Editing advice for a newbie please

[rerunvp]

I take photos and the colors look beautiful on my Mac, iPhone and iPad. So I upload to my DropBox account for viewing elsewhere. But when I view the photos on a different computer (a PC), the colors look dull and washed out.

I’ve seen great looking photos by professionals regardless of what computer and monitor combination I am using, or on my iDevices. I am sure calibrating my monitor can only enhance my viewing from my Mac, but I want to have the same (or close) colors and quality when I view the photos on a PC. I know I am missing something when editing my photos.

If it helps, I use Lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS 5 (I think). Please help. Thanks, all.

[cameraclicker]

What colour space are you assigning.  You should be setting sRGB, not RGB.  Some programs read the colour space and display based on that, other programs just assume sRGB.

[rerunvp]

I believe I have it defaulted to sRGB, but I will check. But is it as simple as that?

[cameraclicker]

If it is not that, perhaps you could put a sample on Flickr, with EXIF data still in the file and provide the link.

[Worst Case Scenario]

it will certainly help. Mac’s /safari recognises embedded colour spaces (at least the most common ones) and display them correctly. Internet explorer can’t do that. Also if you have an new style imac you already have a great monitor, as does your iphone and ipad. Whilst they might not be calibrated they will still be a lot better than your run of the mill pc monitor.

[nairbynairb]

Is it more than one PC you’re having the problem on?

[rerunvp]

@nairbynairb, yes, across PC platform it looks awfully dull. So @Worst Case Scenario is probably right, as I see this problem viewing the photos using IE. @cameraclicker, I stand corrected. I just looked at the EXIF data and the Color Space is RGB but the Color Profile is sRGB. So is that it then? Guys, I hope that is it. I just want the colors to pop as shot.

[cameraclicker]

If Colour Profile is sRGB, we are looking for some other problem.  🙁

Can you post a sample or two?

[Worst Case Scenario]

the Color Space is RGB but the Color Profile is sRGB

So you made the image in ADOBE RGB and then assigned or converted it to sRGB? If so as CC says, theres another problem.

[cameraclicker]

Convert in CS5 looks like this

In Bridge, it looks like this

[rerunvp]

You guys are fantastic and extremely helpful. So here’s a link to a sample image I have on flickr — http://www.flickr.com/photos/j_jo/11105931864/

I hope this helps to shed some light on what I could be doing wrong or I am missing when editing photos. I hope you all enjoying this Thanksgiving. 🙂

[rerunvp]

Oh, and also, I read up a little on Color Settings, so I matched up my Lightroom 4.4 and PS CS5.1 to sRGB, but I read something that for anyone shooting RAW, it may be beneficial to use ProPhoto RGB.

Additionally, maybe you guys can share your workflow when editing your photos for:

1. showing or proofing online

2. sending to printing lab (which I think involves converting to CMYK, if I understood what I read correctly)

3. choosing between saving the final work as JPG vs TIFF (or do I even consider PDF)

Thanks in advance for your responses and tips.

[cameraclicker]

I’m looking at the photo with Windows 7 and Firefox on a profiled Samsung monitor.  I see a girl’s legs, in pale grey tights.  She is wearing a ballet slipper and a red running shoe with vibrant green sock elastic on that foot.  The background is mostly blue with purple, magenta, black and yellow graffiti on a concrete block wall.

The ballet slipper looks exactly the way I would expect it to!  I suspect the rest of the photo is probably pretty accurate as well.  I don’t think I would want anything to pop more than it already does.  How does it look to the rest of you?

I looked at the EXIF data for one of my photos, and I see:

Color Mode
RGB

ICCProfile Name
sRGB IEC61966-2.1

I don’t see that when I look through the EXIF data for your photo.

[cameraclicker]

Additionally, maybe you guys can share your workflow when editing your photos for:

1. showing or proofing online

I put photos on Flickr, 500px, and several other web pages, including my own pages.  Generally I shoot with some model of Canon which creates raw files.  The files are opened with Adobe Camera Raw and after initial adjustments it gets passed to Photoshop CS5.  Default settings usually result in colour mode and profile being set and embedded.   On another forum, we were doing blind critiques for which we emailed our files to a contact person who posted them for us.  For those files, I used “Save For Web”, which strips EXIF data.  The rest of the time, I just use “Save As” and keep the data attached.

2. sending to printing lab (which I think involves converting to CMYK, if I understood what I read correctly)

You need to have a chat with your lab to see what they need.  If memory serves, CMYK is used by offset printing presses which are 4 colour presses.  Once in a while someone I deal with will want a TIFF but the vast majority just want a JPEG with enough pixels.

3. choosing between saving the final work as JPG vs TIFF (or do I even consider PDF)

Some final work is saved as PSD which is the Photoshop format.   If it is going on the web, it will be JPG, GIF or PNG.  If it is going to someone who needs a 16 bit file and can’t use a PSD, then they will probably get a TIFF.  Some final work is just saved as the original CR2 file with the XMP file that ACR creates to hold the edit instructions, and the print.  Having my own printer, I can print without saving at all if I desire, though I usually build a set of layers so I save that as a PSD in case I have to print a second copy.

When a program like Photoshop opens a file, the data available is plugged into variables stored in memory which the program will use for display and printing.  You don’t have to save data unless you want to keep any changes you have made.  If you want to save it for later use, you might as well save the data using the native file format of the program you are using.  The native format will be best able to maintain the maximum amount of data.  Most of the rest of the formats are compromises because they are generic.

 

Some things are required, like most web pages only accept a few basic file types for images, others are up to the photographer’s whim.  Asking for work flow from a number of people will probably result in that same number of different answers.

[rerunvp]

cc, thank you. I truly appreciate your input, and everyone else who chimed in. So I take it the colors look okay, not dull or lacking some punch. I saved what you do as your workflow for my own notes as I get more and more involved in this, and I am glad you mentioned “Save For Web” as I meant to ask about that, too.

Thanks again, all. But if you have other things you can share to consistently have my photos look good overall, feel free to let me know. I value everyones constructive pointers.

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