Missing Color Profile

Tom Potter · February 6, 2013

Hey Guys,

I am uploading my first 10 images to a stock photo agency (VEER). On a couple of them, I got the following error message: "Missing a color profile". What does that mean and how would I fix it.
Why wouldn't I get that error message for all my images if I process them all with LightRoom?

Thank You,

Tom Potter
www.tompotterphotography.com

arodney · February 7, 2013

You're getting the error where? Lightroom always exports and embeds an ICC profile. Do you have Photoshop? You can open the document and examine if there isn't an embedded profile but I suspect that IF it's the upload site giving you the error, it's just wrong.

MarkR · February 7, 2013

How are the images getting into Lightroom and how are they being exported?

I did have a problem once with scanned images using VueScan not embedding ICC profiles. It may be some third party application in your workflow is doing something similar?

arodney · February 7, 2013

Even if you were to bring an untagged document into LR, it will assume sRGB and if you export, unless you alter that in the settings, you'll get sRGB. IOW, LR can't export an untagged document.

pathfinder · February 7, 2013

Rodney, I have recently had images exported from Lightroom 4, that I specifically instructed to be sRGB in the export dialogue, that when seen on screen in Smugmug, the Smugmug exif box says the image has no color profile. My RAW files are imported as dngs into LR4, so they all have profiles when the are imported.

I thought at first this was an error of mine, but I am beginning to think there is something else occurring here. I have been uploading sRGB images to my Smugmug galleries without any issues for years, and all of a sudden I am seeing files without an ICC profile - at least that is what the exif box on my Smugmug gallery tells me. SO now I am wondering if this happens in the exporting via Lightroom 4, or if the profile is getting stripped on the uploading.

I will investigate this further, as this has happened several times to me recently.

arodney · February 7, 2013

pathfinder wrote: »

Rodney, I have recently had images exported from Lightroom 4, that I specifically instructed to be sRGB in the export dialogue, that when seen on screen in Smugmug, the Smugmug exif box says the image has no color profile.

Well one or the other is wrong. Did you examine the image? You can of course check this in Photoshop an elsewhere. Or just send me a suspect document and I'll look at it.

I'd put far more faith in LR doing it correctly, not the web site. I've never heard of LR saving an untagged doc.

arodney · February 7, 2013

pathfinder wrote: »

I have been uploading sRGB images to my Smugmug galleries without any issues for years, and all of a sudden I am seeing files without an ICC profile - at least that is what the exif box on my Smugmug gallery tells me.

Another thing, since this is presumably a web gallery, there's really zero reason to have an embedded profile, this site should treat everything as sRGB. Another reason why I think the issue is with Smugmug.

Also, there are ways to use EXIF instead of an actual ICC profile to define sRGB. The idea one must upload a tagged sRGB document seems a tad silly.

pathfinder · February 7, 2013

I have always created my 8 bit jpgs for my Smugmug web galleries as sRGB files, and most of them display sRGB in the EXIF reader on Smugmug as the color space.

But now some of my more recent images are reading "uncalibrated" in the Color Space block in the exif data reader on Smugmug. The images look identical in Photoshop and in Safari on my SM pages, so yes, I think they are ok, but just wonder why they no longer are recognized as sRGB in the reader. LIke this image for example

Close%20up%20Upper%20Cataract%20Falls%2090-XL.jpg

And this screen shot, that was saved as an sRGB jpg, is listed as an unknown color space also

My operating system is OS 10.7.5 and my bowser is Safari 6.0.2

I am not saying that Lightroom is not tagging the profiles correctly, just that I never really had this problem a year ago, that it seems to be more recently that this has been happening, and I am not sure wherefore this new behavior comes from .

arodney · February 8, 2013

If you open the doc in Photoshop and check the Assign Profile command (assuming you don't have the warning on for untagged images), then it's clear: there's a tag. That Safari and Photoshop (and presumably LR) visually match, the outcome seems clear: Smugmug is wrong. It's a bug. And as I pointed out, the lack of an embedded profile isn't a problem anyway. Let them know the need to either fix this or better, setup the system such that it isn't necessary to embed a profile.

pathfinder · February 8, 2013

Indeed, when I open both images in my previous post, from above, with the Color Settings in CS5 checked to ask when opening a file about a profile mismatch, the files are both clearly tagged as sRGB files; so yes, I think my files are being handled correctly on my end by LR4. It does seem the exif reader box is not correctly interpreting my files. Hmmm.....

Thank you, Andrew, that does help me understand things better.

Missing Color Profile

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