Photoshop saves my images darker than they are!

H

Hooligan

Gawd
Joined
Aug 7, 2001
Messages
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So I've used Photoshop for years (amateurishly) - and I've always had this problem.

Well, it finally got on my nerves.... everytime I try to save a file, (using either Save for web or Save as..) and saving either jpgs, gifs, bmps, whatever.

It saves pictures DARKER than what they really are!! They look extremely different than what I was working on originally.

Let me give yall an example:

compare.jpg


I saved this image in photoshop, then re-opened it to add Virakar in yellow (yes, I play WoW on Sargeras). I noticed that when I open the image in Photoshop, it's not as dark as when I open it using ACDSee or IE/Firefox.

So I took a screenshot of the image opened in Photoshop (Virakar) and the image opened in ACDSee (the one below it, without Virakar) and saved it using Photoshop, hence, making it even darker still.

So, to make sure that Photoshop was the problem, I took a screenshot of the exact same file above, but this time, I pasted it into MS Paint and saved it as a jpg.
Result: a much brighter, clearer, image... this is what I was shooting for....

comparepaint.jpg


Can someone help? Please? :(
 
Black Morty Rackham said:
Before you complain about the colours, you should really calibrate your display.
Click to expand...

So I've used Photoshop for years (amateurishly) - and I've always had this problem.
Click to expand...

Are you talkinga bout my monitor? Or video card settings? Because I've owned different monitors/video cards and this problem happens on all of them....

sooooooooooo yeah, explain.

edit: btw, I always set my monitors at
R: 50
G: 50
B: 50

Contrast: 100
Brightness: 50

and I like it like that :/
 
Black Morty Rackham said:
Before you complain about the colours, you should really calibrate your display.
Click to expand...
I think he did a good job explaining himself. I donno what your problem is. Good luck on the color answer, ive never had the problem, (or never noticed)
 
Only thing I can think of is maybe you have PS set to use some odd color profile that the other apps have to translate. Something I have to use here is profiles as I have a printing business so I need to always be sure PS and our RIP use the same profile to get consistent results. We generally have it set to always use Adobe RGB or US Web Coated SWOP for CMYK images. I would reccomend Adobe RGB as the main RGB profile and possibly also look at your conversion engine, rendering intent (we use perceptual but you can experiment with any of the options to find what works best for you), and other color settings in PS.
 
MixManSC said:
Only thing I can think of is maybe you have PS set to use some odd color profile that the other apps have to translate. Something I have to use here is profiles as I have a printing business so I need to always be sure PS and our RIP use the same profile to get consistent results. We generally have it set to always use Adobe RGB or US Web Coated SWOP for CMYK images. I would reccomend Adobe RGB as the main RGB profile and possibly also look at your conversion engine, rendering intent (we use perceptual but you can experiment with any of the options to find what works best for you), and other color settings in PS.
Click to expand...

I'll second that.
 
Also, it could be because your using the jpeg compression. By saving it as a .jpg your loosing alot of pixel information that was once there, and thats maybe where the quality degragation is coming from.
 
pistola said:
Also, it could be because your using the jpeg compression. By saving it as a .jpg your loosing alot of pixel information that was once there, and thats maybe where the quality degragation is coming from.
Click to expand...

I saved the 2nd image as a jpg, but instead of using PS, I used MS Paint - so, yeah, saving to JPG isn't the problem.

As color profiles go, I have no idea what all that jargon is, but I'll check it out.
 
JPEG may degrade the image quality, but it never removes brightness. It's probably, as has been suggested, a color profile problem.
 
it's about the color profile you're using as well as the gamma settings etc. of your monitor. i had the same problem recently, and calibrating my monitor fixed it.
 
Kurtis said:
it's about the color profile you're using as well as the gamma settings etc. of your monitor. i had the same problem recently, and calibrating my monitor fixed it.
Click to expand...

ok, well, i checked the color profiles and its on US Web Coated SWOP for CMYK images and Adobe RGB for RGB images.

Now, define "calibrate your monitor"? And besides, how the heck is that supposed to fix how Photoshop saves files?

WHILE WORKING ON THE SAME COMPUTER/MONITOR:

- see a pretty image on teh internet
- right click, save as -> prettywallpaper1.jpg
- load photoshop -> open -> prettywallpaper1.jpg
- look at it. looks the same. looks pretty!
- save as.... prettywallpaper2.jpg OR save for web prettywallpaper2.jpg (not replacing original)
- dbl click prettywallpaper2.jpg to see it on acdsee, internet explorer, or photoshop
- notice that its darker than the original.
- open both of them on photoshop
- side by side, one is darker than the other
- close original without saving
- save prettywallpaper2.jpg as prettywallpaper3.jpg without overwriting prettywallpaper2.jpg
- view prettywallpaper3.jpg with image viewer.
- notice than its even darker still


sooooooooooooooo someone wanna explain to me how my monitor has anything to do with this? or am i real fucking stupid
 
So you're working on a CMYK color profile? That could be one of the reasons but I don't think it would make your images darker, but it would screw with your colors though. CMYK is for printing and has different colors than RGB. Try using the default color profile: sRGB IEC61966-2.1.
 
daedal said:
So you're working on a CMYK color profile? That could be one of the reasons but I don't think it would make your images darker, but it would screw with your colors though. CMYK is for printing and has different colors than RGB. Try using the default color profile: sRGB IEC61966-2.1.
Click to expand...

sRGB IEC61966-2.1 is not on the dropdown menu of CMYK options, so I tried to load the profile and it wouldn't allow me because:

"the profile is not a valid CMYK working space profile"

anyways... i dont even have a printer :/

problem is still occuring btw.
 
There's your problem. Your image is CMYK, CMYK is for print, ACDSee and MS Paint can't read CMYK, only RGB so they do the best they can to convert it and display it corrctly resulting in a darker image. Convert your file to RGB in photoshop then save it out and reopen it in MS Paint, it'll look the same in both then, no more darker image.
 
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