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Brighter Photos
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When I download my photos onto my PC they come up darker than on the viewing screen on my camera.
I have to edit each one to improve the brightness.
Anyone any ideas how I might solve this?
ThanksWhat software are you using? What format are the images (jpg, CR2, NEF)?
Is our monitor calibrated?
I’m just learning about Photoshop Bridge: I think you can adjust the brightness in all of them in one go – especially if you are using RAW.
Anybody know if this is correct?
The first thing you should really do is ensure that your camera is exposing the images correctly. Most cameras routinely underexpose images on account of the fact that if an image is overexposed, it is impossible to correct. One quick way to determine if your camera is exposing correctly is to photograph a grey card at the cameras recommended exposure and at exposures over and under this, in 1/3rd stop increments if possible. As you shoot each image, look at the histogram on the camera back. The one with the spike right in the middle is the correctly exposed one. From this you can then work out if you need to make any adjustments to your cameras metering (or ISO).
Alternatively open these image in Photoshop. Change the second view in the Info Palette to greyscale and then use the eyedropper tool with a sample size of at least 3×3 to just hover over the grey image. Keep an eye on the K value in the greyscale section of the info palette. The image which gives you a K value = 50% is the one which has been exposed correctly.
This is a rather simplified summary of the steps you should take to “calibrate” your systems metering and I’ve only mentioned it because metering should be your first port of call before adjusting anything in Photoshop.
However, one other thing to be aware of is if you’re shooting JPEG’s and have your camera set to the Adobe RGB colour space and then view them on an un-profiled monitor using an application which isn’t colour profile aware or is set up wrong (for example, you have Photoshop set to use sRGB) the your images will look duller on your computer.
Don’t rely solely on the screen on the back of the camera, they frequently display images brighter than they actually are.
Find out whether your camera can display a histogram (even better if it can display a histogram for the individual red/green/blue [RGB] channels) and read up about how to interpret it. Basically ensure that you don’t have the histogram data abruptly clipped on the right.
Otherwise, as Thorsten suggests, make sure you’re not shooting Adobe RGB in the camera (it should be set to sRGB by default). Try calibrating your (computer) monitor – if you don’t have access to hardware methods, try using Adobe Gamma, which comes with Photoshop, and if you don’t have PS try QuickGamma. They’re not perfect, but they’re better than nothing
John
JMcL wrote:
Otherwise, as Thorsten suggests, make sure you’re not shooting Adobe RGB in the camera (it should be set to sRGB by default).
If you plan on making prints from your files,
the colour space in-camera should be set to Adobe RGB-If you only want to view images on your computer,
then sRGB might be better-However, I’m not sure if this matters if you’re shooting in raw-
You could try turning down the brightness of the camera’s display too-
though we haven’t really determined which device is misbehaving-j
jb7 & Co: In relation to RGB profiles is there any general pointers in relation to what settings one should be using?
My common scenario would be:
* I keep most of my images on my PC.
* I host a few on Flickr to submit for C&C on PI.
* I might want to print the odd one here or there. I’m possibly thinking of getting some larger prints done at some stage, never been beyond A4 to-dateCan you suggest what RGB profile I should be typically using and maybe situations where I might want to change?
Cheers
JohnPictures displayed on the internet should be in sRGB-
Adobe RGB has a slightly larger gamut- range of colours-
and is more suited to files for printing-That’s not to say that you can’t print from sRGB-
Raw files don’t have a colour space assigned. I think-
its only when they are converted that this happens-If you shoot raw and you’re mainly viewing online,
then you could set up in sRGB-
and leave it at that-Pictures posted online in Adobe RGB will look flat and de-saturated
compared to how they should look-
IE and Firefox- in fact all browsers except Safari,
are not set up to use colour profiles-I’m no expert in this,
I just follow guidelines,
but it works for me-j
Cheers, appreciate that.
So when I convert my RAW files they should be assigned Adobe RGB as a start point.
Should I choose to then re-size them and post to Flickr I should change to sRGB but always keep the original in Adobe RGB in the event that I ever want to print it.
Thanks!
There are many detailed discussions on various sites throughout the internet dealing with the topic of what colourspace is best and I don’t propose to even scratch the surface here. Just wanted to put forward my opinion that choosing Adobe RGB if you’re printing may not necessarily be the best decision. It depends largely on how/where you print. If you’re printing at home and are using a fully colour managed workflow, complete with printer profiles, then Adobe RGB makes a lot of sense. However, if you are sending your work out to a lab, then in the vast majority of cases, you’re better of converting to sRGB. Certainly, all high-street style consumer based mini-labs expect the images to be sRGB (because they don’t know any better) and most pro labs that I’ve dealt with recommend sRGB for printing as well. If you do send to a pro lab, get in touch with them first and ask them whether you should send them work in sRGB or Adobe RGB.
And if you haven’t dipped your toes into colour management yet and don’t understand what we’re talking about, then for the moment at least, you’re probably better off just using the sRGB colourspace for the time being in order to avoid any confusion.
Ok, well I shall bear this in mind then.
If it’s a case of only having to deal with 2 then this is quite manageable.
Is there any impact when converting between the 2 e.g. if Adobe RGB is somewhat superior to sRGB then does converting up/down have any impact on resulting image quality?
Many Thanks!
Converting from raw, it doesn’t matter-
you’ve got a new original every time-Converting from Adobe to sRGB won’t result in any loss of information either-
Any printer I talked to was more concerned about there being a colour profile being assigned, than having none at all,
though the preference was for Adobe RGB.I didn’t go to the high street-
j
There will inevitably be some data loss when converting between colourspaces, which is why some people are critical of converting to the LAB colourspace in order to sharpen just the L channel and then convert back again. I guess how much data is lost depends to some extent on the rendering intent you choose to use. Will there be a noticeable loss in quality in the final printed output? Probably not.
It’s a bit like films going through the airport x-ray in the good old days of film – two or three passes rarely resulted in any noticeable fall off in the films contrast, but do it often enough and you would reach a point where the film became unusable because the effect is cumulative. So too with colourspace changes, although it could be argued that going from Adobe RGB to sRGB and back again is pointless.
Thanks all.
Will study your replies and apply the advice, much appreciated.
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