photo is darker when posted than in my desktop monitor

[alvarez600]

<p>Wondering why some of my photos look darker when posted here on Photo.net than on my coputer...<br>

is it something to do with how is been down size from original file?</p><div></div>

[Matt Laur]

<p>More likely it has to do with which color space you're using, and whether you're looking at the image in a color-managed application (like your editor), and then later looking at it in a non-profile-aware app (like your web browser). Make sure you're creating files in the sRGB space so that you can know all web browsers will like the files as-written.</p>

[alvarez600]

<p>HI Matt, <br>

Thank you for responding. You are right about looking at it through an editor application, but I also looked at the image through the finder window on my Mac and on Flickr and compared it to P.N. window and still much darker.<br>

As for color space the only thing I'm not sure about what color space is set on is Lightroom...all external editors are set to sRGB even my camera is set to sRGB.<br>

I say not sure about lightroom because I saw this message in the external editing window, under Preferences "The sRGB color space cannot encompass the full range of colors available within Lightroom"<br>

Which confuses me since Lightroom is an Adobe Photoshop product.<br>

what do you think?<br>

And Thank you for taking the time to response.</p>

[AndyMiller]

<p>Hi Sal, what do you use to calibrate your monitor? Do you calibrate it regularly? I used to get this problem until I started using a Datacolor Spyder to calibrate the monitor every 8 weeks. This means that my prints also now match what I see on the screen. I also use a Mac.</p>

[alvarez600]

<p>Hi Andrew, I also have a Datacolor Spyder I calibrate my monitor every two weeks....<br>

I cant think of anything else, maybe just make them briter to post here.<br>

Thank you, for responding :)</p>

<p> </p>

[matussik]

<p>Hi Sal,<br>

the message "<em>The sRGB color space cannot encompass the full range of colors available within Lightroom</em>" only says that Lightroom can work with color spaces that can display more colors than sRGB does -> basically the software is telling you that you could get more out of it, if you'd be using a different color space with a wider gamut (such as Adobe RGB for example).<br>

sRGB is the standard color profile for pictures displayed in the internet and when the industry switched from CRT screens to LCD screens they adapted to the lower standard used by the broad majority of users -> today standard LCD screens won't be able to display colors outside the range of sRGB. Those screens are designed to display sRGB, and therefore display relatively accurately the pictures of the web even if the web-browser isn't color managed.<br>

Wide Gamut screens capable of displaying more colors than sRGB are recently becoming more common and maybe your Mac has such a screen, and this might be the source of your problem -> sRGB being the standard for internet, the web browser will send color information to the screen in the sRGB profile but basically without telling your screen that this is sRGB, and as the screen can display more colors he will do it by using the full range of its capabilities...<br>

If this is your problem you should be seeing a color shift when looking at the same picture with your non color managed web-browser and color managed soft-ware such as light-room: the image in the web-browser will look more saturated. If this is the case than your solution will be to use a web-browser that has color management capability and there I'd recommend to use Firefox as you can set an option to force it to color manage pictures with sRGB even if the picture has no color profile embedded.<br>

Calibrating the monitor is of course also something to do, but I doubt that it can be the reason for a color switch or darkening of pictures between two software on the same computer.<br>

I hope this will help you.<br>

Kind Regards,<br>

Jan</p>

[alvarez600]

<p>Thank you Jan, That make sense, I will look into that.<br>

Thak you for responding, much appreciated :)<br>

kind regars as well,<br>

Sal.</p>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>Try posting a screenshot inline in this thread of the image in question that looks right on your display in the application you edited and viewed to make look as you intended. Make sure you include parts of the OS and editing app interface like menu's and icons. Also don't convert the screenshot to sRGB. Leave your display profile embedded in the image.</p>

<p>That image looks like a night scene, but maybe that's what you intended. It does look dark viewed in the white surround of this page.</p>

[alvarez600]

<p>Thank you Tim,<br>

Sound like a good idea, But I'm not sure on how to do that :(...<br>

I did open Lightroom and minimized it to the size of the same size pic on the browser, and I found a very minimal difference between the two images.<br>

I still would like to try your suggestion.</p>

[matussik]

<p>I'm confused now: if there is only little difference between the light-room window and the browser, where does the darkening happen?<br>

Did you mean that the same file seen with the same web-browser looks darker in photo.net than in Flickr?</p>

[alvarez600]

Hi Jan,

I don't know where it happens, that's what I'm trying to figure out...

Yes, the same file is slightly different in brightness in the same browser on two different websites...

 

What through me off at first was the big difference between the large image in the editor window and the small image

in the browser...

 

I have a 24" HD Mac monitor...maybe it's my eyes...:(

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>If LR has a thick dark gray border surrounding your image, it's going to make the image look darker in the white field of a browser page. </p>

<p>It's an optical effect caused by your eyes adapting to the change of contrast especially with night scenes like yours.</p>

<p>Happens to me all the time.</p>

[alvarez600]

<p>Its black in my case, thats probably worse...BUt that make sense.<br>

Thank you, everybody for responding and helping out...<br>

I appreciat it alot :)<br>

Best regards for all...</p>

[matussik]

<p>Hi Sal, I fear that with a black background color in LR instead of neutral gray standard, you'll increase the risk of producing too dark images in PP. Best wishes! Jan</p>

 

[alvarez600]

Hi Jan,

 

Yes, I agree, I'll be making some changes.

 

I made some changes to the photo as well, would you stop by my port and express your thoughts.

 

Thank you for for taking the time to reply to this post as well.

 

Hope you're having a great weekend.