JPEG exports from Lightroom looks darker at PicasaWeb/Facebook

[sojo]

Hi all,
I do saw some threads linked to this, but no satisfactory solutions posted there.
I'm doing post processing in Lightroom, and regardless if I shoot in JPEG or RAW each time I export to disk and upload to PicasaWeb Album or Facebook the uploaded pictures looks a bit darker (or colour shifted) than in Lightroom.
I tried Chrome and Internet Explorer and in both the pictures looks same, darker than my edit in Lightroom (viewed on one screen).

I do not want to make them lighter in Lighroom, I like it how it looks there. Does any one knows about what is causing this and if there is some fix/workaround to ensure the same view?

NOTE: I do understand the problem about the monitor calibration and that all other people will see it differently, but I would like to want to have the same look for pictures viewed from my computer/monitor.

[sojo]

left side: Chrome, view of picture uploaded to picasa web albumt
right side: Lighroom view of the same picture.
note: I just put both windows next to each other, done the screen shot.

Difference is visible on left eye, where on right/LR side it's more visible, as well the whole background is lighter in LR. And the color/tonal feel is different, too.

[KongeTorsk]

It may have something to do with Lightroom automatically working in the ProPhoto color space. For the most part, the only problem I ever have with LR is extra noise showing up that isn't normally in the picture. It goes away once it's not in LR anymore though.
If you're exporting directly from LR to your computer/the internet, change the color space to sRGB, whether in Lightroom or PS, etc.
I often find that my pictures will turn a washed out greenish if I leave them in ProPhoto color space. Check it out:
Top is ProPhoto




Bottom is sRGB




I know, I know, it's already an extremely green picture, but at least it gives you an idea of the horrible tint it adds.

[sojo]

Just checked that one, but it's properly set to sRGB for JPG exports. On other hand I did not find any option for setting in which color profile I do the edits in Lightroom.

Maybe the problem is that I do have set LR to different color profile and when I do export everything changes. Can you advice here, please?

[KongeTorsk]

Originally Posted by sojo

Just checked that one, but it's properly set to sRGB for JPG exports. On other hand I did not find any option for setting in which color profile I do the edits in Lightroom.

Maybe the problem is that I do have set LR to different color profile and when I do export everything changes. Can you advice here, please?

I don't think that's a bad thing. However, I do know there is a difference between converting to color profile versus assigning color profile. Lightroom may be assigning the profile rather than converting. (You generally want to convert a color profile and then save a copy of the image as a JPG with the new color profile-sRGB.) Color profiles may have different gammas as well.

These are probably worth some reads-

Adobe Forums: Photos are dark when exported from LR
Adobe Forums: LR3 export problem.

This may be somewhat irrelevant, but I find that unless I wait for my photos to fully load they will generally darken quite a few shades. So your Lightroom may not be displaying the photos as dark as they need to be.

[sk66]

I had similar issues with Flickr (free service) at one time....it was a function of their uploader/resizing engine. Nothing to do but tweak after uploading.

[sojo]

@KongeTorsk - thanks for trying. I done some reading in last 2 days, and looks it something I will need to live with, so need to keep in mind to keep the pictures a bit lighter when doing export to web.

FYI: the behavior you describes about LR showing slightly lighter picture during the load, and than do the additional "step/skip" to darken it, is to be expected. It is visible only for RAW images for which LR do not have generated preview. My understanding is that LR is loading very fast "thumbnail" and then generating the "full preview" based on all raw data, afterwards you see this "skip to darker". If you want to speed up your LR you can pre-generate the previews for all pictures before you start editing them (Menu->Library->Previews). Once the previews are generated you will not see this to happen.

[sojo]

SUMMARY:
In first place, there is no problem with Lightroom, but the safest way is to use sRGB for JPEG exports.

As second, you need to understand whether your web-browser is doing color management, or not. You can find very deep explanations with live examples here:

Jeffrey Friedl's Blog - Jeffrey Friedl's Blog Digital-Image Color Spaces, Page 1: Introduction
Gary G. Ballard - WEB BROWSER COLOR MANAGEMENT Tutorial - Test Page FireFox Safari Chrome Internet Explorer IE 9- FILES have embedded ICC profiles Photoshop ColorManagement

As far as I understand today only Firefox3.6.x, Safari5, IE9 support color profiles.

My mistake was to use Google Chrome to view photos online and expect to see correctly rendered colors. So need to use one of the above mentioned, at least until Google fix the Chrome.

Thanks for help to both of you.

[differencetone]

It has nothing to do with Lightroom (which I don't use). I just noticed the same problem in one of my images. After uploading an image to Facebook, I noticed that it looked darker than when I was viewing it in Photoshop. Thinking I had made it too dark, and that this had something to do with using a different monitor. Then I used the download button in Facebook of the image. Opening the images with Picasa, the original image is lighter as I had intended and the downloaded copy is darker. If I open them both with Irfanview, both copies are dark.

1. Facebook darkened the image
2. The viewing software matters


This is quite disturbing to me as now I know not everyone is seeing the same thing. It is clearly too dark in the darker image. Another problem is that I have begun to have professional prints made. The last one I felt was darker than I had intended. I will have to pay extra for proofs next time I get an expensive print made or else make it look lighter at home guessing that it will be darkened.

[differencetone]

I was also using Chrome. It was suggested that this was the problem but I just checked it on Facebook using Firefox and it was still darker. Facebook darkened the image.