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Archive 2013 · Suddenly all my images look horrible in FF/Chrome

  
 
joshn
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Suddenly all my images look horrible in FF/Chrome


I have a Dell U2711, color preset is sRGB. My camera is set to sRGB color space. I use Firefox 22. For the past *forever* I've never had a problem editing files in photoshop and then having them look the same in my browser of choice. Then about a week ago I unplugged my LCD, tried a new one, and then went back to the old one (U2711). Ever since then images look horrible in Firefox and Chrome. They look fine in Safari though.

Here is an example of Safari on the left and Firefox on the right. The image on the right looked fine in photoshop, but is awful in Firefox and Chrome.

I have not calibrated my monitor (neither before or after), but since the Safari image looks just like the one in Photoshop, that tells me it's not a calibration thing, right? I have a Spyder 4 on order anyway, just because I know I should do it more often.

Anyway, I have heard that Firefox and Chrome are not color managed browsers, but Safari is, so that might explain this situation. But I've used Chrome and Firefox for years and never had an issue until now.

I've reinstalled my video drivers. I've looked at my color management settings (Windows 7 PC). I've reset everything on my LCD. I've tried installing an older version of Firefox.

Here's the weird part - images look fine in Chrome on my Mac but not on my PC.

I don't know what to do. It's making me horrified of clients looking at final images in FF or Chrome!

Thoughts?



Jul 04, 2013 at 12:51 AM
Peter Figen
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Suddenly all my images look horrible in FF/Chrome


Well, you certainly do have a color management problem. You also have almost too many variables to make it easy to troubleshoot.

You absolutely do need to calibrate your screen and have an accurate monitor profile that describes that calibration to the system and to applications that can use it. There's also going to be a default monitor profile loaded into your system and since both Safari and Photoshop call on that as part of their display system, they are going to match, but that doesn't mean that either are correct. It only means they're using the same profile to display through.

Firefox can be color managed but you have to turn it on, so perhaps somehow that got reset somewhere along the way. Chrome has not been historically color managed, but the latest version may be. Not crazy about that browser so I don't really keep up with it.

The first thing you need to do is go and grab yourself a good monitor calibrator - the X-Rite Display Pro is the best value available for around $200 - and calibrate your screen. Then, at least you'll know you're starting off with images that are correct, or at least close. That you haven't yet calibrated and are showing clients images means to me you aren't really serious yet. When you adjust your images on a non-calibrated display, they can only look good on that monitor and no guarantees anywhere else. But you need to start with one thing at a time here and eliminate each problem in a systematic order. Start with your screen.




Jul 04, 2013 at 02:10 AM
verbiage
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Suddenly all my images look horrible in FF/Chrome


Even before you go ahead and calibrate your monitor (never a bad idea), take a look at the color space your jpegs are saved in after all processing and editing changes - is it sRGB or ProPhoto? If you're shooting raw, the color space in your camera is pretty much irrelevant, as far as I understand, and ProPhoto is the export default in LR, IIRC.

The thing is, some browsers (Safari, possibly others) recognize most color spaces and display images correctly regardless of the color space. Others, like Chrome, do not (at least not on PC). Anyway, it's simple enough to check: in Photoshop, any open files in a profile (color space) other than sRGB would have an asterisk after the file name (after the number of bits per channel). To find out which profile it is, you could go to Edit - Convert to Profile, and the name of the current color profile should be right there (in CS3, possibly others).

Just a thought...

Slav.



Jul 04, 2013 at 02:43 AM
Peter Figen
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Suddenly all my images look horrible in FF/Chrome


Of course, everything should be sRGB for web, but whatever you do, you also need to embed your profiles in your files. Some browsers like FF, when color management is activated, will also assume any untagged file to be sRGB, and if it's not, there's another source for a problem. That's part of why I'm saying to tackle one issue at a time, or you'll be taking two steps forward and one step back, and end up not knowing where you are - pretty much where you are right now.

So, to recap:

Hardware calibrate your screen.
Use a browser that you know is color managed and set up correctly
Convert a copy of any file destined for the web to sRGB and embed the profile.

Report back after the holiday.



Jul 04, 2013 at 03:13 AM
Snead
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Suddenly all my images look horrible in FF/Chrome


Have you checked your monitor's contrast settings?


Jul 04, 2013 at 05:41 AM
mshi
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Suddenly all my images look horrible in FF/Chrome


just tell photoshop to imbed sRGB when you save jpg files, and that will solve all the problems.


Jul 04, 2013 at 10:42 AM
joshn
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Suddenly all my images look horrible in FF/Chrome


Peter Figen wrote:
Well, you certainly do have a color management problem. You also have almost too many variables to make it easy to troubleshoot.

