Colour Settings and Profile help

[mrk79uk]

Hi

I have been on an on going battle with colour profiles and providing my customers with "as correct as possible" images.
I have gone out and purchased a Dell U2711 IPS 27" Monitor - The nuts! also I have purchased a Spyder Pro Calibrator.
All is set up and I have already seen some massive improvements and my retouching is so much easier.
Today I discovered that the colours I see in PS differ to internet explorer. This now brings me to question wether my customers are getting true colours? Internet explorer shows the images quite red.
Im sure you guys have had this battle before and worked it out.
I attached an image of my PS colour settings.

[Der_W]

Re: Colour Settings and Profile help

As far as I know Internet Explorer has still no clue about color management, that could be one reason why the images look different.
However if you're working in sRGB the difference shouldn't be too big most of the time.

Which leads to the question if you've just set sRGB as your working RGB or if you're really working in it. Check your ACR workflow options as well and if they report anything but sRGB, you should use "Edit"-"Convert to profile"-"sRGB" before saving your images (or use "File"-"Save for Web and Devices" which does this with the standard settings).

[Repairman]

Re: Colour Settings and Profile help

I wouldn't use a browser as any sort of reference. IE is totally different to Safari etc.
Make a flight chart to calibrate your work - known input ref like a greyscale chart plus a known output device proof. Look at the image on screen and adjust to match the output.
R.

[mistermonday]

Re: Colour Settings and Profile help

I notice you have all of your warning boxes turned off. I recommend you turn them on unless you are fully aware of what you are importing. For example if you are working in Adobe RGB color space and you open a file that someone has sent you and that file does not have any embedded progile (something that is very likely to occur), if your warning box for missing profiles is off, then Photoshop will automatically assign its working space to the incoming file and will consider that file AdobeRGB and treat it aas such. The resulting colors will look very different from what the party sent to you unless they prepared it in AdobeRGB as well.
Regards, Murray

[Tyjeco]

Re: Colour Settings and Profile help

I stopped delivering in adobeRGB some time ago since some of my clients complaint about the difference in color when they used their image, which was for print in the first place anyway, on the web. I could have gone for delivering a print and web version, but than you give them something to choose from. So my advice is, output in srgb only unless you have a client that knows their shit.

[mrk79uk]

Re: Colour Settings and Profile help

Thanks for the advice. I have noticed that Internet Explorer displays the colours correctly. Also I looked at the pics on a different pc and that is fine also. Its only Windows Explorer on my pc which makes the pics look red.

odd :S

[andrewrodney]

Re: Colour Settings and Profile help

Safari and the later versions of FireFox are ICC aware. Other browsers, you can’t rely on the color previews as being correct or match Photoshop which is correct (assuming proper calibration and a good profile describing your display).

In terms of color settings, you want the polices to be set to preserve, all warning check boxes on, at least initially (the check boxes are your safety net). This may help, while old, color settings haven’t changed in over a decade: http://www.ppmag.com/reviews/200404_rodneycm.pdf

[mushmush]

Re: Colour Settings and Profile help

Another issue -as far as your client's go- is THEIR monitor and calibration (or lack thereof). Also the lighting conditions of the room the monitor is in can affect it's display- perceptually.

I would ask client's to view any color sample file in P'shop when ever possible. I've had a number of discussions with clients where they are viewing an image thru a Browser and the image looked off.
I ask them to open the file in Photoshop- go over their color settings- and usually it makes a difference.

Best Regards

[mrk79uk]

Re: Colour Settings and Profile help

Thanks for all your replies and help. My customers are generally families, and new mothers. Not really the type of people who are likley to have photoshop. They would be viewing the images on Windows Picture Viewer, Explorer etc.

From what I can gather...
My monitor is calibrated correctly. PS and Bridge display correct colours. But due to Windows Explorer not recognizing ICC profiles it displays the images incorrectly (red).

When I check the images on my wifes laptop the images appear fine.

[longside1]

Re: Colour Settings and Profile help

I don't know whether this helps but here is my colour management workflow:

This is my colour management workflow:

1) calibrate monitor using a Spyder 3
2) open RAW file and edit in ACR then open in CS5 in Pro Photo colour space. (I understand the Pro Photo has the widest colour gamut.)
3) If I'm going to display images to the web I convert to jpeg using SRGB colour space as this is what most web browsers are comfortable with (although some like safari recognise other imbedded profiles like adobe rgb.)
4) if i'm printing the image I convert to a fuji colour space which the printing company I use works with.

The above works fine for me, with web images, and printed images accurately representing what i see in photoshop

[Printmaker]

Re: Colour Settings and Profile help

From what I can gather...
My monitor is calibrated correctly. PS and Bridge display correct colours. But due to Windows Explorer not recognizing ICC profiles it displays the images incorrectly (red).

When I check the images on my wifes laptop the images appear fine.

Because Windows Explorer is not colour managed it sends un-altered RGB signals straight to the display. I note that the monitor you have bought has a relatively wide gamut and I would say this is the reason that images look 'red' on your system when viewed through Windows Explorer but not on your wife laptop. It is highly likely that your wife's laptop display has a much more limited gamut so will not emit such a saturated red when sent an RGB signal such as (255,0,0).

In terms of your customers - the 2 practical steps I would recommend are:

1) Use Photoshop or other to make a web gallery (online or on disc) and suggest that your customers view the images with Firefox since it is color managed by default.

2) Make sure that all images in the web gallery have been converted to sRGB and have sRGB embedded (saved into) into the file.

At least with this strategy, if they have a calibrated monitor your images will look correct and if not it's likely that they don't have a 'wide gamut' monitor either so they are not likely to see the over saturated reds that you can see.