Pictures for the web

[Theo Dibbits]

I have my colour workflow from camera to print pretty well sorted out.(We'll have to see over the next few comps if this is really true )
I am now looking at putting some of them on the web. However when I convert them to web size by either setting the ppi to 72 and the longest dimention to 700 pixels and save as a mid size JPEG or by using the save for web option in photoshop the colours look washed out and there is a significant lose of crispness/sharpness. (The file size may vary fom 100 to 500 kb)
I know internet explorer is not colour managed but when I look at the sites of some of the professional photographers they do not seem to have the same problem.
Do you have to "pump-up" the saturation and sharpening? If yes by how much or do you have to check every individual picture?
Would putting a dark coloured background make a difference? Many of the pros seem to exhibit on dark backgrounds or use dark borders.
Is setting the ppi to 72 still true with modern monitors?

I just do not want to put a picture on the web unless it looks close to the print on my desk so any help would be appreciated.

Theo

[Paul Jones]

when I convert them to web size by either setting the ppi to 72 and the longest dimention to 700 pixels and save as a mid size JPEG or by using the save for web option in photoshop the colours look washed out ...

Just a guess, based on seeing lots of other similar posts on various forums, but are you using Adobe RGB colour space?

Images on the web need to be in sRGB colour space.

You can easily convert them to sRGB.

[Paul Jones]

Adobe RGB v sRGB

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid ... gb+web+use

[Mike]

If you are using photoshop then use the save for web option and play with the settings. Worked very well for me in the past!

[John]

The most likely culprit is AdobeRGB. Web images must be sRGB.

I use sRGB throughout, so the images translate directly and do not change colour or saturation.

As regards sharpening, ideally we should save our large images unsharpened. Then when printing we would sharpen ready for print (output sharpening) and for web we would resize and then sharpen. When sizing downwards CS2 and later will offer more resampling methods and "bicubic sharper" will maintain the sharpness as the pixels are reduced. "Bicubic smoother" gives a superior result when making increases in an image size and is now just about as good as Genuine Fractals.

[Theo Dibbits]

Ooooops. I forgot that I changed my whole workflow to Adobe RGB
I have now set up a separate RAW conversion for web pictures and that seems to have solved most of the problem of the colours washing out.
Maybe it is just me, but I am still not overly impressed with the crispness. Different levels of sharpening don't seem to solve this.
I am still using PS 7 but I get the same result when sharpening in DPP, Bibble or Capture One.
I may try some bigger file sizes as it may be the file compression that is affecting it.

Thanks for your help

Theo

[John]

Generally for web I use images 1000 pixels wide (800 for this forum) at 72ppi and with a file size of around 200-400K. Sharpening in PS7 for these would be 75%, radius 2.0, threshold 3

Worth a try?

[Andrew Shepherd]

First of all happy new year everyone!

I don't seem to be able to get this right (and I thought I had it fixed when I originally read this post).

I'm working in sRGB (Camera and Photoshop), monitor is calibrated using Spyder Express and I'm using sRGB for the printer, but when I "save for web" the colour becomes over-saturated.

I'm sure I've missed something - any ideas?

Cheers

Andrew

[John]

My guess is that you've set everything up for printing, but although that all matches it's all a bit off the norm so your web results look odd.

If you forget the Spyder and start again it should be possible to get good results in all media with average default dettings, with perhaps just a slight tweak to the printer driver to ensure the printed colour matches the screen image.

We have two computers and when I transfer images from one to the other for printing they both match and the colour of the prints is as close to perfect as necessary. That's without any special colour management.

Having said all that, the usual reason saving for web might look over-saturated might be that the image was made in Adobe RGB and when converted to sRGB it looks too bright. Or maybe you are using Firefox and you have switched on the colour management feature?

Any other ideas anyone?

[John]

I've deleted the other post that was identical to prevent two competitive threads developing. It can be very confusing if the same enquiry is posted in different forums.

[Andrew Shepherd]

Thanks John - I'll give it a go. (The other post related to printing with a pink cast but hopefully my problems are all related - with a bit of luck!)

Cheers

[John]

It will be related, that's for sure.

If you get your display looking right then the alterations to the printer can be done in the printer driver. It's one of those situations that can easily be over thought.

[Andrew Shepherd]

This is driving me mad

This is an image I've uploaded onto my website (not a particularly exciting photo) - http://www.redshank.net/adaps/mtb.jpg

If viewed via the internet (IE or Firefox) the image is quite saturated compared to the original, if you download and view via Photoshop/Lightroom/Previewer you should hopefully see a difference.

The image is in the sRGB colour space with the ICC profile attached - so I thought I was doing everything right.

The image I edit and the image uploaded seem to be different, which is driving me bananas.

Can anyone see the difference and can anyone explain what is going on? (The only thing I can think is that my web site hosts must use the Adobe RGB profile which changes the appearance - I've no idea how you change that if you can.)

Cheers

Andrew

[Andy C]

Andrew, I can see the difference! However, having said that, its only when I campare them side by side and to my eyes its only marginal though.

Unfortunatly my knowledge of colourspace is next to non-existent, so I can offer no help. Definately intrested in the answer to your problem though

Andy

[Andy C]

This has got me looking into how I do it, as I have mentioned, I dont really have a clue about colourspace/settings.

For printing images I have been using an online lab (DScolourlabs) I don't print at home. So I always assign there colour profile prior to saving. I pruchased a monitor calibrator to ensure what I see is as close as possible to reality and I thought that was it

For online images I just resize and 'save for web & devices'.

Maybe I have just been lucky or my eyes are that bad I don't notice any colour deviations. Now I look into it my .psd files have the 'adobe RGB (1998) profile' and my .jpg files have an RGB profile.

Anyway moving on, I was searching the net to find out how to make my .psd files use RGB automatically with out me having to manually keep changing the profile and stumbled across this.

http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3bc105eb the jpg link from this page makes it all clearer

Not sure if it will be of any use. checked mine and its set to 'uncompensated colour'

If anyone can shed any light on ensuring my .psd files are RGB colour and and not adobe's that would be great

Andy