Mac colour space

Lianne

Lianne

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Name
Lianne
Edit My Images
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Hello I was wondering if anybody who uses a mac could help me.

I'm having trouble calibrating my screen, the colouring still looks off but I'm doing what everyone is telling me to do. When I edit the photos on my mac they look fine and then I put on to the online gallery on social media and they are different, usually darker.

Could somebody explain what colour space they use from taking the photo to saving for web and printing!

I'm so disheartened by it all.

Lianne x
 
When you save for the web it is usually best to make sure you save using sRGB as the colour space/profile. Which program(s) are you using?
 
When you save or export an image for the web (and for some printing) you will need to export with a sRGB colourspace.

If you can see a difference between you editing software and your online / social media galleries on the same monitor, I suspect you are exporting to the wrong colourspace.
If the images look fine on your Mac both in your software and online galleries, but they look darker on somebody else's computer, then the issue will more than like be your monitor that needs calibrating, the other persons monitor that needs calibrating or both.

Your monitor does not use a colourspace like AdobeRGB or sRGB. it will need to be calibrated with a colorimeter and software to get the best results.
 
I use adobe so I export from bridge, then light room then Photoshop for touch ups.

I calibrated my monitor but that is when I was having the issues, I tried changing to LCD display and that was fine but I know it's wrong.

Do I need to pay for a software, can you suggest anything?

So do I edit in adobergb which is fine for print and to put on USB for printing and then save seperatly in srgb for web?
 
Lianne said:
I use adobe so I export from bridge, then light room then Photoshop for touch ups.
Click to expand...
Not sure why you are using bridge if you have lightroom ... do you save from photoshop or lightroom? (or both?)

I calibrated my monitor but that is when I was having the issues, I tried changing to LCD display and that was fine but I know it's wrong.
Click to expand...
I understand calibration but I don't understand what you mean by changing to LCD ...

Do I need to pay for a software, can you suggest anything?
Click to expand...
probably no on both counts

So do I edit in adobergb which is fine for print and to put on USB for printing and then save seperatly in srgb for web?
Click to expand...
Basically yes, although the develop module in lightroom uses ProFoto ....

In lightroom, for web use, during the export to file be sure to select sRGB in the colour space drop down. In photoshop I use the Export | Save for web which will default to sRGB (there are multiple ways to save a jpg in PS).
 
Lianne said:
I use adobe so I export from bridge, then light room then Photoshop for touch ups.

I calibrated my monitor but that is when I was having the issues, I tried changing to LCD display and that was fine but I know it's wrong.

Do I need to pay for a software, can you suggest anything?

So do I edit in adobergb which is fine for print and to put on USB for printing and then save seperatly in srgb for web?
Click to expand...

The problem is that adobeRGB can display differently from sRGB. If the only place that you show your images is on the internet then I'd suggest changing all colourspace settings in Lightroom to sRGB to ensure consistency.

Lightroom doesn't always behave predictably, so that sometimes, even if you output in sRGB but have Lightroom set up to use a different colourspace it will output using the wrong colourspace, even though the exif data for the file tells you that it is what you want. I had this issue a couple of years back, where I set up Lightroom to use proRGB when sending images to be edited in external programs, and all my normally exported images were then output in proRGB while the exif data showed sRGB (and I got a lot of bad prints back as a result).
 
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i save from Photoshop. LCD is just the macs display LCD so I was saving in Photoshop under display which obviously isn't right.

Can I export from camera raw file straight to lightroom?
Thank you so much for your help!
X
 
Forget bridge if you are using LR.

Assuming you shoot raw (in which case the raw file has no colour space) import the images into LR. LR will edit in pro photo colourspace. From LR you can send images to PS (also in prophoto) for ant pixel based editing. Saving the image in PS will return the image to LR (prophoto).

When you export your image, then you will export to sRGB for web use.

Your mac will come shipped with a ICC profile which will probably not be 100% correct. I assume it is here you are choosing LCD. If so, that is not what you want to be doing. Apple does have a utility for eye balling your colours but it's not acurate. Idealily you need a paid for system like a Spyder Pro 5, colormonkey or similar. This gives you a device to attach to the screen and some software which will display colours of various shades. Between the device and software it will create a correct ICC profile for your monitor which should ensure you screen is displaying the colours correctly.
 
i save from Photoshop. LCD is just the macs display LCD so I was saving in Photoshop under display which obviously isn't right.
Click to expand...

Definitely not right. You need to save as sRGB.

The best way to do this in PS is to export (not save as) or save for web (in older versions).
Here you choose .jpg and sRGB as the colour space
 
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ancient_mariner said:
The problem is that adobeRGB can display differently from sRGB. If the only place that you show your images is on the internet then I'd suggest changing all colourspace settings in Lightroom to sRGB to ensure consistency.
Click to expand...

At the moment I'm showing on a gallery, putting some on my Facebook page and putting on a USB. So I need to make sure they are right for web and print. So adobergb for print srgb for web?
 
Lianne said:
At the moment I'm showing on a gallery, putting some on my Facebook page and putting on a USB. So I need to make sure they are right for web and print. So adobergb for print srgb for web?
Click to expand...


Again no. Print will usually requir sRGB unless you have a specific ICC profile for a particular printer and paper.

As suggested above, if you only display on the web and print on a home printer, then stick to sRGB throughout your workflow.
 
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Ok gotcha!!! I will test this all out on my next edit. Thanks for your help x
 
If you are using the latest version of PS then use Export | Save for Web (legacy) - it will select sRGB for you. Even printing is usually fine in sRGB. If it is a commercial print lab ask them what they want.
 
Lianne said:
At the moment I'm showing on a gallery, putting some on my Facebook page and putting on a USB. So I need to make sure they are right for web and print. So adobergb for print srgb for web?
Click to expand...

Elliot has it. I know some printers take other colour spaces, but many seem to just require sRBG.
 
So on my display profile there are the options of adobe rgb 1998
Srgb iec61966-2.1
Etc etc

I should ignore these and calibrate???
 
Also I just tried to import photos to lightroom and it's says ' the files are not recognized by the raw format in lightroom'

Any clues!! ??
 
Lianne said:
So on my display profile there are the options of adobe rgb 1998
Srgb iec61966-2.1
Etc etc

I should ignore these and calibrate???
Click to expand...

Out of the box you should have an ICC profile called iMac something or other. Use that for your display, but yes, ideally you you should calibrate the screen. IMac are notoriously way to bright and very cool (blue tint).

SRGB, AdobeRGB and ProphotoRGB are for images only and never used for displays.
 
Yes this is the problem it's so bright and definitely a blue tint! iMac isn't an option on the list so I'll calibrate although it doesn't feel like it's right. I may have to invest in a system x

Sooo if I can't use lightroom because of the format then I need to go from bridge. ,
 
Hi

What version of LR are you using? And what camera do you have?

If your camera is supported on the version of LR you should be able to import into LR , edit and export to upload to your FB page.

As above if you have issue with your screen you will need a calibration device like colour munki, spyder or i1display.
 
I updated LR so it's now let me import the images. When I export the collection do I choose to export srgb or prophoto... then export srgb from Photoshop when I'm done?
 
Sorry that bit I cannot help with, I usually edit in LR and export to JPEG before I upload them to Flickr.
 
Lianne said:
I updated LR so it's now let me import the images. When I export the collection do I choose to export srgb or prophoto... then export srgb from Photoshop when I'm done?
Click to expand...

If you are sending the image to PS for editing then use prophoto.
If you are exporting a final image then sRGB
 
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