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I’ve had ongoing issues with posting images here at WC (and elsewhere). Sometimes they appear too dark, other times way to saturated. For my most recent posted painting, the same thread had both of the above (https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1456359). Admittedly, I posted from two different devices and I think I had used two different cameras, one of them (the camera that produced the saturated image) was on my cheap cellphone, on which the image looked fairly good.
I really don’t know a lot about the technology behind monitor calibration, but I’m wondering if that might help me to use my Macbook to get decent images posted. But I really don’t know where to start. It seems there are calibration programs, but they seem to presume much more knowledge about the technology than I possess. Can anyone give me a brief explanation and/or direct me to a good source of info online? Or an opensource app that I could download for my laptop?
OR, let me know if there’s something else I need to do. I wonder if it may be some other issue(s), b/c I use two different image editing programs and one of them (but not the other) has started darkening imported photos and reducing their saturation, which I really don’t understand at all. Clearly, I need help with all this. TIA for your assistance!
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Hi Annie
I’m not convinced that your monitor calibration is the primary cause of your problem. (For the record, there is only one “correct” way to calibrate a monitor, and that is with a separate hardware device, which is an expensive item. I use an i1 Display Pro.)
Color management is a complicated and confusing topic. Every device that handles color has a associated icc profiles. Suffice to say that any image put onto the web should be published with a sRGB profile because most monitors out there will just assume this to be so.
I see that you are using Photoshop Elements 6. I use a full Photoshop, so don’t know the details of Elements, but I am sure that it must be color profile aware. The dark image is definitely sRGB and has been edited in Elements, whilst the bright image was taken with a cell phone and does not have an indicated profile. Many cell phones use there own proprietary profiles, which (idealy) need to be converted to sRGB.
OK. So what should you try doing? Make sure that Elements is set up so that its default working space is sRGB and 8-bit color. Then load each of the images into Elements. Elements should tell you when loading if the image working space is other than sRGB, and if so click the box that says convert to the default working space (sRGB).
Then apply the Hue/Saturation/Lightness filter (HSL) and move the sliders around until the image looks right on your screen. Then flatten and export the resultant image. Do this for both images trying to get them as close as possible to your vision.
I have just taken copies of your two images into Photoshop and ensured that they were in sRGB color space. I added a HSL filter to each. In the dark one I selected the greens (Cntl-3 in Photoshop), clicked the color-picker on one of the leaves, and moved the sliders to add saturation to the tree. I similarly adjusted the cyans somewhat to give it the same sort of look as the lightest image.
With the lighter image I also added a HSL filter, lowered the overall lightness, and upped the saturation of the yellows based picking the color of its leaves.
Both images were exported as jpegs and are obviously both now definitely sRGB. Here are the results of this exercise’ which didn’t take very long.
I hope this helps. As I say, I’m not familiar with elements so cannot provide detailed step by step instructions.
regards – Peter
Pthalo, thanks. I will have to check on a Mac site someplace, or maybe with GIMP troubleshooting help.
Peter, I changed my GIMP profile to sRGB and will see if that helps. I have a number of ICC profiles stored in a separate file, but wasn’t completely certain which to use. Actually Elements has been somewhat better in regard to the problem, but still not perfect. I’m not completely certain I want to take the time to learn all the ins and outs of Elements, especially because the copy I have is so old and things may have changed a lot since it was published. Thanks for all the info and I will explore further. I also may download a new copy of GIMP to see if that might be an easy way to solve this.
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“Life is a pure flame and we live by an invisible sun within us.” ― Sir Thomas Browne [/size][/font]http://s3.amazonaws.com/wetcanvas-hdc/Community/images/29-Jul-2007/85002-sig-thumbnail_composite_2.jpg]/img]
Hi Annie
One can certainly do exactly the same thing in The Gimp. Depending on how old your copy is, there may be some learning curve. In any case, if you are posting images from multiple cameras/phones I would certainly recommend that you do some post-processing prior to posting on the web. Adjusting your monitor is probably not necessary unless you are considering making serious prints (a whole new ball-game!).
regards – Peter
Peter, yes, I almost always do post processing, whether the image is from my phone or camera. I’ve never known this problem to happen before and I’ve been working with graphics programs for years. But, really, you’re right, this must not be a calibration issue, as the problem happens only in GIMP. :sigh: It’s always something…
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“Life is a pure flame and we live by an invisible sun within us.” ― Sir Thomas Browne [/size][/font]http://s3.amazonaws.com/wetcanvas-hdc/Community/images/29-Jul-2007/85002-sig-thumbnail_composite_2.jpg]/img]
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