Quick question on older Photoshop version

[partridge9]

I may have noticed this to some degree previously but now more than ever since I recently got my first digital camera and am using Photoshop much more than before. I notice that images viewed in Photoshop (I’m using the version that came with my G3, which is 5.0 LE) appear lighter, more washed-out if you will than the same image viewed with any other methods. This is true both before and after Photoshop processing of the image. I use other graphics programs without encountering this problem, which I find rather frustrating when attempting to obtain proper exposures, etc. If the image looks good after processing in Photoshop, it is too dark elswhere, including other graphics processors. Any comments, ideas or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. However, bear in mind that finances currently prevent upgrading to newer versions so I am stuck with what I have for now. Thanks.

[Jesper]

The magic word is: Colour Management.

To make sure that colours look more or less the same on different devices (monitor, printer, scanner, ...), computers use a colour management system. Just using a colour management system doesn't make colours look the same on any device automatically; to achieve this, all the devices need to be calibrated and profiled. Look at this website for more info: http://www.computer-darkroom.com/home.htm

In Windows, most software was not written to support colour management. That means that most software (including the Windows Picture Viewer and Internet Explorer) don't display images exactly correct (with regard to the colours). Photoshop however is a colour managed application. It uses the colour management system to display the image exactly as it should be.

You need to set up the colour management settings in Photoshop properly. The Computer Darkroom website contains more info on how to do this.