You absolutely do need to calibrate your screen and have an accurate monitor profile that describes that calibration to the system and to applications that can use it. There's also going to be a default monitor profile loaded into your system and since both Safari and Photoshop call on that as part of their display system, they are going to match, but that doesn't mean that either are correct. It only means they're using the same profile
...Show more

Thanks. I've ordered a Spyder 4 but I have also FIXED my issue by disabling color management in Firefox.

Here is what it looks like now with color management disabled.

The above is Safari on the left, Firefox on the right. Images still look fine in Chrome on my Mac but horrible on my PC. Not sure why that is the case.



Jul 04, 2013 at 10:56 AM
joshn
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Suddenly all my images look horrible in FF/Chrome


verbiage wrote:
Even before you go ahead and calibrate your monitor (never a bad idea), take a look at the color space your jpegs are saved in after all processing and editing changes - is it sRGB or ProPhoto? If you're shooting raw, the color space in your camera is pretty much irrelevant, as far as I understand, and ProPhoto is the export default in LR, IIRC.

The thing is, some browsers (Safari, possibly others) recognize most color spaces and display images correctly regardless of the color space. Others, like Chrome, do not (at least not on PC). Anyway, it's simple enough to
...Show more

Thank you. I looked and the files are saved as sRGB. When I do what you wrote in Photoshop under convert to profile it says source is sRGB IEC61966-2.1.



Jul 04, 2013 at 11:03 AM
joshn
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Suddenly all my images look horrible in FF/Chrome


mshi wrote:
just tell photoshop to imbed sRGB when you save jpg files, and that will solve all the problems.


When I look at the EXIF for saved JPG files it says Color representation = sRGB. So I assume this is being done correctly.



Jul 04, 2013 at 11:04 AM
mshi
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Suddenly all my images look horrible in FF/Chrome


joshn wrote:
Thank you. I looked and the files are saved as sRGB. When I do what you wrote in Photoshop under convert to profile it says source is sRGB IEC61966-2.1.


use Save for Web instead. make sure to check both Embed Color Profile and Convert to sRGB checkboxes.



Jul 04, 2013 at 11:08 AM
mshi
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Suddenly all my images look horrible in FF/Chrome


joshn wrote:
When I look at the EXIF for saved JPG files it says Color representation = sRGB. So I assume this is being done correctly.



plug your image url into http://regex.info/exif.cgi

and it says:

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2841/9210147990_1bd31f006b_o.jpg



Jul 04, 2013 at 11:12 AM
joshn
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Suddenly all my images look horrible in FF/Chrome


Snead wrote:
Have you checked your monitor's contrast settings?


It's set to 100% brightness, 50% contrast. These are the settings it has used since I first put it on my desk probably 2 years ago.



Jul 04, 2013 at 11:18 AM
joshn
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Suddenly all my images look horrible in FF/Chrome


mshi wrote:
plug your image url into http://regex.info/exif.cgi

and it says:

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2841/9210147990_1bd31f006b_o.jpg


Thanks. I believe that is because IMGUR strips the data. I have uploaded the image in question and got this result.

http://i.imgur.com/cUlDJdd.jpg



Jul 04, 2013 at 11:22 AM
mshi
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Suddenly all my images look horrible in FF/Chrome


joshn wrote:
Thanks. I believe that is because IMGUR strips the data. I have uploaded the image in question and got this result.

url___>"http://i.imgur.com/cUlDJdd.jpg"


I used your previous url: url____>"http://i.imgur.com/TcWDRWt.jpg", and it says no color profile.



Jul 04, 2013 at 11:31 AM
joshn
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Suddenly all my images look horrible in FF/Chrome


mshi wrote:
I used your previous url: url____>"http://i.imgur.com/TcWDRWt.jpg", and it says no color profile.


Right, because I believe that site takes that info out of the photo. I uploaded the original file to the site you linked and posted the result above. I am not sure if we are communicating properly (?).



Jul 04, 2013 at 11:55 AM
franzdom
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Suddenly all my images look horrible in FF/Chrome


I have just noticed the same thing, and it seems to be recent and extreme and interestingly enough, it is in the darks and with a dark cat that it looks the worst on

I have not been saving my web images as sRGB for a while because they have been looking better to my without, but with my new workflow involving LightRoom, I had suspected that. Now I notice all 3 browsers I use are quite different with oddly enough IE being the best of the 3 FF, Chrome, IE. But it's a terrible browser for me in other ways. I just have to figure out how to make my images look ok on Chrome again.
Thanks for this thread!



Aug 23, 2013 at 09:11 PM





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