# Why are the colors in an exported JPEG different from the lightroom preview?



## oreid (Jan 22, 2011)

Howdy,

I'm having a problem with the colors in exported images. When I export sRGB JPEGs the colors and/or contrast seems to be quite different from what I see in Lightroom. The same is true of sRGB TIFFs. For example:






Is this an unavoidable consequence of transforming the image into the sRGB colorspace, or can I fix it in some way?

My goal at the moment is simply to distribute these photos online, so the vagaries of people's different monitor profiles may make the entire point moot.

Any comments or help would be much appreciated!


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## oreid (Jan 23, 2011)

Whoops! wrong forum. Hopefully a moderator will move it over.

And here's the example screen shot:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/XnQsgMZBO8TaQMdt_Sg4-lyiDrSYX0rGcoKkHjN81ms?feat=directlink


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## Mark Sirota (Jan 23, 2011)

Welcome to Lightroom Forums.

What tool are you using to view the exported JPEGs?  Is that tool color managed?

If not, that's the problem.  You shouldn't expect a non-color-managed tool to look identical to a color-managed tool.  As you suggest, there's nothing you can do to make files look right in unmanaged environments -- the best you can do is calibrate your monitor, make it look great in a color-managed tool like Lightroom, export as sRGB, and hope for the best.

In the meantime, suggest to those viewing your files that they should use color-managed tools and calibrate their monitors, and beg software vendors to support color management.

If it is color-managed, then there's something else going on, and we'd be happy to explore that with you.


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## oreid (Jan 23, 2011)

Thanks Mark,

The viewers I have used are
-Picasa
-Windows Picture and Fax
-Faststone Viewer (with CMS enabled)

I presume the first two are not color managed, but I thought the last one was. My images all look the same in these three programs, but different in lightroom... Is it possible that the color profile is not being embedded by LR?


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## oreid (Jan 23, 2011)

Update: the problem also shows up when I export to photoshop:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/8oAuMPmBIwFJXBMAKcBShFyiDrSYX0rGcoKkHjN81ms?feat=directlink

This was done using the built in command: Photo>Edit In>PhotoShop CS
So the file is a 16 bit ProPhoto RGB TIFF.

Upon loading, photoshop notified me that it would use the embedded ProPhoto profile, yet there is still a difference in contrast/color.


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## Brad Snyder (Jan 24, 2011)

How are you calibrating your display?


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## oreid (Jan 25, 2011)

Poorly, at best. I have used a calibration print/Tiff kit from an online print shop to calibrate by eye, but I don't have any other measurement tools.

Should monitor calibration matter when comparing the rendering from two different pieces of software on the same computer?

My main concern is weather a print will look more similar to the way I see a given image exported in photoshop, or in lightroom. This would impact how I choose to "calibrate" my monitor.


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## Mark Sirota (Jan 25, 2011)

It should look the same *in* Photoshop as it looks *in* Lightroom.  If they don't, something is amiss and we can help diagnose that.

If an export from LR looks different than an "export" from PS, then it probably has something to do with the way you're exporting coupled with the tool(s) you're using to view the files.

If the exports look different than LR/PS, it's probably because the tools you're using aren't color managed.   Picasa and Windows Picture and Fax Viewer are not color-managed, so  it's not surprising that this is the case.  I have no idea about  Faststone.


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## Brad Snyder (Jan 25, 2011)

Faststone can be set to color manage JPG and TIFF.


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## oreid (Jan 25, 2011)

Mark Sirota said:


> It should look the same *in* Photoshop as it looks *in* Lightroom.  If they don't, something is amiss and we can help diagnose that.


 
I believe this is the case. here is an example screen shot showing the overlapping PS and LR views: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/8oAuMPmBIwFJXBMAKcBShFyiDrSYX0rGcoKkHjN81ms?feat=directlink

The image *in* Photoshop is a 16 bit adobe RGB TIFF export from lightroom. Note that this is a rather old version of PS I am using, if that makes a difference.


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## Mark Sirota (Jan 25, 2011)

I agree those look different.  This sounds like a monitor profile problem.  As a test, could you install some other monitor profile (sRGB, say) and see whether the two look identical?  (They won't be *right*, but that's not the question -- we just want to know if they're the same.)

If both look the same after installing sRGB as a monitor profile, then the problem was your monitor profile and you need to make (or otherwise acquire) a new one.


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## oreid (Jan 31, 2011)

Hi Mark,

That worked! Changing the monitor profile has caused the PS and LR displays to agree.

I am a little confused as to why this should matter, however. I would have thought that the monitor profile would apply equally to both pieces of software. Can you explain?

Thanks!
-O


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## Brad Snyder (Jan 31, 2011)

oreid said:


> Hi Mark,
> I would have thought that the monitor profile would apply equally to both pieces of software. Can you explain?


I'm not Mark, but in his absence....

Yes, you'd think so, wouldn't you? I doubt than any of us is actually qualified to explain this arcane topic in detail. I'd simplify it to two things:
1. A correctly formulated and calibrated profile will apply equally to both (actually all) color managed programs. An incorrect or poorly formulated one may cause problems, which different programs may react to differently.
2. Lr is extremely adept in noticing problems with display profiles. (We all knew from your very first sentence what the problem likely was, but as you've learned, this is a voyage of discovery.)

I haven't re-read the whole thread in detail, so I'll possibly re-iterate. This finding doesn't solve your problem, it just identifies it. You now need to take steps to achieve a hardware based calibrated display.


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## Mark Sirota (Jan 31, 2011)

Brad Snyder said:


> I'm not Mark, but in his absence....
> 
> 1. A correctly formulated and calibrated profile will apply equally to both (actually all) color managed programs. An incorrect or poorly formulated one may cause problems, which different programs may react to differently.
> 2. Lr is extremely adept in noticing problems with display profiles. (We all knew from your very first sentence what the problem likely was, but as you've learned, this is a voyage of discovery.)



Thanks for following up, Brad.  I apologize for missing the question.

The only thing I'd add is that color profiles are complex enough that they are used by different programs in different ways, so as you suggest a problem in one part of the profile might affect one program but not effect another.  The reason why LR seems so adept at detecting profile problems is that it apparently uses some parts of the profile that many other programs don't.

So now that we've confirmed the problem, you need to generate or acquire a proper monitor profile.  sRGB is a working space, not a monitor profile -- so what you have now is that your color-managed applications agree, but they're all equally wrong.  If you want them to be right, you should calibrate your monitor with a hardware colorimeter or photospectrometer.  If you don't have one, you should try acquiring a new profile from your monitor manufacturer, if they provide one (which will be an approximation at best).  If they don't have one, the operating system may offer a generic profile which is probably better than nothing, but not much.


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## oreid (Jan 31, 2011)

Thanks for the answers guys. I guess I'll just start saving for a spyder, or something similar.

edit:
Q: how do I mark this thread as solved? I don't see the link anywhere.


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## Victoria Bampton (Feb 1, 2011)

oreid said:


> edit:
> Q: how do I mark this thread as solved? I don't see the link anywhere.


 
Hmmmm, that's a good question!  I think that was the old software, so don't worry about it.


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## Brad Snyder (Feb 2, 2011)

That's good, I was starting to feel inept, I couldn't see how to mark it solved either.


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