Saturation at CiC

[Jeff S]

I have noticed that when I process photographs in Lightroom4 and PS CS6, and then post the images to CiC, the rendition of color in CiC is substantially more saturated than is that of my photoshop image. I have even tried to correct this, by reducing the saturation in PS and reposting the image only to find that the difference between the "corrected" photograph is much more substantial in PS than when posted in CiC. (Unfortunately, I can't show this because every photo I transfer from PS to CiC no longer looks the way it did when in the software.)

Do any of you have a similar experience? Is there something about my PS settings that may not be accurate, or does CiC, for some reason emphasize saturation? The two images that follow are very similar when posted here, but look substantially different in PS (the top one is much less saturated in my PS software). Any thoughts?

[davidedric]

Interesting. Tried downloading your images and looking in Lightroom (on a calibrated monitor). There are certainly some differences, but if anything the top one looks more saturated!

If I look at the histograms, the top image peaks are certainly higher, and somewhat shifted to the right, i.e. more highly exposed, than the lower one.

In summary, dunno!

[Mike Buckley]

Each photo appears exactly the same for me whether viewed using CiC, my primary editing software or my cataloging software.

I have been in discussions about this in the past and am reasonably confident that there are two variables that you need to attend to -- the browser and color space you are using.

Regarding the browser, Explorer and Chrome (and I think others) have been known to cause problems when viewing photographs. I recommend using Firefox, which seems to have the best reputation and certainly works great on my system.

Regarding the color space, if you're not using a browser that manages the color space, such as an older version of Explorer, and if your color space is anything other than sRGB when viewing the photos on the Internet, the colors will not be displayed accurately. Considering that you can't control whether others are using a color-managed browser, your best bet is to always use sRGB when displaying the image on the Internet. (Your first photo uses Adobe RGB, so anyone using a browser that doesn't manage the color space will see it differently on their system and will provide unhelpful information in this thread. I don't know what color space is in the second photo because the EXIF data is removed.)

You may want to use sRGB only when displaying an image on the Internet, using a wider color space such as Adobe RGB for displaying images not on the Internet. If you do that, keep in mind that two image files with different color spaces viewed on the same computer will not appear exactly the same.

[davidedric]

I recommend using Firefox

Mike, is colour management automatically enabled in Firefox? If not, can you advise me where it is - I don't seem to be able to find it under options.

Incidentally, a recent thread that that I just found on DPReview suggests that Google have thoroughly messed up colour management in their latest release.

[Mike Buckley]

I believe color management is automatically enabled in Firefox. No setting is required that I know of.

Regarding Chrome, I remember displaying a photo at CiC that included a shadow on a very dark fabric. I think it was Dave who couldn't see the shadow using Chrome. He could easily see it using Firefox. People who have seen that Google's Chrome messes up color management are fearful about what might happen to Nik software products now that Google owns the company. I think that fear is probably unwarranted, but I suppose it could be a concern in the case of an extreme decision by management.

[Jeff S]

Incidentally, a recent thread that that I just found on DPReview suggests that Google have thoroughly messed up colour management in their latest release.

This may be the reason as I have been using the latest release of Google chrome. Maybe it's time to check out Firefox.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. The differences I see are very substantial and I don't really want all the saturation that I am seeing using my internet browser.

[herbert]

Mike, is colour management automatically enabled in Firefox? If not, can you advise me where it is - I don't seem to be able to find it under options

In the URL bar type 'about:config'

This will access all the settings of Firefox. You can search for things using the search bar at the top. Type in Color.

You will see a colour management setting. I think you have to set it to 1 for always on. The default setting is for auto which means Firefox decides when to perform colour management on images.

If you have a wide gamut monitor then you will be better off with it set to always on. This means sRGB images will also be colour managed and so will look good.

Alex

[stuck]

colour management ... in Firefox? If not, can you advise me where it is

Try this add-on:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...or-management/

About this Add-on
Provides a GUI front end for enabling color management in Firefox and any other XUL 1.9.1 based app. Please note, this is only a Graphical User Interface used to access the built in color management settings in about:config.

Ken