Images too dark for web

DV
Posted By
Dave_Voelker
Feb 11, 2007
Views
503
Replies
7
Status
Closed
I just finished tweaking about 300 (mostly raw) photos in preparation for putting them in an online vacation album. But when I save them out as jpegs and view them, they’re way too dark. Like they look in CS2 with Monitor RGB selected. (I adjusted them in ACR in ProPhoto RGB.) I played around with some hoping there would be a simple adjustment I could make to lighten them up, but no such luck — lightening either Exposure or Brightness by themselves didn’t do a good job, nor sometimes even in combination. No way do I want to re-Curve them all individually, but I’m starting to think that’s my only choice.

Is there any other easier, hopefully batch-scriptable way I can lighten these puppies up for the web? They don’t have to be perfect; just reasonable.
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KV
Klaas Visser
Feb 11, 2007
If they’re going on the web, you’ll want to be converting them to the sRGB colour space, as that’s the best space for web viewed pictures.

See if there is any improvement after test converting one or two.
C
chrisjbirchall
Feb 11, 2007
Like they look in CS2 with Monitor RGB selected

Wrong move. If your work is primarily for the web, choose sRGB as your working space – or if you prefer a wider gamut opt for the likes of Adobe RGB1998 and
i convert
your jpegs to sRGB before saving them for the web.

The fact the images differ in the way they look in a web browser compared to Photoshop is due to the fact Photoshop is a colour managed application. In all probability your monitor needs profiling so that Photoshop displays correctly.

Run Adobe Gamma or a third-party software/hardware profiling solution if your monitor is an LCD.

If you need to brush up on Colour management, fifteen minutes perusing: <http://www.computer-darkroom.com>
will be fifteen minutes well spent.

Chris.
DV
Dave_Voelker
Feb 12, 2007
Thanks for the suggestions, Klaas & Chris. I have tried converting to sRGB, but same problem — they look fine in CS2 but end up too dark when saved out as jpegs for the web. Again, I’m doing this entirely within Camera Raw — am not opening Photoshop. My monitor is a CRT (Mitsubishi DP930SB), and I have run Adobe Gamma. It displays everything else fine. I don’t know what else to try.
C
chrisjbirchall
Feb 12, 2007
My monitor is a CRT (Mitsubishi DP930SB), and I have run Adobe Gamma.

Adobe Gamma relies on your perception. Try running it again, following the procedure very carefully. For really accurite calibration you need to look at a proper profiling solution such as the Spyder.

It displays everything else fine

Which points exactly to this being a problem with profiling. Photoshop is likely to be the only colour-managed application you are running. You need to tell it how to communicate properly with your monitor to enable you to produce images which stand a better chance of displaying reasonably correctly in the non colour-managed world of internet browsers.
Feb 12, 2007
You have sRGB set as your RGB working space, right?

1. Calibrate your monitor (done).

2. No document open: Set sRGB as working space. Open "More options" in your colour configuration. Mark the three "Ask when opening", "ask if profile mistmatches" and "as when pasting" (or something like that, I am talking with no English PS at hand now).

3. Open a picture. If it has a RGB profile embedded and if you have set your Colour preferences right, PS should ask you about the profile and conversion. If so, Convert to sRGB and then tweak until satisfied. If not, get back to poit 2.

4. Go to Save for the Web. You should be seeing a quite reasonable match between PS edition and that screen.

PS. Take a look at: <http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps9_colour/ps9_1.htm>
DV
Dave_Voelker
Feb 13, 2007
Gustavo,
Thank you! Your suggestion worked perfectly. That was what I was missing. After converting these photos to sRGB per your instructions, I am finding I don’t have to make any other adjustments — Save for Web is producing an excellent result. Muchas gracias!

Chris,
I believe you are correct too — PS is my only color-managed app and it is likely my monitor is not properly profiled. I purchased ColorVision/Pantone’s ColorPlus calibration package (a less expensive version of the Spyder) but I had to return it because it produced horrible results — much too dark, and colors off. So while I read — and believe — your and others’ emphasis of the importance of monitor calibration, I have yet to find a calibration system (beyond Adobe Gamma) that yields practical results for me.
Feb 13, 2007
Dave,

Glad it worked and, by the way, the EyeOne Display2 is a rather good option (though it does not make miracles with low quality monitors).

🙂

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