Incorrect/dull colours in photos posted here

[Docno]

Hi all - I asked this question in the 'Wat a place' thread after experiencing poor results when positing photos there, but I thought I find a solution if I started a thread just for this issue. The problem is that when I post photos here, they become very desaturated compared to how they look on my screen. Some things to highlight:

• I'm not a professional, but I may qualify as an enthusiast (i.e., I'm not a complete newbie to digital photography)
• My system is calibrated (Spyder 4) and colour managed - photos print out almost exactly as they display on screen
• I'm shooting in RAW, converting via Adobe ACR, and doing post-processing in Photoshop CS6
• I'm using the sRGB colour space ... I've checked that the photos that I upload have that profile intact before upload
• I'm using Firefox, which is colour managed
• When I post my photos on DPreview.com, they appear as expected - no problems

So here are the examples - do you see the differences I am seeing (between the first example versus the two others)?.

First, click here to see what the colours should look like: http://g3.img-dpreview.com/3D3FA166DA504F96910327B6BA1B8EF7.jpg

Next - embedded directly from my harddrive (click to view):

Finally, embedded here from the external site I linked to above (what's interesting is that the colours look right as I am writing this message, but I think they will go dull when I post):

Any ideas? Thanks!

[Docno]

^^^^ I think someone is trying to drive me crazy. I went back to look at the colours in my post above and they actually looked fine!! So I went to the 'Wat a place' thread to copy the link so that people could see the problem I was having. When I returned to my post here, the colours were 'gone' again! Anyway, if you don't see any difference among the images above, please look at this post: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/565335-wat-a-place/page-17#entry8483289

[Jdietz]

It's you, or my eyes.

[samuijimmy]

This should be a good discussion Docno.... I read your other mention of this in WATs.... better to discuss these issues away from actually posts for images...

Out of habit, more than anything, I usually use Picasa for post editing, which does not always give the same results as using say Light Room, in my case.... Some of the images I have posted lately with the water mark on the left, where processed in LR.. generally a better result, (not always though) .... The "PUNCH" button in LR can really help on some images...

The problem is bending ones mind around a different way of doing things.... LR has a few things that I find complicated to sort out... I have to get my mind sorted on that!

Point two, I recently got a new lens for my camera, 60D Canon, I have known for a while, that the old one has not always been focusing as well as it should.... but sending it for cleaning and repair, which might take three months or more has put me off sending it to BKK, but I broke down recently and got a new lens... I also switched to my 550 D camera .... so today I might send the camera to the shop to get it fixed ....

I could see a difference when I first looked, so it's not just you!

Edited October 5, 2014 by samuijimmy

[HooHaa]

i beleive the forum software compresses pics in some way, i have had this issue especially with saturated sky blues, artefacts appear on hard edges

[samuijimmy]

i beleive the forum software compresses pics in some way, i have had this issue especially with saturated sky blues, artefacts appear on hard edges

yes, I agree, I think you are right there,

But not always the case! Hard to know for sure!

[samuijimmy]

Two of the same images as an example... on RAW file, one regular JPEG

RAW or CR2 ... same processing...

[rhythmworx]

The 1st pic has the colour profile embedded, the 2nd one doesn't, this could be a factor as there is no XMP meta data.

I guess each individual device will render the one with no XMP to how the rendering intent is configured in their operating systems colour management settings. (I could be totally wrong though, I'm no expert either).

Your embedded sRGB profile is also V2, maybe you will be better using V4 (again this is only a suggestion), colour management when sharing images over the web is a VERY complicated and confusing subject as the links below will demonstrate.

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/lightroom/using/WS638E3AC9-A04C-4445-A0D3-F7D8BA5CDE37.html

http://www.color.org/v4spec.xalter

http://www.color.org/iccprofile.xalter

http://www.color.org/srgbprofiles.xalter

http://www.color.org/ICC_White_Paper_26_Using_the_V4_sRGB_ICC_profile.pdf

[Robby nz]

No idea about all this tech stuff you fellas are discussing but I always click on 'preview post' before I add a reply and if the photo doesn't look right on the site preview then I go back and try to work out why, or post something else.