Problem with Photoshop and calibrated profiles on IMac

[Dave 7]

Hi All, I am hoping that somebody might be able to throw some light on this one. I have problems getting good prints from Photobox and have been experimenting with different monitor profiles on my Imac.When selecting different screen profiles the desktop image in photoshop will at first darken or brighten with the new screen profile.When I then click on the open image it will change it's appearance making it more "normal" whilst leaving the rest of the screen as it was.This only happens when using photoshop or aperture, images in Nikon NX2 or Preview behave normally.This makes setting up a screen profile to match a print for reference almost impossible.For the record this happens when using built in IMac profiles and also when using profiles that I have made using the Eye One calibration hardware.Going back to my print problem, I can get a good print from a pro lab but the same file using the same profile looks flat when printed at Photobox.
Sorry for a rambling long first post, thanks for reading.
Cheers
Dave

 

[Chappers]

Dave

What profiles are you using?

 

[Photobox]

Hello Dave,

Please be advised that we only support sRBG or RGB profile, we do not support CMYK or any Adobe Photoshop profiles. I will also recommend to make your photos few stops brighter first and then upload them to your Photobox account.

If you have more questions please contact us via: http://www.photobox.co.uk/content/help/contact-us

Regards,

PhotoBox Team

 

[Kerioak]

Try a few test prints at home and when they are much too light they will probably be right with photobox as when I used to use them I found theirs are invariably much too dark

 

[Photodiva]

If your monitor isn't profiled for photos, it will be profiled out of the box for office type work, which will be too bright. turn the brightness down, or calibrate properly to see a better result!

 

[Dave 7]

Thanks for all the comments.
The profiles I have used are IMac built in profiles, mac calibrated profiles or Eye One hardware calibrated profiles.
The confusing bit is as mentioned when I click on the image window in photoshop after having changed the profile in system preferences-display-color the image will again change to what photoshop seems to think is a more normal appearance.I don't know if it really matters but it does make profiling more difficult.This effect does not occur when the image is opened in preview and it doesn't happen to other images seen in web browsers etc.
Hope that has helped.Thanks.

 

[Chappers]

Photoshop is CM aware. It means it will look at the systems selected profile, the one you chose in sys prefs and uses that. Other application are not CM aware and don't do that, hence the difference. Preview I'm not sure is CM aware.

If you are using a calibration device , such as the i-One , then use the profile that it generates. It will automatically set this up as the system default profile. This is the one to use. Other apps such as web browsers usually work in sRGB which is a colour space not a profile, but works well for non calibrated monitors. If you want to get consistency. then use the profile that the i-One produced

 

[groovyf]

Going to jump in here and also mention the fact about lightening your images for use with photobox.
I did a simple large print test by splitting the image down the centre and simply did a +50 "Brightness" in Photoshop. Certainly worked better for the image in question, but think +50 across the board for all prints (for me) from them might be a bit OTT!