Images look darker outside of photoshop?

I got a new computer last month long ago and installed cs4. Everything works fine, everything looks fine. But then if I save my image to a jpg and view it outside of Photoshop, it looks so dark! I re-open that same file back into Photoshop and it looks fine again.
I checked all my settings from the photoshop in my old computer and everything is the same. I originally thought maybe it's my monitor? but how can it be when my images look fine in photoshop?
I really have no clue. I thought maybe it's only when i save things as jpegs? but nope. same problem with bmp, pdfs, pngs, etc. Someone help me pleasssee!! I'm a freelance graphic/web designer and I can't afford to be having this problem!

This means you need to calibrate your monitor to get a good profile.
Photoshop is colour managed, which means it uses the profile where non-colour managed applications don't.
Have a look at this: http://epaperpress.com/monitorcal/index.html
Adobe Gamma is no longer bundled with Photoshop but You can try QuickGamma: http://www.quickgamma.de/indexen.html
In the long run, it pays to get a hardware calibration device such a the Eye-One Display.

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When converted to RGB, image looks darker??

in photoshop CS4, I use Adobe RGB (1998) as my working profile. I open a document, I change it's profile from RGB, using "view"-"mode", to anything else, say Lab, and everything is fine up to now, but then I undo the change, and what I get is a darker image than before. I don't get the original image I opened. Same thing happens if I use the "convert to profile" option also.
I close the image and reopen it, it still looks darker. I restart photoshop and open the image, only then I get the original image with normal colors again. This happens only when I convert back to RGB, not from RGB and not between any other profiles.
So basically when I, at some point, change the color profile from RGB to any other profile and then back to RGB the image looks darker, and the only way to fix this is restarting photoshop. this didn't happen in any versions before cs4, what should I do? thanks.

thanks very much for your response. Actually I had the latest drivers and photoshop 11.0.1, then I downgraded my drivers and this solved the issue.
for everyone else using ati graphics cards, I had this issue with version 9.2 and 9.3, however, 8.1 solves this issue.
thanks very much.

Photoshop cs6 images look dark and green when put into dropbox.

I have just upgraded to PS CS6 and my images are looking dark and green when I upload them into dropbox to send to clients for review.
A screenshot of my image looks perfect in dropbox but if I save it directly it looks terrible.

sounds like you have Prophoto in the soup (and some color management issues, tagged vs untagged, color-managed vs not color-managed viewers)...

Images look less saturated in Photoshop CC 2014

I import my RAW images into Lightroom 5 and make some basic adjustments. Then I edit the image in Photoshop with the Lightroom adjustments. I clean up the images and crop to the size I like and then I use the Perfect Effects 9 plugin to do some more edits. I finish my edits in Perfect Effects 9 and save them which brings me back into Photoshop CC as a new layer. In Photoshop the image looks less saturated than it did in Perfect Effects 9. I then save the Photoshop file and exit. When I look at the PSD file in Lightroom 5 browse window, it looks the same as it does in Perfect Effects 9. Why does it look less saturated in Photoshop CC 2014?
Here are my colour settings:
Lightroom 5:
External Editing:
     Edit in Adobe Photoshop CC 2014:
     File Format = TIFF
     Color Space = AdobeRGB(1998)
     Bit Depth = 16
     Resolution = 240
     Compression = zip
Additional External Editor:
    Preset = Perfect Effects 9 Suite
    File Format = PSD
    Color Space = AdobeRGB(1998)
    Bit Depth = 16
    Resolution = 300
Perfect Effects 9:
General:
     Working Color Space = sRGB IEC61966-2.1
Files:
     Copy Options:
     File Format = PSD
     Color Space = sRGB IEC61966-2.1
Plug-ins:
     Lightroom:
     File Type = PSD
     Color Space = Adobe RGB 1998
Photoshop CC 2014:
    Color Settings: Custom
    Working Spaces:
    RGB = sRGB IEC61966-2.1
    CMYK = U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2
    Gray = Dot Gain 20%
    Spot = Dot Gain 20%
What color settings do I need to use so that the images have the same saturation look in all three programs? How do you know which image in which program is showing as the correct saturation?

