Which should I follow? LR3 & online hosting problem

I notice that the colors/saturation of my edited photos on Lightroom 3 looks MUCH more different than when I upload them onto Flickr and 500px.

It looks much less saturated on online hosting websites. I edit my photos according to how they look in LR3. After I Export them and open it up with Preview (I use a 13" Macbook Pro), the colors still look the same.

Does my Macbook or LR3 have some color problems, or is Flickr and 500px really desaturating my photos? Which colors should I follow? I don't really look at my pictures from other computers, so I don't know how others view my pictures.

Use sRGB and embed the profile, or use a fully color managed browser.

Have a look in the links from my sig, or here: www.getcolormanaged.co​m/color-management/saveforweb/

Thank you Rene! I'll look at the links you supplied.

Basically, what Rene is saying is LR is outputting your images (most likely) in the ProPhoto color space. The best space for the web is sRGB.

LR (and PS) is very capable of converting these colors and maintaining nearly all of them in an appropriate space for the web that can be seen in color managed browsers. You most likely will not be able to see a difference once the appropriate conversion takes place and the correct profile is in place.

So, build yourself a preset export for outputting jpgs at the desired size with the appropriate profile in LR's exporting dialog; or take them to Photoshop to do it manually by using "save for the web". I'm sure Rene's link has a tutorial.

Thanks Alan and Rene. Sorry for the late reply; I just saw this thread again.

The sRGB color space really, really helped! My colors are much more accurate now.

I'm curious: if I was to print these pictures, would the sRGB color space also be the most appropriate to ensure that I get the most accurate colors on photo paper? (Assuming my printer can handle the color gamut).

XxDJCyberLoverxX wrote in post #13330961
Thanks Alan and Rene. Sorry for the late reply; I just saw this thread again.

The sRGB color space really, really helped! My colors are much more accurate now.

I'm curious: if I was to print these pictures, would the sRGB color space also be the most appropriate to ensure that I get the most accurate colors on photo paper? (Assuming my printer can handle the color gamut).

If you do your own printing, you can let Lightroom manage the colors, or send a file from Lightroom to your printer, and the color space won't matter -- the software sorts it out.

If you send to a lab, you have to get the specs from them -- some will specify sRGB, in fact most will be quite happy with that space, but some will either allow for or even prefer something else. Check with the provider!

And, glad you got your problem sorted!

To add to what Tony said, just make sure you are soft proofing correctly for whatever printing workflow you will be using. If you're using an in-house printer, make sure your monitor is calibrated and use the appropriate soft proofing profile (PS) for the media you intend to print. If you are using a lab, make sure you have their soft proofing profiles during your editing. As long as your monitor is calibrated and you are using those profiles, your print from any lab should be spot on.

A lot of people think you have to get all techy in the printing. If you're printing to a printer at home, nearly all printer manufacturers (or, at least the descent ones like Epson, Canon, etc.) have their crap together and you can 9 times out of 10 use their profiles and allow the printer to handle the management. I actually use a Epson 7800 for fine art reproductions and nearly always let the printer handle the colors. (talking sRGB here of course) It's extremely rare that I have to print twice to fix something... if ever.

The main thing is to make sure your monitor is calibrated and you are using the correct soft proofing profile for the target printer and media. It's that simple.

Thank you. I planned to send my prints to a lab to get it done, but I just haven't gotten around to it.

I need to look at calibrating my monitor and soft proofing profiles from different labs.

Thanks a lot!