Color in Photoshop differnet than monitor, why?

[clupica]

I have noticed that the colors I see in Photoshop are not the same as the colors I see in PaintShop or in screen wallpaper.

Does anyone know why this is and what is the consequence of the difference? Which colors are "real"? What colors will I get when I send the images off to a photo lab? Does monitor calibration software/hardware help to resolve the differences?

ciao
Charlie

[nerve]

might be different colour spaces..

[clupica]

Saying i^t's the colorspace is a little cryptic if I am unfamilar with the idea of colorspace; which I am only now learning. Could you be more specific.

One of the reasons I bring this up is that I had my Le landeron Image printed (60cm x 91cm)at the local photo store on their large format printer (canon) and the colors were much darker than they appear on my system.

This shook my confidence a little. One set of colors for my screen, another in PhotoShop, and a third for the printout. This is very concerning because I want the send the original off to be printed on a LightJet printer. The cost of a single image is 150.- CHF or around $120. It needs to be right the first time.

ciao
Charlie

[nerve]

i dunno too much either, what i know is that the colour spaces in your printer and in photoshop must be same, i might be wrong..
cant help too much sorry, cheers.

[greg]

For sure it's a colour space problem. The simplest way to ensure it will look the same everywhere is to use 'save for web...' from PS. This ensures you're using the sRGB colour space.

There are colour spaces better than sRGB, but I think you'd need a specialist photo lab to be able to handle them.

[clupica]

Going on it being a color space problem, I bought a Spyder2 system so I could do a monitor calibration. After calibrating both of my monitors to use sRGB both seem to be nearly tthe same and the difference between PhotoShop and the screen seems to have disappeared.

I have yet to find out if this helps me when I go off to the photo store to get a super size print made; 61cm X 91cm.

Thanks for the help.
regards
Charlie

[Luko]

Charles,

in one of the most serious printing lab I know, their printing device colorspace is available for who asks it : you can get it online. You simply have to upload it and proofprint through photoshop.
Try to get it at your printing lab.

cheers
Luko

[abanibi]

Ciao Charlie!
Apart from finding out the colour space they use at the lab, I suppose you have thought of printing a test (a small image or part of the large one) just in case, haven't you? I'm sure the photo lab can help you get the right colours. Good luck anyway!
Inés

[dougie]

A complicated subject. I have been browsing http://shop.colourconfidence.com/section.php?xSec=10322 which I think may have some helpful tips in it....photolabs are usually helpful in providing profiles and calibration files.

Dougie.

[VeeJayCee]

Hi Charlie. Colour calibration is a many splendoured thing and damn confusing! Have a look at this site. http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html#gammachart It has a downloadable gamma check and test print. It may be that the printers who are to do your work are Pros and possibly using the CMYK space. The absolute best thing you can do is to ask them what colour space to save the image in.

[rushfan2112]

I bought a really nice little HP7960 printer when I started doing digital photography. These days it gathers dust unless I write a letter.

Getting the monitor calibrated is most important. I have a Spyder which cost about £60 and gets the image on screen to be in-line with how it looked in real life - via the wonders of Photoshop.

I gave up using high street print shops a while back. I save my money and just print the odd photo that I want to frame and hang. These I have printed by a local pro (wedding photographer) and I just tell him what colour space I've used. Otherwise, I show photos on our TV or on my PC monitor.

Incidentally, the latest Nikons (D3 and D300) will supposedly have a facility to link to High Definition TV's and, I suspect, it's only a matter of time until we all start sharing photos optimised to show on TV. Prints will probably end up as something only found in art / photo galleries.

Paul.

[VeeJayCee]

I suspect you're right Paul. I shelled out a load of dosh for an Epson R800 which is running low on ink in spite of mainly printing B+W docs. I now find myself thinking - do I want to shell out £80+ for a new set of inks when I hardly ever print my pictures. When I get a really good one I send it to Photobox who print it to 20"X16" from 300ppi sRGB files at very reasonable cost if I wait for their special offers. However there's a limit to how many pictures my walls have room for. For printing my Xmas cards or calendars I do the same - Photobox or one of the many other companies offering a similar service. It's cheaper than I can do it myself. If I was starting again I would get a cheap to run B+W printer and forget printing my own pics.

[rawtography]

Check out this article - it's the single most informative piece you will come upon regarding this issue...

http://regex.info/blog/photo-tech/color-spaces-page1/