Over saturated after saving

[Ghost13]

Hey everybody,

This is a complete mystery to me. A photo looks fine unaltered (camera is on Adobe RGB) on my pc. On social media as well. When i alter it in Photoshop and save it to Adobe RGB however, it looks fine on my pc, but over saturated online. Exporting/changing profile to SRGB, looks over saturated on my pc ánd online.

My screen color profile, Photoshop, RAW processing, it's all set to Adobe RGB, as you can see in the attachment.

No matter how i save it to SRGB, it all winds up over saturated. What am i doing wrong here?

[Per Berntsen]

You seem to be using a wide gamut monitor, in which case you must only use color managed applications to view images.

Applications without color management will display images over saturated on this kind of monitor.

Native Windows 10 applications, like Edge, Internet Explorer and Photos, are not color managed.

Chrome, Firefox and Opera are all color managed, and instead of Photos you can use a third party color managed viewer, such as FastStone.

You are using Adobe RGB as monitor profile, which can be reasonably accurate on a wide gamut monitor, but for accurate colors you should calibrate your monitor with a hardware calibrator. This will also create a custom monitor profile that accurately describes your monitor.

And, BTW, the color profile setting in your camera only affects jpgs.

Raw files are grayscale files, and do not have a color profile.

[NB, colourmanagement]

Hi, 

I expect you may have a 'wide gamut' monitor display screen, on this type of screen colormanagement savvy applications are vital. There have been quite a few threads on Adobe forums about this. 

You're on Windows, right? Many photo viewing apps are non color managed and as such simply incomatible with wide gamut monitor display screens.

I'd also encorage you to calibrate and profile the display screen woith some kind of sensor. 

I hope this helps

if so, please "like" my reply

thanks

neil barstow, colourmanagement

[Ghost13]

I never realised i had an IPS monitor, but yes i do. I'll get a sensor right away!

[Per Berntsen]

IPS is the panel type in your monitor, and does not necessarily mean that it is wide gamut. (although most, if not all wide gamut monitors have IPS panels)

The monitor's color gamut refers to the range of colors it can display.

A standard gamut monitor has a color gamut (roughly) close to sRGB, whereas  a wide gamut monitor has a color gamut (roughly) close to Adobe RGB.  Monitors can also have a gamut somewhere in between.

[Ghost13]

I turns out that my monitor, a Samsung S24E390HL, is a standard gamut monitor.It's linked to my lenovo laptop (that's not full gamut either). It also happends on the laptop screen on it's own.

[Per Berntsen]

I had another look at the image you posted, and there isn't a very big difference in saturation, which indicates that your monitor is somewhere between standard and wide gamut, at least for red colors.

My assumptions were confirmed in this review of the monitor where I found a diagram that shows a color gamut slightly larger than sRGB.

[D Fosse]

Can you post a screenshot of an oversaturated file? Before you do, set the notification at bottom left of the image window to show "document profile". Also a screenshot of your color settings.

It sounds like you're not embedding the color profile, or otherwise have color management disabled - but your working space is set to Adobe RGB. If the (correct) profile is embedded, it will override the working space.

[Ghost13]

I've tryed exporting with and without embedding the color profile, it had no effect

[D Fosse]

To be clear, you should always embed the profile, always. Don't even think about saving without a profile. If you use Export or Save For Web, make sure to check the box to embed.

Second, you should not use Adobe RGB for monitor profile. Even if you don't have a calibrator, sRGB is "less wrong" with that monitor, and should give a much closer result.

The thing about the monitor profile is that it has nothing whatsoever to do with the document profile. It's a common misunderstanding that profiles need to "match". No, they don't; in fact profiles shouldn't match, then they're not doing what they should.

A profile is a description of a color space; a map if you will. The map has to correspond with the actual terrain. So you can't "experiment" with profiles - you use the correct one. That's what a calibrator does, it measures your display and makes a profile that is an accurate description of the monitor's actual and current response.

If you have the correct document profile embedded in the file, and a valid/correct monitor profile, and you're using a color managed application that reads both profiles and converts as it should from one to the other - then the image has to display correctly by definition. It can't be wrong.

[NB, colourmanagement]

Hi

you're getting some great advice here and I hope it makes sense I you

even though your display isn’t wide gamut it’s still a good idea to have and use a calibrator like i1 DisplayPro. 

always use a monitor display profile for the display. Not a working space like Adobe RGB

photoshop deals with the translation between the two we call it device independent color management. 

ALWAYS embed the icc profile when saving your file. 

If you can - only use color managed applications to view image files. 

Neil Barstow

colourmanagement

[Ghost13]

Update: I bought a sensor and updated my monitor color profile. I also changed the settings;

-I embedded the color profile when exporting to SRGB

-Calibrated the monitor

Biggest change, was switching to windows old photo viewer. Now at least on my computer, it all looks well. On social media it's a different, but that's something else.

Thanks for all the tips, i've learned a lot from it!

[D Fosse]

"Use either lenovo photo master or photo viewer"

If that's Windows "Photos", it is not color managed, does not display correctly and can not be trusted or used as a reference for anything. I don't know of any lenovo photo master, but I'd be highly surprised if it supports color management.

Do Photoshop and Export As display identically, with "embed profile" checked? That's the main thing. Sometimes you need to give Export a little time for color management to kick in, especially if the source file is large. A couple of seconds or so.

You say you bought a sensor and calibrated the monitor - which one did you buy?

Do you have any other applications that you know are color managed, that you can compare with? Such as e.g. Lightroom? All color managed applications should always display identically. If they don't, there's a problem with the monitor profile. This can affect applications differently.

[NB, colourmanagement]

Yes,

it's important to only expect accurate colour "continuity of appearance" in colour managed applications, programs such as Windows photos are unlikley to provide accurate appearance. 

Glad calibration has helped you

thanks for the feedback

neil barstow, colourmanagement