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Misc: Which color profile should I use for online photos?
Like a bunch of people who care about presenting photos the right way online, I have always hated the fact that I can work on developing a shot (I shoot almost exclusively in RAW) only to upload it and have it look totally washed out. I started doing a little bit of research into why that is and may have broken through.
Here’s what I did:
- Took one photo that was previously developed
- Opened it in Photoshop under each of the four available profiles that the RAW developer offers
- Resized it to 500px on the long edge
- Saved each photo with the name of the profile as the filename
- Uploaded to my Flickr account
- Compared them to the original
Take a look at this set of photos and I’ll do what I can to explain what I found out.
sRGB
Pro Photo RGB
Color Match RGB
Adobe RBG
Under each photo is the profile I set using Photoshop CS3’s RAW developer. There are many more within Photoshop itself, but for ease of workflow, I tend to rarely mess with the photo once I’ve developed it in RAW. Here is what I learned:
- The look of the photos depends on which browser you’re using
- In Safari, they all looked very similar to me
- I use Firefox almost exclusively on a Mac, and the difference is dramatic
- The point was not to see which was truest to real life, but which was truest to the original photo
- The “Color Match RGB” profile was truest
- The “Pro Photo RGB” profile was very different from all three
- The “sRGB” and “adobe RGB” profiles washed out the color a little more than the “Color Match RGB” profile did
I once heard someone say that when individuals design websites for themselves, they tend to make it look the best in the browser they use personally, and can live with it looking a little off in others. I definitely resemble that. And there’s not much I can do that I want to spend my free time on to change it. So for that reason, I’ll be using the “Color Match RGB” profile from here on out.
To anyone else thinking about why their photos are different online, try it out. It’s a very easy test.
Comments
The Anon Guy, Jun 1, 12:47 PM #:
In IE-7 Color Match is the clear winner for richness in color. sRGB and Adobe are washed out a little, though sRGB not as much. Pro Photo is quite different. It looks like sRGB with a dark tint. So Color Match should be the best match across most all browsers.
Thanks for that info. That’s basically exactly what I would say about Firefox 3 beta on my Mac. I read that it’s almost entirely browser-dependent now since Flickr, which I use, stopped stripping color profiles at some point. At least now I know and I wont hate the uploaded versions of photos I think look great.
The Anon Guy, Jun 1, 03:49 PM #:
No problem. Now you just have to hear from the random Opera user.
Bob, Jun 2, 11:56 AM #:
I’m confused.
I rarely, if ever, shoot RAW. To me, the file management hassle is not worth the end result for most day-to-day applications—especially screen output.
For both Web and pre-press production, high-res. jpegs and tiffs are most often more than adequate given most end-user viewing platforms (consumer screens, paper). Most images are viewed on a screen with a limited gamut and print production is most often done in the CMYK color space.
If the final output is a screen, most screens are going to show differences for a variety of reasons, profile being just one of them.
As far as profile, I just dug this up: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/prophoto-rgb.shtml
I NEVER use sRGB. However, if you look at the very last illustration on this page, you’ll note that although ProPhoto RGB has the widest gamut, at the end of the day, most end users will never know the difference.
IMO, it’s best to get good at color correcting for end use (web, print) within a certain profile (I use Adobe RGB), as well as knowing when and where (i.e., which channels) to sharpen and how to use each color space proficiently. I’m a LAB lover for both print and web, simply because you can get much richer colors using curve manipulation and sharpening the L (Luminescence) channel.
If doing the quick and dirty approach, I usually adjust the levels sliders in RGB, sharpen to taste (again, depending on output) and save accordingly. Not sure if this is helpful, but it’s a good discussion nonetheless.
Of course, if you’re shooting with Nikon, you don’t have to do any of this because the images come out perfectly as is….
;)
I don’t know whether it’s an argument about which profile you like best. I have always struggled with making the photo I upload (which is the primary destination for just about all my photos) look the same as the photo I edited. That’s why I tested it. I recognize that it’s flawed, at least, but it’s a better guideline than just hoping for the best, as I was doing before.
I see the screen argument, but I think you can get a good idea by looking at everything using the same screen and gauging from there.
If you don’t use RAW, then I think you need to check out a trial for Lightroom. I almost never open Photoshop anymore when working at my office. I don’t have a copy of Lightroom at home, but wish I did. Lightroom handles all the RAW editing and you can do just about anything with basic to even intermediate editing in the RAW developer. No layers or any of that more advanced stuff, but it’s a killer app.
I can’t believe that other browsers display images different.
I mean, I’m not going to open up iE and test it. that would be a waste of time.
I use whatever profile the camera outputs.
I only use RAW for images I really want to edit a lot. The only thing RAW can get you is better dynamic range and more precise control of white balance, but it isn’t going to help if you’re trying to put tits on a chicken.
-M
Zack Sheppard, Jun 17, 02:29 PM #:
Actually, the best profile to use if you want people to see the photos as you do when saving is sRGB. Most browers (except safari and the newly released Firefox 3) will ignore whatever color profile you set and show it in sRGB. So if you just save it as that, it should look the same for everyone.
Here is an article art UTATA with more info:
http://www.utata.org/techtata/18606.php
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