No, just keep it at sRGB. As long as you have the "preserve" policy, the working space actually isn't all that important. The embedded document profile will always override it (as it should).
I had to read this a couple of times to follow the trail properly. Leaving Perfect Effects (which I don't know at all) out of it - does the very same file iteration, with the same edits, look different between Photoshop and Lightroom? Did I get that right?
In that case you have a bad monitor profile. This can sometimes throw off one application but not the other. Recalibrate, or if you don't have a calibrator go into Windows color management and set sRGB IEC61966-2.1 as default display profile. When done relaunch all applications so that they can pick up the new profile at startup.

Images looks darker in Adobe Camera Raw than in Photoshop

when I open a raw image in adobe camera raw at 16 bit Adobe RGB and don't make any adjustments in acr when I then bring it into Photoshop is looks softer contrast and lighter.

James Bechdel wrote:
I think I solved it. Every place I could change to Adobe RGB I did
Er...I don't really think that solves anything. But you may succeed in temporarily hiding the problem.
You do have PS color management policies at "preserve embedded profiles", right? As long as you do, there's no particular need to synchronize PS / ACR / Lr color settings, any source profile should be honored anywhere.
The reason Adobe RGB works as monitor profile is because it's a known good, not corrupt, profile - not because it's the same as a document profile somewhere. Those two are not supposed to be the same. But for a wide gamut monitor it's close enough to work for diagnostic purposes.
NEC Spectraview is a solid and reliable calibrator. But that doesn't help if the OS doesn't load the profile correctly.
One gotcha with Spectraview (and Eizo Colornavigator) is that it's so easy to switch calibration target and the associated monitor profile. That's fine, but you also need to relaunch any color managed application that happens to use the monitor profile. That profile is loaded by the application at startup, and it will continue to use it even if it's changed at system level.

Color looks muted and darker outside of photoshop

I have checked all the color settings in PS and nothing has changed.. My photos look one way in PS then when saved and opened elsewhere (ie: just my desktop background & others) they muted and darker. please help, I have not changed anything that I know of.
Thanks

In what image mode are you working? Creating a document in CMYK and then displaying it on a screen, which is RGB, may be the issue.

Images become dark and saturated Photoshop JPEG

So I have noticed several people having this problem, and the solutions that work for them don't seem to work for me!
I start in Camera Raw 8.0, then move to photoshop to crop and tweak a little bit more, then when I save to JPEG and view in windows photo viewer or other medium, the photo is dark and overly saturated. I understand that photoshop is a color mangaged space, and that most other programs are not, but I still can't figure out how to make what I see in photoshop translate to the JPEG image. These will eventually be used on a website and I need everything to look as professional as possible. The image on the right is really dark, especially on the front lawn and porch.
Here are my color settings:
If anyone can help, it would be greatly appreciated.

