Jason writes …
When I Save For Web, no matter which output filetype I choose, the resulting image is a bit darker than the original and the colors are a bit more saturated. Is this expected behavior? Are there adjustments I can do that "fix" this?
This is caused by one of two things (or a combination). First, I always run Image – Mode – Convert to Profile and convert a copy to sRGB before running Save for Web. If you have saturated colors, especially reds, you’ll see a color shift if you don’t do this first. If you’re already using sRGB then you won’t see a problem, but the wider the gamut of your working space the more likely you are to see this (ie, ProPhoto will be worse than AdobeRGB).
Second, Save for Web doesn’t use the monitor profile … you can verify if this is your problem by looking at the starting file in Photoshop and doing View – Proof setup – Monitor RGB and toggling this on/off with cntrl-z … if you see the image going darker when you do this then that’s your problem. You may have an inaccurate monitor profile in which case you might want to generate a new one.
Typically if you convert to sRGB first and have an accurate monitor profile you won’t see much of a shift when you generate jpegs using Save for Web.
Bill