Queston on Exporting via Aperture or Lightroom 2

dixonduke

Please forgive my n00b'ness, as I am still learning. But I am having difficulty uploading my post processed photos into SmugMug.

Now, I can get them there just fine and really, really, easily. But it is what I see after they arrive that has me baffled and I am unsure what I am doing wrong.

Example:

edited, and exported to my desktop as a .jpg using sRGB colorspace.



raw image file exported directly to SmugMug with no adjustments other than to export as .jpg, using sRGB colorspace.



What I see my image as prior to exporting





Can anyone offer any advice as to how to better upload my pictures?

Respectfully,
Duke

baldmountain

What is your question?

Are you concerned that the colors appear different? Then welcome to the world of Color Management.

dlplumer

There is an Aperture plugin for exporting to smugmug: http://www.apple.com/aperture/resources/plugins.html

Dan:D

dixonduke

I am sorry, I failed to explain myself more completely.

My question is, why do the pictures not look like my finished product?

Step 1. Download pictures from camera
Step 2. Tweak picture.
Step 3. Use the plug-in for exporting to SmugMug (I have it installed on both Light room and Aperture), to export.
Step 4. Look at picture uploaded to SmugMug and scratch head!?!?.

Maybe you are not seeing what I am seeing. But I see a distinct difference in the colors in the photos I posted as my examples. I even exaggerated the colors on the example from Light Room, to prove to myself that my tweaking was not making it to my exported photos.

baldmountain

dixonduke wrote:

Maybe you are not seeing what I am seeing. But I see a distinct difference in the colors in the photos I posted as my examples.

This is a REALLY big question. People spend their whole lives studying it. Have a look here for help from the folks at SmugMug: http://www.smugmug.com/help/display-color

Thunder Rabbit

Howdy, folks.

I'm not so sure this is a color management issue. It looks to me like the photos are exporting without development settings. Although Lr2 is my primary image program, I export to Smug Mug via Adobe Bridge. So I'm not sure how Lr2 export to Smug Mug works. But in any case, somewhere along the line the images must be converted to jpgs. I have created a file hierarchy on my hard drive which mirrors my Smug Mug categories and galleries. I export from Lr2 into the appropriate file, resized and copyrighted. I then export these jpgs to Smug Mug. I use color labels to tell me which photos have been exported to Smug Mug and which ones haven't.

Try exporting one of your examples to your hard drive as a jpg, then upload to Smug Mug. See if your results are any better.

If not, try this:

In Lr, go to your catalog settings (Edit>Catalog Settings). Click the "Metadata" tab. Make sure the "Automatically write changes into XMP" box is checked.

Hope this helps.

Peace,
Thunder Rabbit
www.thunderrabbitgrfx.com

PS: You might try this. Create a virtual copy of one of your examples. In the develop module, mess it up (-2.00 exposure setting or something that would be obvious to the eye), and then export it by your usual method. If the exported version isn't messed up like the virtual copy, your develop settings are not being applied on export. If it is messed up, the solution might be beyond my pay grade.

dixonduke

Thank you all for the help.

I have been doing homework trying my best to identify why my adjusted photos were not making it to my SmugMug, just the raw un-adjusted photos were. I went back and noticed that it was inconsistent, sometimes the adjusted photo would actually make it, which baffled me even more.

Well, after it was all done I have figured it out, and it is pretty simple too.

It has to do where I would "right-click" and pick the export option. More specifically which photo I would click on.

As exampled in this picture; I was in the habit of right clicking on the thumbnail photo...



When I exported from the thumbnail image, none of my adjustments made it to the SmugMug gallery.

However when I "right-click" on the larger "preview" image, all of my adjustments stayed intact and made it to SmugMug.



In the end it wasn't a problem with Lightroom 2 or Aperture, it was with me and how I selected the photo for export.

Lesson learned, Always export from the larger "preview" photo and not the thumbnail.

Thank you all for your words of wisdom and help offered, it is truly appreciated.

dlplumer