Achieving Accurate Colour Display

[Hermes2020]

Apologies that this is going to be a long technical post, but I believe it contains useful information.

I recently uploaded photos of a painting with large areas of different shades of red and orange, but I was disappointed that the photos did not show correct colours. Here are some technical details of my setup:

1. Camera: Nikon D600 full frame.
2. File format: Nikon RAW (NEF).
3. Photo editing software on my PC: ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2024.
4. Monitor: Dell 27", model Dell UltraSharp U2723QE, which has an excellent reputation for colour accuracy and comes with a factory colour calibration certificate.

The photos were taken in Nikon RAW (NEF) format with a Nikon D600 full frame camera. The RAW files were developed in ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2024 with the painting next to the PC to get photos that are for all practical purposes identical to the painting. After uploading the photos to Creative Spark, however, I was shocked to see that the colours were far from accurate. The red areas were all a uniform, very harsh scarlet, without the nuances that were clearly visible in the photos when viewed on my PC monitor. Some internet searches revealed that others have had the same issue, especially with reds, when uploading photos. A common thread was the mention of colour gamut profiles, so I decided to look into the matter. I have been using Dell's wide gamut profile, which was perfectly OK in my closed ecology of developing photos and viewing them on the same system. However, it is common practice in web browsers and other programs to use a colour profile called sRGB. Owing to my using a different colour profile in my system, my photos, that were perfect facsimiles of the painting on my monitor, looked horrible on the Creative Spark website.

I then set my Dell monitor on the sRGB profile and re-developed the full painting photo. I saved it as JPG with embedded sRGB profile and here it is:

This is an excellent representation of the painting, so now I am happy.

I checked and saw that my camera was already set on sRGB profile.

By contrast, here is the original full photo of the painting as posted yesterday:

I guess it depends on the quality of the monitor one uses, but on mine there is a huge difference.

In summary, I must say that this is what works for me (today), so if any of you have similar problems, try the following:

1. Make sure your camera colour profile is set to sRGB.
2. Set the same profile (sRGB) on your PC monitor.
3. Embed the sRGB profile in your saved JPG photos.

I hope this will sort out your problems as well.

 

[Artyczar]

Good info.

Everything is going to look a bit different on everyone's monitors. Not everyone is 1. using the same browser and 2. using a calibrated monitor, or even a correctly calibrated monitor. So even if you do everything possible to make your images look color-correct on your side, it may not look right for others, or it can vary.

Yes, make sure sRGB is set on both sides: camera and jpg profiles. And only use CMYK for printing, by the way (for those that don't know).

The actual website should not make a difference, however. Only the browser might change things, but even that shouldn't really be a factor. Only when it comes to slight variation.

 

[Hermes2020]

Thanks Ayin. From doing my reading on the internet, it seems that everyone says that all browsers default to sRGB, even when there is no embedded profile in the file. So I guess using it is a safe bet all round. I think that many don't know or care about monitor calibration. The built in Windows tool to do it is a good, simple first step and I think everyone doing art should at least do that from time to time. It can be reached by just typing "Calibrate display colour" in the start menu.

 

[Hermes2020]

This gentleman, Unmesh Dinda, explains the colour space minefield much better than I can.

 

[Artyczar]

Interesting how everyone does their adjustments differently. Photoshop is an never-ending onion.

 

[Hermes2020]

Interesting how everyone does their adjustments differently. Photoshop is an never-ending onion.

I weaned myself off Adobe products a long time ago. Like many others more recently, I became sick and tired of their software subscription model that replaced a once off purchase model.

 

[Artyczar]

That's why I use an old bootleg of it from the 1700s. Photoshop CS.