Out of interest, has anyone noticed that there are differences in the colour and contrast reproduction when viewing photos, be it on a desk top or online when using different internet browsers? I've been experimenting and noticed variations between Internet Explorer, Chrome and Mozilla. IE seems to provide the best results whereas the latter differ. Any comments would be welcome.

Good read about this subject here:


http://viget.com/inspire/the-mysterious-save-for-web-color-shift

I think there are a number of possible reasons, but I suspect the problem you're having relates to how browsers work with both embedded colour spaces (eg. sRGB/AdobeRGB etc.) and/or monitor profiles. See this for a short summary

http://www.duncanmartin.com/blog/201...owsers-srgb-and-monitor-profiling/

Of course may vary according to the browser version


Cheers,

Colin

Many thanks for the replies. To add, everything looks fine on the back of the camera, Canon Zoom Browser and in Internet Explorer. In PS, everything has a yellow cast and lacks detail. The cast is reproduced in Mozilla but less so in Chrome.

Colin - To add, Duncan Martin is correct in his conclusions. I have three browsers on my pc and I have been experimenting or testing which browser provides the best colour reproduction. I have been measuring my photos online against other photographs on different online forums.

In PS if I select 'Proof Set Up' and 'Monitor RGB' everything is fine. If, however, another option such as 'Custom' is selected, the cast returns.

Two questions: is it wise to use 'Monitor RGB'? Second, if I use monitor RGB, what impact does this have on printing 'prints'?

All answers appreciated.

From what you describe there would seem to be a problem with your PS and/or screen calibration.

By default, when you open an image in PS it will use the default ICC profile (maybe supplied with you monitor, maybe one you've created by calibrating your monitor).

Proofing is meant for use to simulate how an image will look when sent to a particular device type.

Monitor RGB essentially ignores your ICC profile - ie. any calibration settings which might have been applied. The fact that you are seeing a yellow cast when not proofing for monitor RGB therefore suggests that your profile may be introducing the cast.

But that's just one aspect of the problem. Colour management is a real PITA. Going back to basics, first of all I would ensure that you are using sRGB throughout you work flow - camera should output as sRGB and PS should be set to sRGB ...

EDIT -> COLOR SETTINGS then select sRGB as the RGB working space.

Also, under "color management policies" I use "convert to working RGB" which avoids unpleasent surprises.

By using sRGB throughout you should get reasonable consistency across browsers (which also work on sRGB - more or less), though you may still have issues if the browser is capable of using your custom monitor profile (which I suspect may be wrong).

To try and sum up, you need to address both the color space you are using and the way that space is interpreted (your monitor profile).

Some people advocate using AdobeRGB, and this is in fact the default working space for Photoshop (I think), because it has a wider colour gamut. But this is only of value if outputting to a device which can handle the color range. Standard monitors can't, and nor can web browser (AFAIK). Printing is of course a whole other issue, but sRGB works well with most online services (like Photobox). Printing for magazines and the like may need to be converted to CYMK, but I wouldn't worry about that as the people doing the printing are skilled at doing the necessary color space conversions.

I've tried to keep this as brief as possible, so apologies for omissions or oversimplifications - entire books have been written on the subject!!

BTW - you may have at some point correctly set up PS color settings, but I've noticed it can sometimes forget these, particularly if PS shuts down abnormally, so worth checking everything is as it should be.

Cheers,

Colin

Colin,

Many thanks for the reply. I pressed some buttons, made some adjustments and voila, everything was how it should be. Your input has been appreciated.

Tim