# Photos Very Dark in Lightroom



## kidrobot (Oct 11, 2007)

Hi Everyone,

Have an issue with Lightroom I am hoping I can get some help with. My entire photo library in Lightroom is very very dark, regardless of library/develop view. Upon export and viewing in windows preview, the photos are much much lighter and reflect the lighting at the time they were shot. Re-import of this photo into lightroom appears dark once again.

I was using Lightroom on my macbook for 3 months during vacation and did not notice this problem. As soon as I came back home I moved my photos my main windows XP box, and noticed this problem in Lightroom.

The dark/light comparison between what I see in Lightroom and what I see when I view a picture in any other app like Windows preview or Photoshop is drastic.

Any ideas as to what is going on here?


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## Clicio Barroso (Oct 11, 2007)

*PC and Mac?*

Did you try to compare the two sets, the one in the MacBook and the one in Windows? I can't test it here, no Windows machines around, but it could be related to the platform , I guess...

Clicio Barroso


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## Mark Sirota (Oct 11, 2007)

My guess, and it's just a guess because I don't do Windows: Windows preview is not color managed.  The Preview application on MacOS X is color-managed, so things there look just like they do in Lightroom.


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## Clicio Barroso (Oct 11, 2007)

Exact, Mark, that was my first thought.
But I don't do Windows also, so it is still a guess.

Clicio Barroso


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## kidrobot (Oct 12, 2007)

Solved!!!

It was a corrupted color profile that windows was using for the monitor. I changed it to adobeRGB in the display color management tab and now Lightroom is showing the proper colors!

Thanks for the troubleshooting!


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## Clicio Barroso (Oct 16, 2007)

Well, I am glad it solved your problem, but...
Adobe RGB is surely *not* a monitor profile, it is a Working Space (sinthetic) profile!

Regards,


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## Ian Farlow (Oct 16, 2007)

I'm no expert with color profiles, but I would think that AdobeRGB as a monitor profile will lead to unpredictable results. Better to profile your monitor properly using hardware calibration equipment.


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## Clicio Barroso (Oct 16, 2007)

Well, that's exactly what I meant, Ian!
AdobeRGB is not a good choice...


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## Ian Farlow (Oct 17, 2007)

True. I should have indicated that I was agreeing with you. Sorry.


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## marky (May 18, 2009)

I'm having this very problem too..........what can I do to make LR2 images save properly in windows IE8?

I've tried Firefox and the images still save dark there, I don't have any monitor calibration device but the images I save in Gimp and Xnview save great, its just LR that is giving me a headache


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## Mark Sirota (May 19, 2009)

IE8 is not color-managed.  Trying to make images look good there is an exercise in futility.  If you get them looking good in IE8 on yours system, they might look terrible on other people's systems.  Or vice-versa.

Make them look good in Lightroom on your calibrated monitor, export as sRGB, and hope for the best.

Meanwhile, encourage people to use color-managed browsers to view your work, preferably on a calibrated monitor.  That means Safari, Firefox 3.'.x with color management enabled, or Firefox 3.5.x (still in beta, but has color management enabled by default).


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## Brad Snyder (May 19, 2009)

Marky, welcome to the forums. I'll second what Mark S. is suggesting.

It's important to realize that display calibration is a critical first step to post-producing good images. This process enables your monitor to agree with (almost) every other calibrated device in the world.  Without this step, the only place you can ensure that your images look OK will be your own display.  And as you're finding out, even that isn't guaranteed, depending on the software you use.


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## SpeedRacerSlots (May 19, 2009)

OK, so what is the recommended Monitor calibration toolset?
Running Windows Vista 64.
Thanks
G


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## Brad Snyder (May 19, 2009)

Personally, I use ColorMunki, but there are other less expensive options. There's a long running thread on the topic in our Equipment Forum.


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