I suspect that when you're seeing your images not looking right you're viewing them through an incorrectly or incompletely color-managed combination of software and settings. Note that Internet Explorer, while it does read image color profiles, can ONLY show you proper color if your monitors are set to display the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 color space accurately. It makes the (incorrect) assumption that all monitors are sRGB. I believe Windows Photo Viewer only does proper color-management if set to display in a window, not full-screen.
If you're wanting to publish on the web, one generally accepted "least of evils" method is to publish the images with a profile and in the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 color space. At least that way people with "standard gamut" monitors will see them with similar to accurate colors, and folks with properly color-managed setups will see them accurately. Firefox and Safari do NOT assume your monitor is sRGB, and both use the image and monitor color-profiles during image display.
In the bottom-center of Camera Raw is what looks like a link for setting workflow options. If you click it, it will allow you to set Camera Raw to open your images into any of several profiles. As I recall, the out-of-box default is Adobe RGB. You *could* consider converting your images to the sRGB color space directly, then whenever you save them they'll be in the color-space that's more likely to be seen properly. Or you could open them into a wider gamut color space (as they are by default), then Convert them (your last dialog above) to the sRGB color space before saving as JPEG (or use the Save For Web function to do that conversion while creating the JPEG).
There's really no "one set of best parameters" you can just set and forget for color-management. All the various settings and functions have a good reason for being provided. The important thing is to start to understand how color-management works, so you can begin to make the settings and workflow choices that make the most sense for you, to accomplish your goals.
Note that some programs aren't color-managed at all, still others are improperly doing it, and others actually get it right. You really can't be sure everyone is going to see your image in the correct colors, so you have to try for a good compromise. Yes, color-management in the real world is kind of a mess.
-Noel

Images look dark and faded

Soon I am selling my 7 month old iBook so I can get the new MacBook pro... I erased everything in the disk.. and I reset everything. Next step are the updates. After almost a whole day making updates (atleast waiting fo them to download), now my computer (especially iPhoto) suffers from discolored images. Icons seem to be inmune to it... but for example Messenger For Mac icons and display pictures are also discolored.
*Update: seems the problem comes spontaneous. I realized that it may come from the new Messenger for Mac which brings the option to " Let others see what I'm listening too". This option automatically displays the song i am listening too in itunes in my display name. Each time i put a song on itunes means that the next time I open iPhoto the images wll look faded.

sounds like you have Prophoto in the soup (and some color management issues, tagged vs untagged, color-managed vs not color-managed viewers)...

Still image looks dark

I'm importing a still into a motion project, and somehow its opacity not at 100%. However, on the behaviors tab the opacity is at 100%.
It seems to be something with this particular project. I opened a new motion project, and imported the same still into that new project and the still's opacity looks fine. Somehow I've got some setting or behavior going on in the other project.
Any guesses?

Thanks for your response.
Finally, I just created a new project, then copied and pasted all the assets and elements into that new file -- along with the still photo. Everything looks great in the new project. Very hard to figure. I must've hit some button, or changed some setting in the original project that I was unaware of.
Anyhow, all good now.

Why do images I export look darker than they do in Aperture?

I'm using Aperture 3.2.3. Onscreen Proofing is on and set to sRGB IEC61966-2.1. In my image export settings, I've also selected sRGB IEC61966-2.1 and Gamma Adjust is set to 1.0 (which should mean no change, right?).
If I export an image and then view that image outside of Aperture (using Photoshop, Preview, even just selecting the image in the finder and pressing spacebar to view it), the image looks darker than the same image looks in Aperture. But I'm using the same Onscreen Proofing and image export setting of sRGB IEC61966-2.1. What's going on here?

Thanks Leonie, the second part revealed that I have been an idiot, although the behaviour is still surprising. The folder has a mix of DMC-G3 raws, Fuji X10 raws, and DNG files produced from both. For the Fuji X10 files, the DNGs produce images and the raws produce the "Unsupported file format" message. The latter is not surprising, the former a little surprising (as I've heard that DNGs only work when the associated raw works). The last two remarks don't directly address my problem (or perceived problem), but they perhaps set the frame for my expectations.
For the G3 files, when I look at it more closely, the G3 raws DO display correctly, while the G3 DNGs give "Unsupported file format". I had managed to fool myself into thinking it was the other way round (Aperture does rather hide the full file name).
So I was completely wrong, Aperture does support DMC-G3 raw, it's just it's DNG support that's a bit weird. However, it's on my side if I need to use X10 raws (via the DNG step). In fact so far I've given up the latter, as the noise levels are so much greater than in Fuji's in-camera JPEG conversion.
So, thanks very much for your help. Now I remember the first rule of system support: never trust what the customer tells you! (I know you're not really customer support, but I guess the same rule applies.) Thanks again

When I take a QT clip to iDVD06 it looks dark. Why?

