Saving JPEGs in Photoshop loose color?

[xxxbadfishxxx]

I have been using photoshop CS2 for a while now, and especially with aquarium pictures, i notice that they become duller when i save them out. I always save them at the highest settings and tried multiple different ways including "save as", "save for web"...... What i really want is the picture to look the same as in photoshop. What i have been doing is bumping up the saturation to help with this, but it effects other things in the picture.

Below is an example, on the left is photoshop, on the right is the saved jpeg with no changes at all. You can see the one on the right is much brighter. Any ideas to what i am doing wrong?

 

[gregr]

It sounds like a color space issue. Adobe has conveniently put a tiny little button on the ImageReady page... a button that is practically invisible... took me a while to figure this out...
It's a small round button with an arrow on it, just above and to the left of the big save button at the top right of the page. Check that button to see if "use document color profile" is selected- if it's not that is most likely the problem. It was for me and it drove me crazy til I figured it out.

 

[brward5]

don't use the "save for web" option - this limits the actual number of colors used in the pixels. if you use jpeg, use the highest quality to save - or you can go to gif which is a lossless format. Also consider colorspace as gregr mentioned - not all programs are capable of rendering all the colorspaces and may convert between colorspaces which will result in the displayed colors changing.

 

[gregr]

brward5- correct me if I'm wrong but it seems to me that your advise is for creating images for print, not for web display (or situations where you want small file sizes).
If you have the color space issue worked out and want reasonable file sizes save for web is ok. I've used it a million times and the pics look like they should- crisp, colorful and... just fine Saving at the highest possible quality setting is good for situations where file size isn't an issue.

 

[xxxbadfishxxx]

thanks for your replies. I have since started using Save as and not save for web, but i still do get the color loss. Problem is, i don't use image ready and never have, i use photoshop because i sometimes photoshop specs out of the water column and some other minor edits.

I think i am on the right path, but haven't quite got it yet, under edit there is a color settings tab as well "assign profile" and "convert to profile"

It really is driving me CRAZY.

 

[melev]

I'm using PS 7 and don't have this problem. I have to believe you have a setting that is causing that haze.

 

[juniormc8704]

Just had another photo workshop this weekend, and one of the thing discussed is that EVERY TIME you open and close/save a jpeg it interpolations of what its supposed to look like, and changes colors EVERY time. Only when you save a raw file as a raw, or TIFF file will you be free of loss. You can verify this by opening and closing and checking the color wheel where it gives

red 135

blue 120

yellow 120

the next time those numbers will change, and that happens every time you open and close the file. I was amazed by that.

 

[melev]

When you are saving, does it look like this? Quick screen shot I had saved:

 

[xxxbadfishxxx]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11228780#post11228780 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by juniormc8704
Just had another photo workshop this weekend, and one of the thing discussed is that EVERY TIME you open and close/save a jpeg it interpolations of what its supposed to look like, and changes colors EVERY time. Only when you save a raw file as a raw, or TIFF file will you be free of loss. You can verify this by opening and closing and checking the color wheel where it gives

red 135

blue 120

yellow 120

the next time those numbers will change, and that happens every time you open and close the file. I was amazed by that.

hmm, ill have to look into that. Now that you mention it, it probably did start when i started shooting in raw. So if i save it as raw, how would i post them online? Maybe i should switch back to shooting in JPEGs.

 

[xxxbadfishxxx]

Marc, i actually stopped using save for web because i noticed that the file size was extremely small. Now that i saw your screenshot, i noticed that you had 4 up, i tried that and that might actually work. I will know for sure when i edit more pics.

 

[melev]

A small file size doesn't equate to a bad picture. Here's a recent shot of a coral I took. 130 kb 640 x 480 at 52%. The original was a JPEG sized at 1280 x 960 @ 330 kb

 

[zens]

open a couple copies of the picture in photoshop instead of using windows picture and fax viewer for one.

 

[xxxbadfishxxx]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11235307#post11235307 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by zens
open a couple copies of the picture in photoshop instead of using windows picture and fax viewer for one.

the problem was that i would edit the picture on how i wanted it to look in photoshop, but when i would save the JPEG, it would have duller colors then it looked like in photoshop.

This picture is the original comparison with color loss when using save as or Save for web at a lower resolution

This picture is using save for web at highest resolution, i see no color loss in this one. Picture on left is final jpeg, picture on the right is how it looked in photoshop

This picture is the save for web window, i beleive the one on the top left (highest resolution) looks the brightest.

 

[melev]

Your right-hand panel looks different from mine so I'm not able to help you further.

 

[gregr]

Color/vibrance change and quality loss are two different things and have two different causes. You will see an overall loss of sharpness, "snap" and general clarity when a picture is over-compressed. When you have a color profile change you will see a difference in color-- saturation and balance.
Have you checked the little drop-down box I mentioned in my first post? If that setting isn't set to 'use document color profile' ImageReady will change it to standard Windows (or Mac if you're on a Mac) profile and you will end up with blah colors.

 

[xxxbadfishxxx]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11238081#post11238081 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gregr
Color/vibrance change and quality loss are two different things and have two different causes. You will see an overall loss of sharpness, "snap" and general clarity when a picture is over-compressed. When you have a color profile change you will see a difference in color-- saturation and balance.
Have you checked the little drop-down box I mentioned in my first post? If that setting isn't set to 'use document color profile' ImageReady will change it to standard Windows (or Mac if you're on a Mac) profile and you will end up with blah colors.

Greg,

i have never used Image Ready, but noticed that i could edit in image ready after i use photoshop. However, i could not find the button you speak of, i tried on turning on all of the windows and could not find it. below is a screenshot of my image ready window.

 

[xxxbadfishxxx]

LOL, found it. Below is a screenshot for document purposes, now that i go back and look at the pictures it is there, it is only visible when you are saving, that is to funny. Thanks So much Greg, Marc, and everyone else.

 

[juniormc8704]

when you shoot in jpeg, your camera makes those same "adjustments" and then each time you access it it will continue to do so. As far as posting pictures goes, its not really a big deal. Where its really important to not have color loss/exageration is when you are editing photos that are to be printed. if you are shooting for a profesional print to be made, shoot in raw, save in raw or tif.