Washed out Reds when uploading with ProPhoto color scheme

Daphotos

Hi everyone,

I've run into a problem with my color management. After retouching my images in Lightroom and reading the sRGB vs. Adobe 98 article concerning color schemes, I decided to export my images by the ProPhoto scheme. Since this was the recommended choice, due to the wide gamut of color, I thought everything would be okay.

Not so much the case....

Immediately, I started noticing that my reds looked washed out and muted. Thinking that it was a trick of the mind, I went back to Lightroom and re-exported them again. After uploading, I took another look. Same problem.

My question is this: since ProPhoto is the recommend color profile, would the washed out reds look the same in print as on the monitor? Should I just go back to sRGB?

Please go to http://daphotos.smugmug.com and click on Food. Then look at the umbrella picture for an example. It's a red umbrella.. yet.. it's washed out.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Andy

Daphotos wrote:

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

http://blogs.smugmug.com/pros/2005/12/15/prophoto-rgb-its-great-but/

The web is an sRGB world

More here:
http://www.smugmug.com/help/srgb-versus-adobe-rgb-1998

Please holler with your questions, we'll be happy to help after you read those two links

ivar

Daphotos wrote:

Hi everyone,

I've run into a problem with my color management. After retouching my images in Lightroom and reading the sRGB vs. Adobe 98 article concerning color schemes, I decided to export my images by the ProPhoto scheme. Since this was the recommended choice, due to the wide gamut of color, I thought everything would be okay.

Not so much the case....

Immediately, I started noticing that my reds looked washed out and muted. Thinking that it was a trick of the mind, I went back to Lightroom and re-exported them again. After uploading, I took another look. Same problem.

My question is this: since ProPhoto is the recommend color profile, would the washed out reds look the same in print as on the monitor? Should I just go back to sRGB?

Please go to http://daphotos.smugmug.com and click on Food. Then look at the umbrella picture for an example. It's a red umbrella.. yet.. it's washed out.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I don't know too much about colorspaces, but for webuse and uploading to smug, sRGB is the way to go

Daphotos

Thank you Andy!!!!
Clear, consice and to the point. Thank you for those articles! I get it now. sRGB all the way.

claudermilk

Daphotos wrote:

Should I just go back to sRGB?

Yes.

I understand the reasoning behind messing with aRGB, or ProPhotoRGB, but the fact is you eventually have to go back to sRGB to print or display on the web anyway (yes, there are some printers that handle aRGB--they are the exception that proves the rule. :). Unless you have a very specific reason for playing in the other color spaces it's really more trouble than it's worth for no gain in the end.

I was convinced a while back to run things in aRGB for the wider gamut. Then after dealing with all the extra hassle, I found that in the end there was no visible difference from images that lived in sRGB from start to finish. So common sense broke out and I elminated the extra work and simply live in the sRGB world.