I am going insane--please help with my computer's color management

Hi,

So, I've been using displays that have been calibrated with xrite's i1Display for a while. But I started to notice that different browsers render colors very differently on my computer, and in some cases are exact matches to what I see in Lightroom and in other cases none of the browsers match. So, not I am even doubting if Lightroom is correctly displaying the colors. I don't know what is correct or what to trust, and that is so extremely frustrating. So, hopefully someone here can figure this out...

My stuff:
Windows 8.1
Xrite iDisplay
Good LG 99% Adobe monitors

Test #1:

http://www.gballard.ne​t …embeddedJPEGpro​files.html
Using the above web page, only comparing the very first row of pictures.
All 3 browsers, Chrome, Firefox, IE all do not change left pictures switching between tagged Adobe and sRGB. (meaning all are color managed)
All 3 browsers, Chrome, Firefox, IE all do change right pictures switching between untagged Adobe and sRGB. (as expected)

The problem:
IE: untagged sRGB looks like both tagged pics
Chrome, Firefox: untagged Adobe looks like both tagged pics
AND... IE tagged pics look like Chrome, Firefox untagged sRGB
To describe the difference, the easiest to describe is the 2nd pic, the baby face. In IE, the untagged sRGB and the 2 tagged pics all have a redder baby face, and all the others look more saturated to me.

Test #2:
http://www.gballard.ne​t/firefox/
Just looking at the first row of photos, here according to the website fully compliant browsers should show no difference between the different images.
IE: no difference (and matches test #1's untagged sRGB)
Chrome, Firefox (in mode 2, default): the two are different colors
Firefox (in mode 1): no difference

So up to now, IE seems to be working more properly with untagged sRGB looking like both the tagged version, which is what I would expect. Both Firefox and Chrome's untagged Adobe matches the tagged versions, and I have no idea what's happening there. Also, to me the more saturated IE untagged sRGB looks more realistic--the other version looks very pale and just not right.

BUT...............

Now let's compare with LR:

http://pics.xyclopx.co​m/joyful/e3683b863
In LR, on my display, the left leaves/flowers are an orange color.
IE: The left leaves are pink/red.
Chrome, Firefox: Orange, like LR
iPhone 5s: Pink/red

?????

http://pics.xyclopx.co​m …kitchen/english​/e1ed712ef
LR, Firefox, Chrome look like each other
IE, iPhone look like each other

BUT:

http://pics.xyclopx.co​m/quotidian-artful/e1e559c77
Firefox, Chrome look like each other (and is less contrasty and the red is much less vibrant)
LR, IE, iPhone look like each other
???????????? This contradicts the other 2 pics.

So summary,

IE based on the test website seems to be rendering colors correctly based on color profile
IE and iPhone seem to be wrong based on first 2 pics
IE and iPhone are more correct based on the last pic

WTF???

Can anyone make sense of this? All the results contradict each other. And I don't even trust my own calibration for LR now.

Please help!

I'm not sure trying to make photos show up all the same in different browsers on your computer is worth your time. Nobody else has your computer, most people don't have calibrated displays or even know what that means, once an image is online it's out of your reach to make sure it shows up "correct" on anybody elses computer or phone or ipad etc.

For personal work it's important that it looks the same on your screen when you print it, but how it looks out there in the world is impossible to calibrate or 'force' on the millions of screens out there. What ever you see on your devices is not a guarantee that it looks even remotely the same for anybody else.

Make sure your work looks good for you on your machine and your prints, that's really all you can do. That website calibrated to their machines, not your machines.

Unless I misunderstood your post?

Just to check - are you aware that Firefox (even when set up to be fully colour-managed) only honours the profile of your primary screen, not the secondary one? As far as I know, anyway.

