Image quality problem

I am not really getting this hack, my photos look really poor on one of my laptop compared to my other laptop (the one I do editing on), I don't think it is because the other one not being calibrated, as other photographers' photos look just about the same on both laptop

I am worried that this is affecting my abilities to get clients in, as my type of photography, as I am sure that some people know, is concert photography or live music photography. I have had photos published by media outlet on their website which says something isn't right as the way I am editing them

The procedure is that I take photos in AdobeRGb and in RAW, and it gets process by the RAW editor (in Lightroom), exported which converts them to sRGB. I know the monitor on the non calibrated one is of a smaller resolution compared to the editing laptop, but should that really make a difference?

is it color, contrast, brightness, or what?

Why AdobeRGB? If you start with sRGB, you don't have to convert anything. Oh, my laptop looks like crap compared to my desktop 22" calibrated monitor.

Can you post a before Export (that looks good to you) and then can you get to the clients' Website and download/post an after that should show the problems?

That being said, there're a lot of variables, involving systems and displays both on the giving and receiving end!

RichSoansPhotos wrote in post #17975263
The procedure is that I take photos in AdobeRGb and in RAW, and it gets process by the RAW editor (in Lightroom), exported which converts them to sRGB.

Bassat wrote in post #17975399
Why AdobeRGB? If you start with sRGB, you don't have to convert anything. Oh, my laptop looks like crap compared to my desktop 22" calibrated monitor.

You can start with Adobe RGB, sRGB or Kawabunga RGB; the Raws will still not have color, not be in a color space and will still have to be converted to a space during the transition from Raw to RGB (tiff or jpg). That happens at the point of exit from a Raw converter, so any prescriptions, proscriptions or descriptions about camera settings are worth "klipat, hashoom". (Old Hebrew term, meaning "the skin of the garlic", i.e. worthless.)

tonylong wrote in post #17975463
Can you post a before Export (that looks good to you) and then can you get to the clients' Website and download/post an after that should show the problems?

That being said, there're a lot of variables, involving systems and displays both on the giving and receiving end!

I can't give out Raw

I always set my camera up with sRGB.

http://petapixel.com …should-probably-use-srgb/

That being said, if you are using raw and LR, it may not matter what you have your camera set to (but the prior rule still makes sense).

http://digital-photography-school.com …w-lightroom-colour-space/

That means something else might be afoot, and thus why the request for a raw file. Try running a raw file through LR, then through DPP, have both produce JPGs. Compare side to side to see if they look different.

I cannot explain why a JPG from an outside source looks about the same on both your laptops, but your own JPG looks different on both laptops. That just doesn't seem logical to me, but I might be missing something?

TeamSpeed wrote in post #17975903
I always set my camera up with sRGB.

http://petapixel.com …should-probably-use-srgb/

That being said, if you are using raw and LR, it may not matter what you have your camera set to (but the prior rule still makes sense).

http://digital-photography-school.com …w-lightroom-colour-space/

That means something else might be afoot, and thus why the request for a raw file. Try running a raw file through LR, then through DPP, have both produce JPGs. Compare side to side to see if they look different.

I cannot explain why a JPG from an outside source looks about the same on both your laptops, but your own JPG looks different on both laptops. That just doesn't seem logical to me, but I might be missing something?

Saying that, should I use the option to convert in the export?

To get to the bottom of an issue of image quality, you will probably have to describe what exactly is different between the images you see on one display versus another. Be specific. It is helpful to post an example, but it sound like you do not want to.

Is the problem with rendering very saturated colors , like areas lit by gelled concert lighting? This may be the result of one laptop's display not being able to display these highly saturated colors compared to the other display. That said, if you deal with such colors on a regular basis, a wide gamut display may give you a better picture of your image data. To check for clipping in an image, you can always try soft proofing in LR.

Have you changed your workflow, software/hardware, etc. recently to cause the issues you are now having?

Simply saying that your images don't look as good on one display as they do on another display would simply indicate that the troublesome display has some issue - why it has become apparent recently ... who knows.

The color space that you set in-camera will not affect the raw file, it will only affect (slightly) the histogram displayed on the back of the camera (which is based on the JPEG, which is rendered into the color space you set in camera). As Elie has pointed out, you get to choose the color space of your RGB image when you convert your raw file into an RGB file. The color space into which you choose to convert will also depend upon the final output device for which the image is intended. If web display, then sRGB should be your target space. If your image contains colors outside of the sRGB gamut, then you need to address this during raw conversion (for example, selectively desaturating certain areas, etc.) so that conversion into sRGB does not completely clip all of the data and leave you with a smeary mess of color.

I would not suggest using KawabungaRGB for concert photography - it is a purpose-built working color space for surf and skateboard photography. If you insist on using it, work in 16bit.

kirk

I'm trying to have a look at your portfolio on your website, and the menu is behaving very poorly on my MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014) OSX 10.11.4, Safari 9.1. "Published" keeps overlapping "Portfolio." When I am able to get "Portfolio" expanded, the sub menu disappears before I'm able to click on anything. You might want to consider a different style of menu.

What I've had to come to grips with is that photographs look quite different on different computers, and no computer in my immediate word displays my photographs as nicely as my MacBook (which I sometimes use my calibrated monitor on).

