Recent Problems

rpcrowe

Recently, I have been having problems in that my postings on smugmug are darker than when I view these same images using Photoshop CS-6. It also appears that the thumbnails and sample images are less bright than the images viewed in larger versions.

I have been using smugmug for many years now and have never had this problem before.

Here is an example...

http://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Architecture/Venice/30251557_VfHpN3#!i=2616203562&k=8ZZhTPG

I had to process the image brighter than normal in Photoshop CS-6 in order to get the image reasonably bright in smugmug. I also notice that the icon and the small display photo seem darker and more contrasty than when I view this image in X3 size,

This is really disturbing me, I have always loved the accuracy and clarity I got from smugmug displays...

Unless I can get to the bottom of this problem (whether it is my fault or the fault of smugmug) I will need to find a new way to display my photos because "GUESSING" at the contrast and density of an image when editing is no way to work...

Flounder

Hi

I checked out that image, and it appears to be in a color space other than sRGB. That can cause some differences when viewing them online compared to Photoshop. I would suggest saving the image or images again in sRGB, then replace them. That should fix the problems you're noticing when viewing your images.

Please let us know if there is anything we can help you with.

Cheers,
Nick
SmugMug Support Hero

AperturePlus

Hi Nick

Please tell me how you decided that the colour space is not sRGB?

Color space always confuses me, but this side, it appears that it is sRGB. What am I misreading?

Ferguson

AperturePlus wrote: »

Hi Nick

Please tell me how you decided that the colour space is not sRGB?

Color space always confuses me, but this side, it appears that it is sRGB. What am I misreading?

I don't know how the poster determined it, but it is a reasonable guess regardless.

The subject is deep but here's the short version: Colorspace is, in a sense, like statute miles and nautical miles. If you just post a number saying "100 miles" and the speaker is a pilot or sailor and thinks "nautical" but doesn't say it, and the listener is not, and thinks "Statute", you both get a fairly accurate idea of distance (pretty far), but not precise. One of you means 115 of the other's 100.

The same thing happens in color space. Red is still kind of red, but in different color spaces the same numeric value gives slightly different colors.

And like statute and nautical, generally speaking you always get it right if you label it. It's only when you either take the label off (and then someone guesses), or you accidentally switch labels, that you get it wrong.

The "label" in this case is an "Embedded profile". IF an image has an embedded profile, MOST things will display the right image regardless of which color space you use. But not all. But if you get it wrong somehow, the colors will be screwy (but not grossly screwy, unfortunately, or this would be easier).

The best idea when doing anything for the web is convert to sRGB somewhere along the line, and for good practice still embed the color profile. Emphasis on "Convert". in Photoshop there's a menu option called "Assign profile". Generally speaking never use it, that's the place where you can swap the label "statute mile" for "nautical mile".

Photoshop's "Save for Web" has a default option "Convert to sRGB", use that, leave it checked, and avoid "Assign Color Profile" and everything should be fine. If you are not using Save-for-Web you need to make sure you know how to Convert to sRGB somewhere along the line (but not assign).