Question about hosting and the different looks of same picture

[elazarus]

Hi,

I use Zenfolio, Smug Mug and Village photos. The interface on Zenfolio is the easiest to use...but lately I find that the pictures look different compared to the same picture on Smug Mug.....

Here is a picture from my hard drive uploaded to Zenfolio

http://elazarus.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p1008013157-2.jpg


Here is the same picture uploaded to Smug Mug

http://eal.smugmug.com/photos/584174892_wPqeb-M.jpg


I mean they are entirely different. Any thoughts as to why?

Thank you

Elliot

[Hikin Mike]

Looks like Zen is automatically resizing your photo @400px × 349px VS. SmugMug @ 516px × 450px. Not familiar with either, but is there some type of setting?

[elazarus]

Thanks for replying.

With each photo hosting you have a choice of:

SmugMug: S, M, L, XL and Original but you really don't see the exact pixels

Zenfolio: Many different sizes with the Pixel x pixel size

So in the 2 pictures above I had to guess at which sizes were close to each other....but this still does not explain the differences in color.....that is driving me crazy.

Elliot

[jacuff]

How well versed are you in Color Management?

Check this thread out if it is new to you:
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=296149

If you know about all that stuff and have a completely color managed workflow and still noticing color differences... it could be due to different levels of JPG compression applied.


Ok... just did a quick save of those two images and opened them in Photoshop. The Zenfolio file is using the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 color profile, while the SmugMug one is Untagged. This leads me to believe your aren't working in a color managed environment, so you're gonna go crazy looking at differences in colors until you make your workflow color managed. For displaying on the web, you should be using the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 color profile.

[Menelaus]

smugmug also applies some sharpening upon upload.

[elazarus]

WOW! The color management info opened a whole new set of variables.

I know for certain that ACDsee Pro uses the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 color profile and I believe that Photoshop elements is set correctly as those are the 2 programs I use for my pictures.

I went to the link for Color Management and did a test and see that Safari is indeed managed as is my Firefox 3.5...although I could not check on the about:config setting as the 3.5 files were named differently that the suggestion on that CM page. I see also that IE8 is not managed nor is Google Chrome.

I do not see where you can make any changes to SmugMug, Zenfolio, Village Photos or Fototime.

So, I am not sure where this leaves me except maybe a bit more confused. The Software, browser, Photo Hosting and I am sure something else that I don't know about yet all play a big part....

So where do I go from here????

Thank you

Elliot

[jacuff]

WOW! The color management info opened a whole new set of variables.
So where do I go from here????


Keep learning about color management. ;)

Looks like Zenfolio automatically assigns the sRGB color profile to images uploaded if their isn't already a profile assigned. Triple check your Photoshop Elements setup. Make sure the Document Profile is set to sRGB before you save it. With that color profile assigned to an image and using a color managed browser, you should be able to upload the image to both sites and not be able to notice a difference in color.

[Hikin Mike]

Thanks for replying.

With each photo hosting you have a choice of:

SmugMug: S, M, L, XL and Original but you really don't see the exact pixels

Zenfolio: Many different sizes with the Pixel x pixel size

So in the 2 pictures above I had to guess at which sizes were close to each other....but this still does not explain the differences in color.....that is driving me crazy.

Elliot

Ahh....That's why I was confused.

I see no difference in colors.

[elazarus]

This is getting more fascinating......first of all thank you for your input.

Now I see the differences between browsers and have re-set my Firefox 3.5 to "0" in the about:config

Then in making sure that the ICC gets embedded is important as you never know what each Hosting service will do....and as jacuff mentioned it must be there or Zenfolio will do it for you andnot always for the better.

So far, so good......

Elliot

[Menelaus]

This is partly why I hate hosting my pics on Flickr.