Why are colors oversaturated outside Photoshop?

Why does everything in Photoshop have less color saturation than when I view it outside Photoshop (such as with the WinXP image previewer, or IE, etc.)?

Things look fantastic in Photoshop... but outside, there's too much color saturation! :-( Since I use a lot of auto-leveling in Photoshop, I'm assuming the culprit is not Photoshop, but perhaps outside of it. Color profile related, perhaps. But I really don't know much about that.

On Jul 20, 9:24 am, "MSchmidt" wrote:

Why does everything in Photoshop have less color saturation than when I view it outside Photoshop (such as with the WinXP image previewer, or IE, etc.)?
Things look fantastic in Photoshop... but outside, there's too much color saturation! :-( Since I use a lot of auto-leveling in Photoshop, I'm assuming the culprit is not Photoshop, but perhaps outside of it. Color profile related, perhaps. But I really don't know much about that.

I had similar problem.
i solved it when i realized that my camera's color profile is set to Adobe RBG and the windows uses default RBG..
to solve this problem you can choose "save for the web" option or change settings in your camera..

But how do I solve the problem temporarily with the pics already taken? Tell me like I'm a 5 yr old. ;)

"Tarun Chawla" wrote in message

I had similar problem.
i solved it when i realized that my camera's color profile is set to Adobe RBG and the windows uses default RBG..
to solve this problem you can choose "save for the web" option or change settings in your camera..

Turns out only the Windows image previewer tool (what gets loaded by default when you open a JPG) is oversaturating colors. I was wrong. IE and Firefox display the images correctly as they appear in Photoshop.

So either :

1. The WinXP image viewer has its own internal color management screwing things up.

2. Firefox/IE can read the color profile info (AdobeRGB) while the WinXP image viewer strips it out.

Right? If so, which of the two is it? I'd really like the image viewer to quit oversaturating colors.

"Tarun Chawla" wrote in message

I had similar problem.
i solved it when i realized that my camera's color profile is set to Adobe RBG and the windows uses default RBG..
to solve this problem you can choose "save for the web" option or change settings in your camera..

In article <g5uemo$lg6$>,
"MSchmidt" wrote:

Why does everything in Photoshop have less color saturation than when I view it outside Photoshop (such as with the WinXP image previewer, or IE, etc.)?

Read the chapter on "Color Management" in your manual.

Adobe Photoshop uses profile-based color management. Other programs don't. You can use the "Monitor RGB" setting in your Proof Setup to preview how your images will look outside of Photoshop.

--
Photography, kink, polyamory, shareware, and more: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html

3. Get Irfanview and set it for the default.

"MSchmidt" found these unused words:

Turns out only the Windows image previewer tool (what gets loaded by default when you open a JPG) is oversaturating colors. I was wrong. IE and Firefox display the images correctly as they appear in Photoshop.
So either :

1. The WinXP image viewer has its own internal color management screwing things up.

2. Firefox/IE can read the color profile info (AdobeRGB) while the WinXP image viewer strips it out.

Right? If so, which of the two is it? I'd really like the image viewer to quit oversaturating colors.

"Tarun Chawla" wrote in message

I had similar problem.
i solved it when i realized that my camera's color profile is set to Adobe RBG and the windows uses default RBG..
to solve this problem you can choose "save for the web" option or change settings in your camera..

1. The WinXP image viewer has its own internal color management screwing
things up.

[or]

2. Firefox/IE can read the color profile info (AdobeRGB) while the WinXP image viewer strips it out.

Windows Fax and Image Viewer is profile aware, so your #1 is at least partly correct. Adobe RGB images will generally appear slightly *less* saturated outside of Photoshop, not more so. IE and Firefox ignore embedded profiles.

I can think of three cases where the opposite would happen, and your colors would be too saturated in Image Viewer but not other apps.

1) you have color management turned off in Photoshop, and are embedding the Adobe RGB profile. Adjusting subjectively for pleasantly saturated colors in Photoshop will result in over-saturation when viewed in a color aware app such as Image Viewer. This would be a fairly subtle increase in saturation.

2) similar to #1, except that Photoshop is "color aware", but configured to de-saturate screen colors. This option is located in Color Settings. Click on "More Options" to see this option at the bottom of the window in the Advanced Controls section of the window.

3) Photoshop is set to no color management, and your display profile is incorrect. To check for this, set sRGB as your system monitor profile and see if the appearance of the image in Image Viewer changes.

MSchmidt wrote:

Why does everything in Photoshop have less color saturation than when I view it outside Photoshop (such as with the WinXP image previewer, or IE, etc.)?
Things look fantastic in Photoshop... but outside, there's too much color saturation! :-( Since I use a lot of auto-leveling in Photoshop, I'm assuming the culprit is not Photoshop, but perhaps outside of it. Color profile related, perhaps. But I really don't know much about that.

This is not an answer to your question but I have noticed the same thing while working on my Mac. My camera is set to produce images in the Adobe RGB 1998 color space as is Photoshop CS on my computer. I'm not very concerned about it because my prints match what I'm seeing in PS. My screen is color calibrated.

Perhaps others might see different colors if I email jpg image to them, I can not control how others have or do not have their screen color calibrated.

I hope we get a better answer to a good question.

Dave

Dave wrote:

MSchmidt wrote:

Why does everything in Photoshop have less color saturation than when I view
it outside Photoshop (such as with the WinXP image previewer, or IE, etc.)?

Things look fantastic in Photoshop... but outside, there's too much color saturation! :-( Since I use a lot of auto-leveling in Photoshop, I'm assuming the culprit is not Photoshop, but perhaps outside of it. Color profile related, perhaps. But I really don't know much about that.

This is not an answer to your question but I have noticed the same thing while working on my Mac. My camera is set to produce images in the Adobe RGB 1998 color space as is Photoshop CS on my computer. I'm not very concerned about it because my prints match what I'm seeing in PS. My screen is color calibrated.

Perhaps others might see different colors if I email jpg image to them, I can not control how others have or do not have their screen color calibrated.

I hope we get a better answer to a good question.

Dave

I went to System Preferences, Displays, Color and from there selected Adobe RGB. I then re-ram my "Monaco EZ Color program" using the OPTIX Colorimeter that came with it.

Now the color on an image within PhotoShop, match the colors outside PhotoShop. Thanks for bringing to my attention. I suspect the same thing can be done on the PC/XP side of this MacBook Pro. I'll try that next.

Dave

"MSchmidt" wrote in message

But how do I solve the problem temporarily with the pics already taken? Tell me like I'm a 5 yr old. ;)

"Tarun Chawla" wrote in message

I had similar problem.
i solved it when i realized that my camera's color profile is set to Adobe RBG and the windows uses default RBG..
to solve this problem you can choose "save for the web" option or change settings in your camera..

But how do I solve the problem temporarily with the pics already taken? Tell me like I'm a 5 yr old. ;)

If you open them in Bridge or RAW
at the bottom of the RAW viewer
change the color profile to SRGB
instead of Adobe RGB
then choose the rest and choose apply last setting to the rest

if you take Adobe RGB to jpg it will make a shift in color (to my eye towards red)

if you convert them to srgb first then save for jpg it will match