Pictures looking different in PSE3.0 vs. Web/photoviewer/etc.

[markubig]

When I post-process a picture in PSE3.0, why does it look much sharper/crisper/vibrant in PSE than it does when i post it on this or any other board or even when I view it in another viewing tool (i.e. ACDSee)?

What's bothering me is that I am adjusting the saturation/white balance based on what I see in PSE, so it looks good there, but looks dull elsewhere

Do color settings have to be set a certain way in PSE, my monitor, or Windows XP?

For instance, the picture below looks much better in PSE than it does in this thread.

Thanks, in advance . . .

[kb244]

Could be for a number of reasons. Are you using any specific colorspace in PSE. For example is your image saved in the AdobeRGB Colorspace. If so most monitors are setup for sRGB color space which is not as wide as AdobeRGB. When I view your picture, it seems very rich and saturated to me. But I have my monitors calibrated and set for using the AdobeRGB colorspace.

[scottbergerphoto]

It sounds like you are post processing in PSE which recognizes color spaces and using AdobeRGB color space, and then viewing the image in non color managed applications. If you are using AdobeRGB, you need to convert them to sRGB before posting to the web or viewing in a non color managed application like Windows Viewer.

In addition, start by calibrating your monitor with Adobe Gamma, located in the Windows Control Panel, if you haven't already done so or done some other monitor calibration (Spyder, Gretag-Macbeth).
Scott

[markubig]

OOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I think i see what you're talking about . . .

In PSE, my color settings are set to "Full Color Management" which I guess manages colors using AdobeRGB

I "Save for Web" when I save these pictures, and I didn't see the ICC profile box to check off which (if I understand correctly) sets the color of the saved picture to sRGB.

I am uploading another file to test this out. Thanks for your help!

[markubig]

WOW!!! It looks soooo much better on the web and in my ACDSee application . . . thanks guys!!!!

[scottbergerphoto]

When PSE tells you that Color Management is On, it means that it recognizes the color space the image is tagged with. That could be sRGB, AdobeRGB, ColorMatchRGB, etc. The web and many other applications do not recognize those tags and treat the image as if it was sRGB. An AdobeRGB image viewed as sRGB looks a little dull. You don't need to save the sRGB ICC profile when saving for the web because most browsers ignore them. What is important is that if you have an image that is tagged with a color space other then sRGB, is that you Image>Mode>Convert to Profile>sRGB before posting to the web.
If you are primarily using your images on the web, you can just set the camera to sRGB and not worry about it.
Scott