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Lightroom 3 vs JPG
I have the feeling that I am asking a "junior" question about something obvious here, but I have not yet been able to find a satisfying explanation.
I am well aware of printer and monitor color profiles which, when not properly calibrated, may lead to differences between the displayed image and the printed result. However I am (was?) not aware of possible differences between the same image (well... 1 RAW and 1 JPG) displayed in 2 different softwares.
I was processing the image below in Lightroom 3. At some point I had a rather interesting non-final result that I decided to export as JPG to show a friend. However, as shown below, the difference between the image shown in Lightroom and the JPG is striking. I actually prefer the JPG version, but the result is obviously not what I had been aiming for. (The Lightroom image on left is the result of a screengrab, hence the lower quality). The JPG version has no extra-processing applied on export.
Of course, the number of possible colors in RAW vs JPG is quite different, but I have a hard time believing that this alone could explain such a significant difference.
Am I wrong?
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Lifetime Member
What color space did you export the JPEG in, and what software are you using to view the JPEG?
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Export is sRGB.
On this specific screenshot, Irfanview was used to display the image. However display in both Firefox and IE produce the same result (or at least show no noticeable difference).
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This does look like a color space issue. Is irfanview color managed?
Load the images in Figure 1a into your browser, lightroom, and irfanview:
http://www.clarkvision.com/articles/....your.monitor/
Do they all look the same? They will in color managed software.
Roger
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Post a Thank You. - 1 Thanks
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They actually all look the same in all 3 softwares. So in fact it is only my original raw file, displayed in Lightroom, that looks different.
So I assume that the raw file has no such color profile embedded. Therefore my guess is that Lightroom uses some kind of default color profile that is not appropriate since it does not match my monitor. Hence the solution to my problem would be to calibrate my monitor and somehow tell Lightroom to use it. (I do not know exactly how at this point, but I assume there is some kind of configuration parameter for this and it should be easy to find with 10 minutes of searching and reading).
Am I making sense?
Thanks for the pointer by the way. Very instructive. Will have to read it again tomorrow to understand every aspect of it, but still very instructive :)
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Actually I stand corrected. I did not perform the comparison correctly. I checked 1 image in all 3 software instead of all 3 images in a single software. 
- The Photopro RGB image is cleary different from the other 2 in IrFanview. Even a bit darker than the "1b" images on your website.
- All 3 images look identical in Firefox.
- All 3 images look almost identical in Lightroom 3, but not as much as in Firefox. The sRGB one is different from the other 2. It shows clearly more details in the feathers of the chest.
The Lightroom part confuses me, but I am getting closer to the problem and the solution.
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Originally Posted by
P-A. Fortin
Actually I stand corrected. I did not perform the comparison correctly. I checked 1 image in all 3 software instead of all 3 images in a single software.
- The Photopro RGB image is cleary different from the other 2 in IrFanview. Even a bit darker than the "1b" images on your website.
- All 3 images look identical in Firefox.
- All 3 images look almost identical in Lightroom 3, but not as much as in Firefox. The sRGB one is different from the other 2. It shows clearly more details in the feathers of the chest.
The Lightroom part confuses me, but I am getting closer to the problem and the solution.
Hi,
In IrFanview, do you have the color management plugin, LCMS installed? http://www.irfanview.com/plugins.htm
I do not have lightroom, so this is a stab in the dark. In lightroom, do you have any proofing turned on, if so what?
The fact that all 3 images look the same in firefox is good. It should imply that the other software simply needs to be set up correctly instead of a deeper system issue.
Roger
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I did not have much time to read about LR on this specific issue, but so far what I found seems to indicate that it should be using the "default color profile of the OS". Which bugs me a bit since the JPG, viewed in LR, still looks different from the original RAW.
In any way, if this is true, then it would mean that the color profile of my monitor is quite far away from whatever is embedded in the JPG. So I'm still confused.
I'll keep on reading.
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Interesting information: I opened the JPG in Windows Image Viewer. To my surprise, the image was displayed exactly like the RAW image was displayed in Lightroom.
So the issue is definitely not LR specific.
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Originally Posted by
P-A. Fortin
I did not have much time to read about LR on this specific issue, but so far what I found seems to indicate that it should be using the "default color profile of the OS". Which bugs me a bit since the JPG, viewed in LR, still looks different from the original RAW. In any way, if this is true, then it would mean that the color profile of my monitor is quite far away from whatever is embedded in the JPG. So I'm still confused. I'll keep on reading.
It seems you might be confusing profiles and color spaces.
Color spaces are sRGB, Adobe 1998 and ProPhotoRGB which are like different boxes of crayons with sRGB being a box of crayons with the least number of crayon colors and ProphotoRGB having a huge collection of crayon colors. While profiles, i.e. icc profiles, are data sets that indicate how a particular device or media renders colors and allow a program to convert color information in such a way such that the output is the same across media and devices.
Your jpeg image does not have the color profile of the monitor, it has a colorspace of sRGB.
I think you should invest in buying a colorimeter so you are working in a "color managed" fashion, this will also ensure your monitor is not set too bright and give a false impression of edits you make, especially for printing purposes.