Color management problem between programs

[Avotius]

Ok I got a problem I have not run into before.

I am on a Window 7 box. When I am editing photos I use Photoshop CS6. When I view photos I am using ACDSee Pro 6. However when I view the photos with Windows built in Photo Viewer program I get totally different colors and brightness/contrast to the images. This also happens when I put the images in emails, showing the image not as an attachment but putting it directly into the text field of the message.

Now I am editing in sRGB, when I save the jpg and tif files and look at their properties it shows as sRGB color space. I have screwed with the proof colors option in Photoshop. I have turned on and turned off color management in ACDSee. In those programs the images look fine. When I go into Windows however they dont, they are darker, yellow, and the contrast seems a bit higher.

The problem is the client wont be using any fancy pants software to view images so I need the images to look right in explorer, but somehow they are not? To make them look right in explorer I need to way overprocess them in PS to the point where they are really blown out looking.

I know I must have a color management problem somewhere, but where? What am I missing?

 

[sjw617]

Is your screen color corrected?

 

[Avotius]

Is your screen color corrected?

Yes.

I am not sure if it would mater or not in this case though. We are talking about programs opening the image on the same screen looking different, not on different computers.

 

[cpc]

Are you looking at the images in full screen in Windows Photo Viewer? For whatever reason it only applies the active system color profile in windowed mode.

 

[Avotius]

Also I might add looking at the histograms of the images shows what I would expect given the brightness of the images (they are studio photos of a central object and white paper background) however when you look at the same picture using email or photo viewer it seems about 2/3-1 stop darker and maybe 5-8% yellow shift.

 

[Avotius]

Are you looking at the images in full screen in Windows Photo Viewer? For whatever reason it only applies the active system color profile in windowed mode.

Thanks for this tip. I have never noticed this before. I was not looking at the images full screen in photo viewer. In full screen they look as if they would in photoshop or ACDSee. Out of full screen they look as if in email.


So somewhere there is a color profile for non full screen mode and email. I also just tried opening an image in Internet Explorer and it looks like the email would too.


Also the client is looking at the photos on a Mac. He has the same problem it would seem using the built in viewer and or email app to look at pictures and they are wrong.

 

[willie_901]

No fancy pants software = self-induced frustration?

 

[cpc]

Could be non-sRGB color space on export from PS which the more basic apps are misinterpreting? If you are exporting sRGB the images should be ok on Mac, unless the Mac itself is using a calibrated screen and is color managed, but the app used is not (FWIW, Safari is color managed).
IE 8 is not color managed as far as I remember. Not sure about the newer versions.

 

[Sparrow]

Are both programs using the monitors colour profile? ... or the same profile if you'er using a different colour space for a working space?

 

[Avotius]

No fancy pants software = self-induced frustration?

Doubt I could edit in MS Paint.

 

[Avotius]

Are both programs using the monitors colour profile? ... or the same profile if you'er using a different colour space for a working space?

So I just set my monitor profile to sRGB. I turned on and off proofing in photoshop, same with ACDSee. Still they dont look the same as with the windows viewer or email.

In Windows it says device profile sRGB as system default now and all others are set to that and still no go.

 

[stompyq]

Is there a external color management app like Nvidia's control center bypassing windows color management?

 

[Avotius]

I have Catalyst Control Center, have flipped thing on and off in there too.

 

[Sparrow]

So I just set my monitor profile to sRGB. I turned on and off proofing in photoshop, same with ACDSee. Still they dont look the same as with the windows viewer or email.

In Windows it says device profile sRGB as system default now and all others are set to that and still no go.

Photoshop can be set to automatically handle colour management, is it changing something without you knowing?

PS .. check 'Colour-Settings' in the 'Photoshop' menu that will tell you how CS is handling your files ... presumably the other program is similar

 

[stompyq]

Photoshop can be set to automatically handle colour management, is it changing something without you knowing?

I doubt if PS can override ACDSee's color management from within ACDSee. I would re install the catalyst drivers or download newer updated ones. See if that solves it. This sounds like a windows issue and less of a PS/ACDSee software issue

 

[cpc]

Sounds like file export issue to me, otherwise there wouldn't be similar problems on the Mac computer. Hence the advice to check the embedded profile in the files.

 

[Sparrow]

I doubt if PS can override ACDSee's color management from within ACDSee. I would re install the catalyst drivers or download newer updated ones. See if that solves it. This sounds like a windows issue and less of a PS/ACDSee software issue

... no I wouldn't think so, but it will within photoshop. I had that when I set mine up, I had lots of problems when I set it up ... once I got it going I've tried not to alter it since 🙂

 

[bobbyrab]

This probably won't help but you but may ultimately help me. I'm having similar issues with a recently purchased Eizo monitor, having used an apple screen for about six years.
My issue, with the monitor calibrated with Eizo's colour software using a colour monki, the resulting profile makes my home screen look over saturated as are all web pages I view, however Lightroom looks great, photoshop also great and unadjusted prints from my lab are better than ever. Strangely CS6 bridge the thumbnails look like they do in LR or PS, but the preview in the same program is the same over saturated and too strong a contrast as web pages, Bridge cs4 no problem.
If I take the screen off it's calibrated setting and select sRGB everything reverses with web surfing looking normal, and images in Lightroom, Bridge and Photoshop look flat and green.
I spoke with Eizo and Calumet, but to be honest they knew less than I do.
My laymans feeling is the monitor is capable of showing far more than standard sRGB screens and that suits complex colour management programms such as Adobe, and is allowing me better control in those programms. If I dumb the screen down to sRGB, the Adobe produced files posted online look fine, so I've learned to live with compromised web surfing knowing my actual output is more accurate as a result of the better monitor. I've asked around and had different answers each time, non of them right.

 

[Avotius]

Sounds like file export issue to me, otherwise there wouldn't be similar problems on the Mac computer. Hence the advice to check the embedded profile in the files.

When I right click and go to properties in Explorer it says "Color Representation sRGB"

In ACDSee it says the color space is sRGB

In Photoshop with Color proofing off it says RGB/8 with proofing on it says RGB/8/sRGB IEC61966-2.1 there is no different in turning it on and off.

In windows viewer it shows that image wrong and the same as it would be in an email. When you hit full screen in the viewer it shows the image the same as it would in PS or ACDSee.


I remember once seeing something on Luminous Landscape I think about a guy who worked in color management for 20 years and learned that its a huge impossible pain in the ass. :angel:

 

[stompyq]

... no I wouldn't think so, but it will within photoshop. I had that when I set mine up, I had lots of problems when I set it up ... once I got it going I've tried not to alter it since 🙂

Yeah I've had my fair share of PS color issues too. It's just that the OP's statement about the colors being fine using ACDSee and bad only when he's using Windows programs that makes me doubt it's a PS issue. IDK I could be wrong