Every time I finish to edit a movie (in imovie06) and then take it to iDVD06, to make the DVD, the images look darker, like 2 f-stops less. Why is that and what can I do to make it normal?
I always shoot in 1080i60. I have noticed that when I import from imovie to idvd there is a sign at the top of the frame that reads: 1080i30 instead of 1080i60. Why is that?

I'm not sure of your question.
Are you asking how to use Photoshop?
Or are you asking for the dimensions of video iMovie uses?
It edits in 720P HD, which is 1280x720.
You can make it a bit bigger so you can zoom in.
Much bigger then this is a waste of time.

Sharpened image looks wrong on my NEC monitor while absolutely fine in MacBookPro retina

Hi all,
I use Photoshop CC. Today I came across this image on my NEC where I sharpened and added a bit clarity image looks just to find that image looks very wrong in photoshop but OK in ACR. Then I uploaded same image with same settings on my MAc Pro Retina however image looked perfectly fine in both ACR and photoshop. Then I cranked up clarity to a max and sharpening in ACR to a max too 115 1.0 25 0 image remained fine viewing on both ACR and photoshop on Mac.
Here is upload:http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/...psqqtqidhi.jpg
I am using NEC Multisync PA241W w. Calibrated a week ago.
Thanks

Hi Melissa,
Let me split in sections our conversation:
"The raw file, using your numbers, top large, Photoshop, bottom, ACR. The smaller image on the right is the same thing only applied to the jpg version from the website you liked to. Super grainy in the jpg because the file is sooooo much smaller than the original. All displayed at 100%." For the purpose of this experiment only RAW file participates in ACR. To capture our experiment we use screenshot function.
"so, what is different about your NEC and Mac images you originally posted... was it the exact same file at the exact same size? Or was it 2 different images on different machines?" exact same file exact same resolution exact same filter applied in ACR. On Mac both ACR and in photoshop image displayed fine. On NEC ACR is fine however photoshop looks bad nasty.
"So... if you did everything to the raw file at it's original size it should be OK. If you made a smaller version and then did the ACR stuff... it's going to look like crap. In order to display this ginormous image you had to resize it at some point to get it into the screen shots. I think that is where the issue is..." How do you normally view image in photoshop? The way I do i zoom out to my likening for instance this image was fine to view at 17-25% on my monitor and Mac too. Or I simply click on "fit to screen" option at it fits just fine. However image is view at 28.36% out of full 100%. If you choose to view at 100% you would get zoom like you have here in your screenshot. So to display it like I do just click fit to screen and that will do.

Image looks grainy in Photoshop CC but not in CS5

All of my images look grainy int he dark areas in CC, but not in CS5. Is there a display setting that I'm missing? Side note, the saved images look fine. They only look bad in the CC UI.
Screen shot of CC
Screen shot of CS5
Photshop CC and CS5 64-bit on Windows 7

morganj_8 wrote:
Oh and lastly, I really didn't appreciate how UTTERLY rude and completely unhelpful "station_two" was. It seems he/she prefers to get on here and find ways to criticize and nitpick vs. actually try to help or find solutions for people. I wonder if that level of disdain could ever be necessary towards a total stranger who is just asking for help? I hope their life improves and they don't feel the need to take it out others through tech support message boards. Props to sharmstr for being so cool about it all.
Well if that's how you are going to be!!!! Station is OK, but this is an old thread, and there was a full moon back then.
So is it a display problem rather than a performance one? I think it was mentioned that the artefacts a not there on saved documents. It is also one of those issues that would be fixed by resetting preferences, because the cache levels would go back to four. It actually says right there on Preferences > Performance in the History & Cache section 'Set cache levels to two or higher for optimum performance' .
There is so much good information right there among the oficial help pages
http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cs6-gpu-faq1.html
Which makes it very disappointing that Tech Support couldn't track it down. I suspect they work more from Expert Systems than their own knowledge, so they have a bit of work to do there.

