Viewing Photos in Windows Explorer.

[Nicks Pics]

Since there are many people on here who seem very knowledgeable about this sort of thing, I was wondering if any of you could give me any insight on this matter.

I usually use Lightroom for cataloging basically all my photo inventory, so I do some editing there, then sometimes I export to GIMP for other editing, my final images are usually exported to a folder on my external hard drive, which I view with windows explorer. My photos look about the same in Lightroom as they do in GIMP in RAW, and TIFF formats respectively, but then when I view them in Windows Explorer they don't look so good. Mainly, the contrast looks too black, sharpness looks too grainy, and the tones and colors are kind of crunchy looking. You might think it is because they are in Jpeg format at that point, but then if I put the Jpeg photos back into GIMP or even upload it here at C in C they often look like I thought they should again.

It must be related to windows explorer somehow. Do you have any idea why?

Thanks,

Nick

[pnodrog]

What version of Windows do you use and what colour space are the photographs? sRGB should be fine but not all the Windows programmes adjust for colour space.

[Nicks Pics]

Hi L.Paul
I use windows 7. I think I'm using sRGB all around.

[tclune]

...when I view them in Windows Explorer they don't look so good. Mainly, the contrast looks too black, sharpness looks too grainy, and the tones and colors are kind of crunchy looking. You might think it is because they are in Jpeg format at that point, but then if I put the Jpeg photos back into GIMP or even upload it here at C in C they often look like I thought they should again.

It sounds like the viewer is doing a bad job of down-resing the image. If it just decimates the image for resizing, you'll get that sort of look. Try viewing the image under both viewers at 100%. If they look comparable then, that would be the problem. But I don't have an answer for what to do about it, other than a variation on the old joke, "Doc, it hurts when I use this viewer...."

[xpatUSA]

I agree that the images should be viewed at 100%. Some re-sized downward images are very harsh because of the fast but crude algorithm used, e.g. Nearest Neighbor. Like for example, Flickr shows a really harsh image for a while before the fully re-sampled image is shown. I see the same effect in FastStone Viewer in the review image at bottom right. Click on full-screen review and the effect disappears. You can set jpegs to open in FastStone when double-clicked (or any other app for that matter).

I would ignore the effect or, if it irritates you, use another viewer. There are plenty out there. Try FastStone - it's seriously good for viewing. Not so hot for editing but it's comparator is seriously good.

[davidedric]

Can't help with your original enquiry, Nick, but for anyone using Explorer, I strongly recommend having a look at Directory Opus:
http://www.gpsoft.com.au

It costs a few dollars (though less than 50USD), and it's the first piece of software I would install on any new Windows machine. Even has a RAW viewer included. I can't imagine going back to Explorer.

Dave

[MrB]

Regarding "Viewing Photos in Windows Explorer", the biggest you can see in the Explorer Window are the "Extra Large Icons", selected in the "View" Menu, which are still quite small low-resolution JPEGs.

If you double-click on an image file name or icon, it will open that image for viewing properly in a new window of whatever default viewing program is set. You can change this, or choose to set a different default viewing program, by right-clicking (single click) on the image file name or icon, and selecting "Open With" in the pop-up menu. I have mine set up to use Windows Photo Viewer, which seems to display the images just fine for me, and the view can be magnified there by using the mouse scroll wheel.

Cheers.
Philip

[Nicks Pics]

Thanks for the replies.

Based on what MrB says, I think I am actually speaking of Windows photo Viewer, I was a bit confused about which one it was, or if they were the same. I double-click on a jpeg icon in Windows Explorer, then view at 100 % in Windows Photo Viewer, but I still don't think the photos look quite like they do in the editing programs, this makes it hard to get an image to how I like it, not knowing which view to trust, how it looks in editor, or in the photo viewer afterwards. Probably the editing programs are giving me a more reliable view, because of reasons I stated in the OP.

[Simon Garrett]

Thanks for the replies.

Based on what MrB says, I think I am actually speaking of Windows photo Viewer, I was a bit confused about which one it was, or if they were the same. I double-click on a jpeg icon in Windows Explorer, then view at 100 % in Windows Photo Viewer, but I still don't think the photos look quite like they do in the editing programs, this makes it hard to get an image to how I like it, not knowing which view to trust, how it looks in editor, or in the photo viewer afterwards. Probably the editing programs are giving me a more reliable view, because of reasons I stated in the OP.

Windows Photo Viewer in Win 7 is colour managed, so is Lightroom, and AFAIK so is GIMP from v2.4. Is your monitor calibrated and profiled, or have you loaded a manufacturer's profile? Without a monitor profile, colour can be a bit hit and miss, as programs don't know the characteristics of the monitor, and different programs make different assumptions, hence colours can vary.

Ideally, you should have the monitor calibrated and profiled iwth a hardware tool (ColorMunki, Spyder, i1 or similar). However, failing that one thing to try is to assign the sRGB profile (called "sRGB IEC6192-2.1" in Windows) to the monitor (Control Panel -> Color Management. If sRGB isn't in the list, click Add... and look for it in this longer list.)

sRGB almost certainly won't be the right profile or even the best, but it will be better than nothing, and might solve the problem of different colour-managed programs displaying differently.

[xpatUSA]

Nick, just came across this if it's of any help:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com...itproappcompat

Simon, I recall adding something to the XP Control Panel for color management - was trawling for it when I found the above.

Found it:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/down....aspx?id=12714
.

[Nicks Pics]

Thanks for the response Simon, Ted

I tried changing the color management to sRGB, and I might be getting more similar results now, but time will tell better how it's working. It looks (according to the link Ted posted) like others have also had similar experience with Windows Photo viewer. If it continues to be a problem, maybe I'll try another program.

Thanks for all your help!