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Colour management question


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I am somewhat embarrassed in asking what is probably a very naive question.

 

The monitor I am using is a Dell2209 WA, (a cheapie and about to be replaced with a better unit).

 

What I have found with this screen is that photographs portrayed within the Windows environment differ markedly in colour from the same photographs viewed within the Photoshop, Lightroom or the Capture One environment. Displaying the same photograph in say Photoshop on one side of the screen and in Windows on the other side, the colours are acceptable on the Photoshop side but over-'enhanced' on the Windows side. Skin tones, for instance, become unrealistically rosy in Windows.

 

Changing the colour space between Adobe RGB and sRCB makes absolutely no difference to the disparity. Colour calibration of the monitor with Eye-one is also without effect on the disparity.

 

Interestingly I can find no reference to the phenomenon in the Photoshop or Lightroom literature. I guess the explanation is so simple that the writers of such volumes consider the matter unworthy of mention. Or perhaps they have never used a monitor as poor as mine and have therefore never observed the effect?

 

I look forward to reading an explanation I can understand from one of the many lucid contributors to this forum.

 

John

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I would think, I'm not an expert, so I'm probably wrong, the reason for this would that Photoshop, Lightroom and Capture One are all colour managed. By that I mean they recognise the different colour profiles (ProPhotoRGB, AdobeRGB or sRGB) and adjust the display colours accordingly.

 

Whereas the program (which?) you are using to display the images in your Windows environment isn't colour managed, possibly not even recognising the sRGB profile and just displaying whatever comes close to the colour in the image file.

 

My suggestion would be to find a display program, which is either colour managed, or recognises basic colour managed profiles, sRGB for example.

 

I'd be surprised if the basic programs in Windows do not recognise sRGB and honour the profile values, but as I say I'm not an expert.

 

Just my 0.02p of understanding.

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Thank you Owin and William for your insights.

 

Is it likely that because of the shortcomings of the Windows picture viewer system that my purchase of an improved monitor will make little or no difference to the colour disparity?

 

Best wishes,

 

John

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Thank you Owin and William for your insights.

 

Is it likely that because of the shortcomings of the Windows picture viewer system that my purchase of an improved monitor will make little or no difference to the colour disparity?

 

Best wishes,

 

John

 

Glad to help John, sounds like an upgrade is on the cards in your near future.

 

Some more reading

 

Try a colour managed browse, like Apple Safari, or one of the others, just a thought.

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Thank you Owin and William for your insights.

 

Is it likely that because of the shortcomings of the Windows picture viewer system that my purchase of an improved monitor will make little or no difference to the colour disparity?

 

Best wishes,

 

John

 

Correct. You can buy the best monitor in the world, but unless you use colour managed software you will be wasting your money. Picture and Fax Viewer is about as basic a viewer as you can get.

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