working in a colour managed program such as Photoshop or Lightroom as the colours get remapped to appear right on your monitor. However as you have found out, of you then display it outside of a colour managed program you end up getting something called gamut clipping. This is where the extremes of colour in the image fall beyond the gamut of the monitor, so you don't see the full colour range and the image looks flat and desaturated.

So sRGB is better? Well yes and no. Because if you try and send an sRGB image to an output device with a wider gamut (such as a printer) then you are wasting potential colour range. So the rule of thumb; If you intend the image to end up on the screen (On the web, or just to be viewed on the computer) then save the image with the sRGB colourspace. If you intend to print the image, then save it in the AdobeRGB colourspace.

It might be worth doing a bit of reading into colour management. It can get very confusing but knowing the basics will greatly help your workflow and final results. :)
Click to expand...

Oooh...very useful post. Finally figured out the colour problems i have been having, it seems i am working in and saving in AdobeRGB which explains why my photos look crap when used as a desktop wallpaper, but fine in PS. Cheers :)
 
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