Something to consider is that people get used to what photos look like on their own devices. My photos look horrid on my husband's Dell notebook (really bad blacks), but he likes them and can't see anything wrong with them.

I edit in 16bit ProPhoto RGB and export to sRGB. Every now and then I get an image that converts poorly (usually resulting in banding). In that case, I start over and I edit in 16bit sRGB to see if I get better results. Sometimes it helps, and sometimes it doesn't.

When you say that you "take photos in AdobeRGB and in RAW," does that mean that you're capturing JPGs and RAW files? If not, I'd change the camera setting to sRGB as the AdobeRGB setting is just affecting your preview. It doesn't make sense to be previewing the photograph in a colourspace that you won't be delivering in. But, I'd also change it if you're capturing JPGs. I don't see much use in AdobeRGB JPGs when the consumer device world is sRGB (especially if you have the RAW files and can revisit them down the road if AdobeRGB takes over the consumer device world).

Can you post a couple of samples of photographs that you think are particularly poor when viewed on other devices?

Works a treat for Ultra Extreme HDR. Its gamut extends past UV into X-rays.

Transforming any RAW image into an acceptable print is nothing short of an artistic endeavor...
no amount of softproofing will get you an exact match twixt the screen image and the final print.

Add to that the differences in monitor appearance, which you are attempting...it ain't gonna happen.

Additional, IMHO, at it's best, PP on a laptop computer is an exercise in futility...the displays simply lack the color detail.
You're trying to match different laptops and have them match...hows that working out?

chauncey wrote in post #17976041
Transforming any RAW image into an acceptable print is nothing short of an artistic endeavor...
no amount of softproofing will get you an exact match twixt the screen image and the final print.
...

The soft-prrofing exercise in the output color space is meant to inspect the image for out-of-gamut color, not for a display match to some other output (like a print). My understanding of the OP's issue is not print matching but issues related to images being displayed on two different (or multiple different) displays. While soft-proofing in LR may "work," the fact that you cannot see the channels is a huge handicap when trying to assess color and clipping, especially on a narrow gamut display that may not even be able to display much to the limits, or slightly beyond, sRGB - like a laptop. At least with a view of the grayscale channels, you can assess clipping on a per channel basis by inspecting the grayscale channel images - once you figure out the offending areas and their corresponding color channels, you can develop a strategy to address clipping that will occur once you convert for a larger space (or raw file) into a smaller space. Out-of-gamut indicators in PS, etc., do not tell you how far out-of-gamut a particular color or area of the image may be, so you sort of address the issue on an ad hoc basis, adjusting the image areas locally until the OOG indicator disappears or shrinks to some tolerable distribution.

Hopefully, the OP is suffering from issues related not to the image inherently, but the display of the image on a display that is not able to show saturated colors accurately and, therefore, clips them during display. In other words, if you look at the image's histogram in sRGB and it looks okay, but the image on the display is a mess, then the offending part of the problem is the display, not the image itself.

kirk

Keep in mind that the comment was that "looking at others' photos between the two laptops yield very little difference, however my own images look visibly different between the same 2 laptops"...

That is the fly in the ointment so to speak. If it was simply an issue that there are 2 different laptops, one calibrated and one not, and all images are different between those two laptops, then the solution is pretty obvious. However if the aforementioned statement is correct, then the cause is more difficult to solve, yes?

neacail wrote in post #17975970
I'm trying to have a look at your portfolio on your website, and the menu is behaving very poorly on my MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014) OSX 10.11.4, Safari 9.1. "Published" keeps overlapping "Portfolio." When I am able to get "Portfolio" expanded, the sub menu disappears before I'm able to click on anything. You might want to consider a different style of menu.

What I've had to come to grips with is that photographs look quite different on different computers, and no computer in my immediate word displays my photographs as nicely as my MacBook (which I sometimes use my calibrated monitor on).

Something to consider is that people get used to what photos look like on their own devices. My photos look horrid on my husband's Dell notebook (really bad blacks), but he likes them and can't see anything wrong with them.

I edit in 16bit ProPhoto RGB and export to sRGB. Every now and then I get an image that converts poorly (usually resulting in banding). In that case, I start over and I edit in 16bit sRGB to see if I get better results. Sometimes it helps, and sometimes it doesn't.

When you say that you "take photos in AdobeRGB and in RAW," does that mean that you're capturing JPGs and RAW files? If not, I'd change the camera setting to sRGB as the AdobeRGB setting is just affecting your preview. It doesn't make sense to be previewing the photograph in a colourspace that you won't be delivering in. But, I'd also change it if you're capturing JPGs. I don't see much use in AdobeRGB JPGs when the consumer device world is sRGB (especially if you have the RAW files and can revisit them down the road if AdobeRGB takes over the consumer device world).

Can you post a couple of samples of photographs that you think are particularly poor when viewed on other devices?

LMFAO, yeah I know, the problem is I don't know of any good webdesigners, and the ones I get in contact with, either overcharge or *uh-hum* are a scam to say the least, and to be honest it only does that on certain monitors of a certain size, as the website was mainly designed for big monitors in mind, saying that I am in the process of doing it myself, just need to find the time that is all

I can't post any at the moment, because two have been published and there is this old issue of copyright and who took the photos etc....I don't want to be embroiled into a lengthy court case where I have other distractions at the moment