Help. This is a truly confusing laptop or image sensor problem

[Marc_93]

All my photos appear grainy and posterized in dark areas when viewing them on my laptop with photoshop cs5.1 (64 bit) or windows photo viewer, yet when i upload them to flickr, they're flawless! what the hell is going on!?

This photo is a printscreen of what photoshop and windows viewer are showing me: print screen of photo | Flickr - Photo Sharing!even though that's how it looks to me on my laptop, when I upload it straight to flickr it looks like this! straight upload of photo | Flickr - Photo Sharing! perfectly smooth! it does not make sense.

So before I uploaded anything to flickr I thought my image sensor was gubbed! My iso was low, so not a noise problem, and my lens is brand new so not that either. I was nearly ready to take my camera back to the shop (just got my D5100 in November so it's under warranty) but then I noticed that all my photos smoothed out when i uploaded them to flickr.... very confusing, so it's not my camera that's gubbed? is it a colour setting on my laptop? but then why does it look good when its on flickr? still the same image? I DON'T UNDERSTAND. My laptops also HD so it's not my screen, couldn't be anyway cause as i said, looks fine when I upload it.

It is driving me mad, and makes editing photos very hard as I cant see how it will look uploaded, I just see a rubbish version on my screen. This is all hard to explain so sorry if I haven't been clear, some help would be much appreciated though! any thought on whats wrong or why this is happening?

Thanks, Marc

 

[Josh66]

I suspect a color space issue... You should be exporting in sRGB for web use.

 

[MLeeK]

I doubt it's a colorspace issue. Colorspace results in horrid looking images on the web where the colors are flat and crappy looking.
There is no difference to me in the images you posted as far as noise and grabled mess goes. The colors are slightly different. I don't know if that's colorspace or if you edited at all before uploading... How about you take a photo of what you are seeing on the screen and post that. Not a print screen.

It's a screen issue-we aren't seeing it in your print screen.

I do know that the dell UltraSharp monitors are sometimes WAY to sharp for photographic work and it looks like total crap until you adjust accordingly. Could be the same with your laptop?
My photos look pretty impressive when put on my HD TV, so I am guessing it's something other than the HD element, but it's not impossible.

 

[Josh66]

There is no difference to me in the images you posted.

They look distinctly different to me...

Look at that large black area down the middle.

 

[MLeeK]

There is no difference to me in the images you posted.

They look distinctly different to me...

Look at that large black area down the middle.

I edited that to say a bit more... The color is definitely different, but I do not see the posterization, noise or mess that the OP is talking about.

 

[Josh66]

but I do not see the posterization, noise or mess that the OP is talking about.

I do.

 

[MLeeK]

When I check the exif data on the screen shot there is no embedded colorspace on it. The other is in sRGB. That alone is going to make them view VERY differently on the internet.

 

[Josh66]

I don't know if it is in fact a color space issue, that just seemed like the most obvious culprit to me. I do know that I am seeing the problems the OP was talking about though...

 

[Marc_93]

No, I never edited either of them, they are the exact same photo. The rubbish one is a print screen of the original file to show you the grainy-ness cause as I've said, it fixes itself when I upload it, but remains grainy on my windows viewer or photoshop. I just don't understand why flickr is showing my photos better than my photoshop. I had a look into this colour space idea though, so I assume photoshop would use adobe RGB? can i change it to sRGB? just to see if it helps?

Here's a photo instead of a printscreen, should show what I'm talking about clearer : DSC_3723 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I think it must be some sort of setting on my laptop or something cause if it were my screen then it would still look the same weather I looked at it on flickr or photoshop (cause its the same image) but it doesn't, it lookes completely different meaning it must be a difference in how flickr and photoshop/windows viewer display images?

Thanks for this help by the way!

 

[MLeeK]

The biggest difference between the print screen and the photograph that you uploaded last night was the colorspace. The photo had an embedded colorspace of sRGB so firefox reads it exactly as it appears to you. The print screen had no colorspace embedded in it so it' reads differently. In other words: we weren't even seeing what you were seeing.

I can see exactly what you are talking about in the photograph of the screen. You are seeing the breakup/posterization and mess because your laptop is a TN display and doesn't have the gamut to display your whole photo-all of it's colors and shades of light and dark.
That is a typical laptop problem and exactly why editing on a laptop is not ideal. If you MUST edit on a laptop. You are best off to use an external monitor. . More than power issues, it's the biggest problem with laptops for photographers.

 

[KmH]

The issue is bit depth, the bit depth the laptop can display.

A Raw file has a 12 or 14 bit vccolor depth. A JPEG has an 8-bit color depth.

The laptop likely has a 6-bit color gamut and 6-bits can only display 64 colors.

12-bits can represent 4096 distinct colors. 14-bits can represent 16,384 distrinct colors. 8-bits can only represent 256 distinct colors, so you get banding and posterization where there are supposed to be smooth gradients, because to keep the gradients smooth requires a lot more than only 256 colors.

Bit Depth

 

[Marc_93]

Okay, I just plugged it into my tv and it looked fine on photoshop. I understand you now thanks.

However it doesn't explain why it looks fine on my laptop only when uploaded? i understand that my screen probably not good enough hence the breakup in colours, but then it seems to show them all fine on Flickr? any idea why?