Display on the web, use correct monitor calibration or what most people will see?

[hakan_svenson__nyc_]

When you make a website or display photos online, what "standard" do

you use? I have found that most people keep their monitors a bit

brighter than my correctly calibrated monitor and therefore photos

many times look a bit washed out on other monitors. I use Photoshop

(Adobe RGB) for all work but always seem to struggle with how to

adjust the photos (mainly lvls, brightness etc.) Am I correct in

assuming that most people keep their montitors brighter (too

bright?) Of course most are used for normal office/home use and not

for photo editing.

 

How do you people solve this problem? Do yo adjust so they look good

for the general public or you use the correct calibration? Please

note that we are only talking about use on websites/online galleries,

not prints.

[philip_sweeney]

Hakan: I have looked at my website photos on other computers (basically microsoft machines) at work and alot of those monitors are older and I find many times the opposite: the images are depressed without shadow detail and luminosity. For all-around display on web I thought sRGB is recommended?

[duncan_trebilcock]

Hakan,

 

I certainly recall before I calibrated any of my monitors, I used brightness and contrast on virtually maximum settings.

 

My calibrated settingsare a lot less intense.

 

You could include a grayscale chart on the page, explaining that if the viewer can't see ten distinct shades from black to white for instance, they need to adjust their brightness and contrast.

 

A lot of people won't bother, but at least they will know that their impression of your pictures may not be as good as it could be, and that it is their settings, and not your pictures that are at fault.

 

Secondly, and I will readily defer to someone who is more expert than me on such matters, but I think sRGB is a better colour space for the web.

 

Regards

DT

[._kaa]

You HAVE to use sRGB for the web, because that's what all browsers default to. Using any other color space will cause color shifts (and yes, it's quite visible with AdobeRGB, for example).

 

As to the original question, I use the correct calibration since trying to guess whether most of my viewers have new overbright monitors or old dim monitors is a hopeless case...

[qtluong]

While sRGB is the technically correct choice, I haven't found

the shift caused by using Adobe RGB noticeable enough to

warrant adding an additional conversion step to my workflow.

In my opinion, differences in monitor settings dwarf those in

color spaces. See if the colors of the images on my web site

appear defective to your eye or not.

<a href = "http://www.terragalleria.com">Terra Galleria Stock

Photography</a>.

[._kaa]

It's not a matter of "defective" colors, it's just that they are different.

 

Try opening an AdobeRGB image in Photoshop and then open the same image side-by-side in Internet Explorer. The difference is rather glaring to me...

[mark_davidson]

Kaa is right.

 

sRgb is the default color space for the web and almost all consumer PCs out in the

world. Also almost none are calibrated and vary wildly. Calibrate yourself and let it

go.

 

mark

[hakan_svenson__nyc_]

Thanks for your good answers. I always work in Adobe RGB but should probably use sRGB for all web work. I have not experimented with it enough to see how big the difference actually is though.

 

Hakan

[andy_piper2]

Hakan: You only have to 'convert' your image to sRGB at the very end - right at the point where you've reduced file size and are ready to save it as a jpeg or tiff or gif or whatever. Just go (in Photoshop) to Image>mode>convert-to-profile and convert to sRGB.

 

Beyond that - you can't match every calibrated and uncalibrated monitor in the world. Get it right on your calibrated screen and make it sRGB - everyone else will have to look out for themselves.

 

I also convert all the images in my pdf books to sRGB. Any image that will be viewed on-screen outside of Photoshop should be changed to sRGB as part of the final 'save'.

[mbeebee]

<p>I was always disappointed with how my photos looked on the web (on various makes and models of computers)--until I started converting my images from Adobe RGB (1998) to sRGB in the last step of making a "web image." I can't tell any difference when converting the image in Photoshop, but man-oh-man is there a difference in IE, Netscape, etc. I would definitely convert to sRGB for web images. Otherwise, I don't bother trying to predict how the viewer's monitor is going to be calibrated, since there's so much variation out there.</p>

<p>Martin</p>

<p><a href="http://www.martinbeebee.com"www.martinbeebee.com">www.martinbeebee.com</a></p>

[hakan_svenson__nyc_]

Thanks again for the answers.

 

Andy: If I convert a photo from Adobe RGB to sRGB in the very end (after doing adjustments), won't the photo change? Or will it look pretty much the same but it will be read "correctly" when viewed on the internet? Shouldn't I do it in the beginning (when I know web is the medium of choice)so that all adjustments of the photo will be done in sRGB?

 

Hakan

[tim_smith3]

Hi. Can I just tag a question onto the end of this thread. My workflow is to convert my adobe RGB images to sRGB before saving as a jpeg foe the internet or to email. Then if I open the same image in photoshop and in internet explrer it looks a lot more washed out in interent explorer. I know that different software will display images slightly different but if I open the same sRGB image in Photosho, IE, Windows picture viewer and Irfanview then all but photoshop looks significantly less satuated.

 

I have profiled my moniter with the Eye one display. When I start up my computer I see the desktop screen shift in color and luminosity which I assume means the profile is kicking in there. And then in control panel/ display/ settings/ advanced/ color management I have my eyeone profile selected.

 

Should I really be seeing such a dramatic shift in colors. It is as if I am viewing a fresh print in photoshop and then one that has been sat around in the light for twenty years in the other software. Is there any chance that I have photoshop double profiled or am doing something else wrong with my color management.

 

Many thanks.

 

Tim...