Colour Correct Photos

[rjackjames]

I both Mac and windows computers. I mostly edit my photos using CS5 on Mac. When I view my images on my Windows computers the colours seems to be off and when I view it on my MAC it looks correct..... Do I need to Calibrate my monitors or something? Im using both laptop to edit. I appreciate any answers or feedback on how to rectify this problem.

 

[themamayada]

LCD displays for PCs are a double-edge sword. They are big, bright and have a fast response time. However because of that, they are lean on high-color depth. They then use dithering to simulate higher color depth, which can be very noticeable under certain conditions.

You can calibrate your display in several ways. Windows 7 has color calibration tools built into it. Calibrate your display If you are doing basic web-type photos, there's a decent website to also assist with that: Display Calibration - DisplayCalibration.com - Calibrate your computer display or monitor online for optimal viewing. Brightness, contrast, color depth, resolution and freeware software downloads.

However if you are doing more intense work especially for print, but don't want to sell your car to afford - I like this product: Datacolor Spyder4EXPRESS - The Affordable Color Calibration Solution - Datacolor Imaging Solutions The Spyder product is a hardware & software combo.

There are even more high-end calibration products on the market - if you need recs, let me know!

 

[Vautrin]

understanding color gamut and profiles is maybe as large a subject area as photography itself.

basically, all mediums -- all paper types, all printers, all monitors have different ranges of colors they can display.

so if you take a very colorful picture, and print it up, or view it on a different screen, it may not look the same because the colors are reproduced differently, or maybe the medium is completely unable to produce the colors selected

so, if you REALLY want your colors to be consistent you need to calibrate EVERYTHING, and be very thorough about things

 

[rjackjames]

Thanks for the information. I have been looking into this alot, most of images doesnt look good when viewed on different screens. What about for printing? I want to start printing my own photos also?

 

[KmH]

Tutorials on Color Management & Printing

 

[AgentDrex]

Thanks for the link KmH! Bookmarking it promptly. Something I need to remind myself of as well as anyone.

 

[Garbz]

LCD displays for PCs are a double-edge sword. They are big, bright and have a fast response time. However because of that, they are lean on high-color depth. They then use dithering to simulate higher color depth, which can be very noticeable under certain conditions.

Hogwash. I've never seen so many contractions on one line.
Only cheap and nasty displays have fast response times. Quality displays as part of their technology typically have slower response times.
Colour depth isn't a word. I assume you mean gamut?
Colour gamut is standard across nearly all displays. This is a function of the backlight and the filtering in place on the screen. Some of the nicer more expensive displays have wider colour gamuts.
Dithering, another feature of cheap displays has nothing to do with colour gamuts. The gamut is defined by the max value of red green and blue, whereas dithering is a function of how many possible brightness value each red green and blue pixel can have, and how to fake having more. In any case you won't find a wide colour gamut display with dithering.

None of this has anything to do with the difference between PCs and Macs.

rjackjames in what way do they seem off? Can you describe it? Is one consistently dull and brownish compared to the other? Can you take a photo of the displays side by side? What mac do you have and what display do you have on windows? When you open your image in CS5 on the mac what is the full title of the image (include any slashes, *, letters like RGB or CMYK etc).

 

[unpopular]

^^ exactly. and furthermore there is no "monitors for PCs" you can use any monitor on either mac or PC

 

[rjackjames]

LCD displays for PCs are a double-edge sword. They are big, bright and have a fast response time. However because of that, they are lean on high-color depth. They then use dithering to simulate higher color depth, which can be very noticeable under certain conditions.

rjackjames in what way do they seem off? Can you describe it? Is one consistently dull and brownish compared to the other? Can you take a photo of the displays side by side? What mac do you have and what display do you have on windows? When you open your image in CS5 on the mac what is the full title of the image (include any slashes, *, letters like RGB or CMYK etc).

Yes the images seems dull and brownish on my windows when compared on my mac.

 

[Garbz]

This sounds like a colour profile mismatch rather than a PC problem. Can you answer the photoshop question? The titlebar and the location of "*" in the title bar tells a lot about the image.

This is especially important if the image looks good on photoshop then you transfer to another machine and don't open in photoshop.