Saved image displays differently outside Photoshop

When I save an image I've been working on in Photoshop, then open the saved file outside Photoshop, the image looks quite different than it does inside Photoshop, much drabber and less saturated. I have both Photoshop and the display program set to sRGB. I figure that I should have consistency within the monitor, whether it's calibrated or not. I'm sure I'm missing something basic here. I'd appreciate any help here, because my prints wind up drab, too. Many thanks!

LBJack wrote:
I overlooked one switch in the Save dialog. Now the images display correctly.
Can you be more specific, please?
Were you saving images without a color profile before, and some application(s) in your system were displaying them improperly?
Problem is, in that case one wouldn't really expect to see the kind of difference you describe unless your document profile really wasn't sRGB IEC61966-2.1.
Is it possible you're editing your images in the Adobe RGB 1998 color space? That could happen if you're opening images through Camera Raw, as the color space it's set to deliver is configured separately (via the link at the bottom-center of the Camera Raw dialog) from the Photoshop defaults.
By the way, if you don't already know, you can easily set the status block in the lower-left of the Photoshop window to show you the color space of your current document:
-Noel

Bug? Images look different in photoshop

Hi,
Am hoping somebody can help me as I must be doing something really stupid here. I'm currently evaluating various workflow products, and really like Lightroom but find that whenever I import an image into LR the tones, particular shadow tones, look way too dark. They look kinda posterised.
My monitor is color calibrated with a spyder. I am running Windows XP.
I've attached a link to an image to demonstrate. I took an sRGB JPEG and imported into LR. I then edited a copy in PS (exported as ProPhoto - converted in PS to Adobe 1988 colorspace), another copy is shown exported to Capture NX (also Adobe colorspace).
http://www.hamiltonconsulting.net/strange%20tones.jpg
if you look at the shadow tones in the folds of the jacket you can see a minor difference between PS and Capture NX but you can see a clear difference in LR. The shadows are way darker.
The image opens fine it every other application I have tried, including the free XP viewers. LR is doing something strange to the file but I cant work out what.
I first noticed the problem occuring in Beta 4.1 and am now getting the same issue in the new Lightroom demo ( I had hoped it was a bug that would have been fixed). I have been installing all sorts of evaluation software of late, so maybe something hasnt been cleaned out of my registry, or something is clashing.
So far, I've tried lots of different images (all with the same problem). Recreating an image database. Reinstalling LR (countless times).
Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can try or do I need to reinstall my entire PC

Yeah dude, that totally makes sense.
"I notice blocking... that... really is a function of lighting..."
Is that some sort of new-age yet-unheard-of phenomenon? If so, please elaborate by all means.
The point is that the image looks like crap displayed in the 'Library' module of LR, but looks fine in any other program. Because no other program is content with sitting around and displaying to you a low quality JPEG preview of your, say, high quality 16-bit uncompressed TIFF image.
That's why there's no blocking in the image loaded up in Photoshop. Yet it's there in LR because LR doesn't bother to render the image 'on-the-fly' until you step into the 'Develop' module.
You don't believe me? Then be happy in your ignorance.
On another note, though, instead of jacking it up to 400% when it's clearly evident at 100%, try calibrating your monitor with a hardware profiler so dark parts of images don't become a muddy mess of blacks. Be forewarned though that it's a double-edged sword: on the one hand, after calibration, you suddenly begin to see details in shadows that you may never before have seen; on the other hand, JPEG artifacts & noise in dark portions of images (inherent to JPEG compression) also become as apparent. Hence, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and figure you just can't see the blocking due to your monitor.
Finally, on a LR-unrelated note, why don't you come back to these forums when you're ready to write posts free of cheap ignorant insults?

Images look darker outside of photoshop?

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