Photo software- color management

[NormanL]

Greetings to all,

First post here and I'm not sure if I can word my situation right but here goes.

Several years ago I bought an Olympus 2100UZ which I love and have gotten some photos that placed in our nature photo club contests. At 2.1 mp I couldn't really compete with the big size prints. I'd been admiring the photos on the net taken with Canons and through a series of events now have a D20 available to me and own the EF 85-300 IS lens and have thet EFS 17-85 lens available too. The one I own is a birthday present from the camera ower.

My problem is the when I download the pictures to the computer they are much darker than shows on the camera display. A professional photographer friend came over to help me and came away perplexed as well. He guessed that the Camedia software grabbed the color settings in Windows XP and that the Canon color scheme is not being used in the computer. We downloaded the same pictures on my son's computer and they were much brighter and matched the camera images.

I tried un-installing both the Olympus and Canon software and then re-installing the Canon software. Didn't seem to fix the problem.

An Olympus customer service person said that it was not a problem he had encountered and suggested the un-install / re-install procedure.

We took one of the pictures in my computer into Photoshop 7 and did an Auto fix on the picture and photoshop made major changes to the bightness and color. My friend said that was proof that the file was not as it had come from the camera.

Any help would be appreciated.

Norm

Last resort is to probably re-install Windows XP but not something I'm looking forward to.. Just change email carrier and that was tramatic enough.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Hi Norman,
welcome to the forums :)

I have to say right off that I HIGHLY doubt that your freinds assesment is correct, either way. (Not that it matters much.. but it just so happens that I went from an Oympous 2100UZ to a 10D,.. so in addition to sound theory,. I have practical experience in this particular case :) )

That the "autolevels" worked a miracle is hardly any indication.. it often works miracles. In fact to me this would indicate the opposite. If it were color management that made the files look bad.. than "autolevels" would not "fight" the color management. Rather.. the fact that PS saw something wrong with the images color and levels and tried to fix it says to me that the file out of the camera was in need of work.

For us to help, truly we may need to see an original "dark" file from the 20D.. hopefully with exif data as well.

Anywya.. DEFINATELY don't worry abouut reinstalling windows.

[Tdragone]

A few notes; Many users around here will confirm that the picture brightness on the display is not necessarily what you will see on a monitor. Most people turn their display brightness DOWN on their camera to get a more representative preview when reviewing pictures on their camera.


Second thing; you mentioned adobe; Have you adjusted your monitor to make sure your monitor is displaying the images correctly (Maybe not directly linked to the problem; but this will allow you to see more closely how the picture does look) http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/321608.html

You should be able to see all the different gradiations between black to white on this link (you may need to create a login to get there) http://canong2.dynip.com:8086/postnuke/adjust-display.php#

Also; curious how images from your camera look on his monitor w/o adjusting them..

This should help you to see what is really coming out of the camera to pinpoint the descrepancies...

Hope it helps.

-Tom D

[NormanL]

thanks friend,

It would be nice if it is human error, that doesn't take much to correct. Computers are another story. How would I post a picture on this site for you to see?

Norm

[NormanL]

Hi, thanks for your input.

I have modified my monitor using the adobe gamma program in my control panel.

I did have trouble seeing the dark box inside the other box in the brightness and contrast adjustment. I also had to adjust the three color boxes and now I get better monitor color.

I'll go to the Adobe site when I get a little time tonight. Thanks again.

Norm

[NormanL]

Tom,

The second site you referenced will not load.
<< (you may need to create a login to get there)
<< http://canong2.dynip.com:8086/postn...ust-display.php#

Could you tell me where I would have to login at?

Norm

[Tdragone]

Go here:

http://canong2.dynip.com:8086/postnuke/
and select Sign up directly under the username and password boxes.

-Tom D.