Why Are My Photos Looking Degraded Online?

[Josh V]

So I was trying to send a friend a photo I took of her at a club using my photobucket account but I noticed that the quality was different.What was wierd was when I saved the photo that was on my photobucket to my HD then open it,that quality is back to normal.

I then simply dragged the jpeg into an internet exploror window and noticed the same thing happened. Heres a Screen Shot that I took and you can see it. Its the same file opened in my picture viewer and IE:

http://i467.photobucket.com/albums/rr31/JoshVPhoto/SampleWTF12.jpg

The one on the left is my photo veiwer and exactly how it look in photoshop.You can see that the drink is a much briter red.The right is the one seen in internet explorer.

Anyone have a clue??

[FlyingPhotog]

Probably because Internet Exploiter is not Color Managed (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=296149)

Are you on a calibrated monitor? In which colorspace are you shooting/editing/exporting?

Read up on the linky .. Tons of good info there! Good Luck...

[PhotosGuy]

It could be that PhotoBucket has resized?
Before uploading your images to your Photobucket account, choose either a
display or file size that is equal to or larger than that of your images. You
can do this by clicking on the 'Uploading Options' link in your upload panel
and then on the radio button next to your preferred size. If an option is
greyed out, this means the option is not available for your Photobucket
account type. Selecting a size larger than your images will prevent further
resizing upon upload and help expedite the upload process. To make the changes
permanent, you must upload at least one image from the upload panel. This is
important for Pro users using FTP or anyone using the Windows XP Publisher. If
you choose to use the file size options, the file size of the original image
will take precedence over the the display size and any display size is
accepted as long as the file size is less than your choice in the 'Uploading
Options'.
I always click on the image to get the 100% size that I've uploaded, & then use that URL for display.
Click on the thumbnail. The image will open at the left. Put the cursor over it & you'll see a (+). Click on the image again. Right-click on the image & choose "Copy Image Location". Paste that url as the link to the image.

[ImRaptor]

I'm putting my bet on the colour space being unsupported by IE. I ran into this awhile back and Rene had me sorted out in minutes about what it was I was doing wrong.

Read this thread on colour spaces http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=296149

For refference, here is what I was getting
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b319/ImRaptor/Pictureproblem.jpg

[Mark1]

MANY MANY hosting sites shrink the file size automatically to save them space. There is nothing you can do about it. It is the cost of the free account. They do try to find a middle ground though. But commonly it just kills the image. To see if your host site does it to you, just save a copy back to your computer and check the file size.

This is exactly why I host some of my own, and put the ones I dont overly care about on the free hosts.

[Josh V]

Ya,I found that although photobucket has its issues this is not my case. After reading the links from Flying Photog, It does have to do with the whole color manageed thing.

I mean I put the JPEG into a Firefox window and it degrades the color so it not any website but the web browser you are using.You must make sure your photo is sRGB and "Save For Web". Now my color is good.

[PhotosGuy]

Arg! I misread the problem. Sorry. I mean I put the JPEG into a Firefox window and it degrades the color FF3 is color managed, but you have to enable it:
Firefox (3.0.4) + add ons (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=602787)

[LV Moose]

MANY MANY hosting sites shrink the file size automatically to save them space. There is nothing you can do about it. It is the cost of the free account. They do try to find a middle ground though. But commonly it just kills the image. To see if your host site does it to you, just save a copy back to your computer and check the file size.

I thought I noticed before that images I posted from Photobucket looked degraded in sharpness, so I did as you suggested.

An 800X571 pixel image, originally 561KB, came back from Photobucket at 406KB. :confused:

[Mark1]

That is not to bad of a cut.

They do it for several reasons. One is simply storage. When you are storing millions of images, 1-2 kb per image can be a lot at the other end....now think 100kb per image...... get the point?

another is bandwidth, the less they send, the less they pay. see explanation above....

Another is to make the customer happy with load times in the browser. Nobody wants to wait while it loads. So a smaller file loads faster.

[René Damkot]

For refference, here is what I was getting

Looks like ProPhotoRGB, which should only be used in 16bpc by the way :p

Good to hear it's all sorted now, for both you and the OP ;)