Edit: Also just to check, did you set Firefox up this way? http://damiensymonds.b​logspot.com …rowsers-and-facebook.html

phantelope wrote in post #17424795
I'm not sure trying to make photos show up all the same in different browsers on your computer is worth your time. Nobody else has your computer, most people don't have calibrated displays or even know what that means, once an image is online it's out of your reach to make sure it shows up "correct" on anybody elses computer or phone or ipad etc.

agreed. I don't really care as much about whether it looks right in the browsers as you said. the problem is that since there are so many discrepancies, I do not know which is correct, LR included. and that is a problem to me--I need to know that LR is correct.

what if one of the browsers are correct and LR is wrong? then that's a problem.

Web browsers aren't the way to find out if your calibration is correct.

Only print comparison from a pro lab can do that.

Do your pro lab prints match Lightroom or Photoshop?

Damo77 wrote in post #17424811
Just to check - are you aware that Firefox (even when set up to be fully colour-managed) only honours the profile of your primary screen, not the secondary one? As far as I know, anyway.

Edit: Also just to check, did you set Firefox up this way? http://damiensymonds.b​logspot.com …rowsers-and-facebook.html

actually, no I was not aware that only the profile for the 1st monitor is used. good to know!--thanks! yeah, I have 2 monitors, and the profiles are definitely different between the 2.

as for the firefox mode thing, yeah I played with that a bit. I hinted at it on test #2....

....

and I just set it back to mode #1 again (as suggested)............​... and... it looks more right!

sigh............ thanks man. I did do this but maybe I had tunnel vision. let me compare more tests with this setup. but it's looking better now...

Damo77 wrote in post #17424860
Web browsers aren't the way to find out if your calibration is correct.

Only print comparison from a pro lab can do that.

Do your pro lab prints match Lightroom or Photoshop?

you're right. but i haven't outsourced to a real pro lab yet. i guess that's the only way to know if your calibration is correct huh?

Xyclopx wrote in post #17424900
you're right. but i haven't outsourced to a real pro lab yet. i guess that's the only way to know if your calibration is correct huh?

Yep.

Which i1 do you have, by the way?

Damo77 wrote in post #17424902
Yep.

Which i1 do you have, by the way?

this one:

http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …98930&Q=&is=REG​&A=details

Xyclopx wrote in post #17424926
this one:

http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …98930&Q=&is=REG​&A=details

Cool. Well if you need it, this will help: http://www.damiensymon​ds.com.au/calibration.​html

I would suggest that you really stop worrying about this. The only applications that I will ever assume are correctly colour managed are those designed for image editing. As long as you have those set up correctly that's about all you can do. If you are seeing consistency across LR and PS and they match your prints OK that's about the best you can hope for. Assume everything else is broken. Even if it works on your system, for most others it will be broken anyway.

Alan

BigAl007 wrote in post #17425069
I would suggest that you really stop worrying about this. The only applications that I will ever assume are correctly colour managed are those designed for image editing. As long as you have those set up correctly that's about all you can do. If you are seeing consistency across LR and PS and they match your prints OK that's about the best you can hope for. Assume everything else is broken. Even if it works on your system, for most others it will be broken anyway.

Alan

i agree with you and damo77... i don't care so much about the browsers.

i guess i wasn't clear on what my real concern is. i care that LR and Photoshop look right. but in windows, you can calibrate your monitors and STILL not have windows apply the calibration correctly--it may look like it's calibrated, but at times windows can turn off and on the calibration if you don't check the right boxes. also, if you have multiple monitors, sometimes windows also switches their calibrations or disables them. without going into what needs to be done to combat this, i am just saying that just cause LR and Photoshop SEEM calibrated does not 100% mean that it's all correct. in fact, i'd wager that some percentage of the people who bought these calibrators are actually looking at a non-calibrated screen in Windows.

there is also application level color processing and system/windows level. if you switch around the profiles in the windows display UI, you'll notice that the colors are changed for the entire screen, not just the browser or individual applications like LR. so, what the application is doing is also affected by what Windows does. this leads to a problem..... how do you know if LR or Photoshop is "playing" well with the windows calibration?

when i saw that all the browsers are different that started to get me worried that maybe LR and Photoshop are wrong.... OR, one of the browsers is correct and all the rest including LR and Photoshop are wrong.