Windows Picture and Fax Viewer veresus viewing in Picasa or PSP

[nhsmitty]

Why are my pics brighter and have more vibrant color when viewed with Windows Picture and Fax viewer (Windows XP) than when viewed in Paint Shop or Picasa? PSP and Picasa would lead me to believe touch up needs to occur,and the AUTO function in each does make slight changes to contrast and color, but the pics look absolutely great in the Windows viewer.

Thanks

 

[Garbz]

Stabbing in the dark, but are your colour management settings correct in paint shop pro, and is Picasa even colour managed?

Windows picture viewer is, so if you're colour profile in the photo is not sRGB then that could be a problem.

 

[nhsmitty]

Color Management... I was hoping to skip that for a while longer but it looks like it might be time.

If Windows viewer is color managed, and obviously pleasingly so on my PC, how do I get PSP up to speed? Is this where calibrating the monitor comes into play?

My understanding is the photos are sRGB, they are from the IIIa setting in my D40X. Can't be certain what IIIa inviolves until tonight.

 

[nhsmitty]

I set everything to sRGB across the board and that helped!!

The border colors in each program was throwing me off also. Sizing and positioning the same image in each program as close as possible so the image would overlay as I switched programs produced no discernable differences. Even though I think the Windows viewer adds a touch of sharpness.

One step closer!!

 

[Garbz]

Yep leave everything at sRGB unless you know what you're doing and are prepared to adjust the colour settings on every image as part of your work flow. You won't notice a difference unless you print at a pro lab anyway.

The sharpness is due to it's painfully slow resampling when you zoom.