Saving my photoshop painting, the colours or shading messes up , please help :(

Question

Hello.
I am not completely sure how to describe this problem so couldn't really search it too easily on google and what not, I have taken a print screen to show what I mean though.
Basically in my digital painting, the shades that I blended in look fine in photoshop are far from blended when I save the image afterwards. I have tried saving as Jpeg and PNG as I normally would, I also tried Tiff, they all come out exactly the same, the picture should describe the problem pretty clearly.
For example look at the shading around the right eye and next to the chin. The print screen shows the original PSD is on the left and one of the saves is on the right
from what I can tell it is making a certain shade go darker as the hair has gone a bit funny too, so has the shading inside the mouth/around the teeth if you look closely.
If anyone can give me any suggestions I would really appreciate it as digital painting is a huge part of my life
Thanks guys

Answer 1

rant warning 'loose terminology':
source RGB is a theoretical numerical concept
the color doesn't become tangible until it is displayed or printed
an embedded or assigned/assumed source ICC profile gives specific mathematical meaning to the RGB 'numbers' contained in your document
MONITOR PROOF CONCEPT:
Photoshop uses the source ICC profile information to base a mathematical calculation and CONVERT theoretical source colors to the monitor profile for a so-called 'true-color' display
PRINT PROOF CONCEPT:
Photoshop uses the source profile information to base a calculation and CONVERT theoretical source colors to the print profile for a so-called 'true-color' print
the source space/profile is independent of any monitor or printer profiles (hopefully)
what this approach means is:
Photoshop's Source-to-Monitor display "proof" allows a user (with a 'calibrated' monitor) to 'accurately' proof the source RGB on the monitor
Photoshop's Source-to-print "proof" allows a user (with a 'calibrated' printer) to 'accurately' proof the source RGB on the paper/substrate
in order for you or anyone to 'accurately' proof your image they need:
an 'accurate' monitor or printer profile
an application that applies the correct source profile and CONVERTS color to monitor RGB, or
a printer that that applies the correct source profile and CONVERTS color to the print profile, or
properly converted destination CMYK
by you not having an 'accurate' default monitor profile enabled, Photoshop cannot display your RGB proper, so you cannot know exactly what you are looking at and what colors you sending out
however, Photoshop can still give you a proper printed proof (provided you apply the correct source profile and your print settings CONVERT to a 'calibrated' print profile
UN-MANAGED applications generally just send the source RGB numbers to the monitor... so trust what Photoshop is displaying once you have a good hardware-calibrated monitor profile in place
i am no rocket scientist, these are just my thoughts on the subject...