Spring Solitude..with a question..and re-post

Here is another shot from my recent trip to the Columbia Gorge. This is a single image processed with a technique I just learned from Joe Rossbach. I know there are still a couple small blown areas and I still need to work the upper right corner but I'd like your thoughts on this so far.

Now, here is my question. When I processed in PS, everything looks great colorwise. When I do save for web and convert to Srgb, it loses a lot of color...this looks a little drab compared to the tiff image. Is there a way to keep the colors from the better looking image when I post? It also looks darker than the master image Thanks.

Jack, can you post your color settings in PS, and the method you use to convert to sRGB?
Also, is your monitor calibrated?

For what it's worth, it looks great on my monitor.

Guy

Looks absolutely perfect on my monitor. Granted, I don't have the tiff file to compare it to, but I wouldn't want it any lighter, and wouldn't want the color any more overt than what's presented here. Beautiful shot, Jack. What's this new technique you mentioned?

Todd,

I saw a post by Joe Rossbach in the landscape forum that I really liked so I clicked on his website and he has several tutorials available. I used the techniques from trillium falls tutorial to create this..you may already know the steps but they are new to me. Here is the link: http://www.josephrossbach.com/content.html?page=6

I'm glad these look ok on your monitors cuz it looks dark and a little washed out on my semi-calibrated macbook.

Guy: I wouldn't have a clue to know my PS color settings



In PS, when I finished i clicked save for web, set to 300k and used convert to S-rgb and that was it.

Jack -- it looks dark and a little desaturated on my iMac as well, but not terrible. I never convert to sRGB, I figure it looks good on a Mac (which displays aRGB with Safari) -- so everyone should just switch to Macs aside from that the image looks pretty nice to me, I love the greens.

Jack: looks fine on my (uncalibrated) monitor too. Great picture, I love the texture in the green areas and the way the water splits around the two humps(?) at the bottom.

Jack, the image looks fine on my MacBook monitor.

You may want to convert to Srgb before you resize. Then you can adjust the colors to your taste before resizing, sharpening and preparing for the web.

Bill Brennan

Jack, the easiest way is go to the Edit menu and select "Color Settings", then click on "More Options" to expand the window and post a screenshot.

Guy

Guy, I had just figured this out when you replied..here you go:

You can safely set your working RGB color space (first line) to a larger space like Adobe RGB. Do you then convert to sRGB using the "Save for Web" option or explicitly in Photoshop?

Guy

Guy, maybe this has been my issue. Since I already had sRGB as my color setting, I was also converting in save for web to sRGB...maybe it makes the image appear more washed out. On my next images, I will change the setting in PS to Adobe RGB and se what happens when I convert in save for web option. Is there a better way to convert for web?

Also I have a monitor profile created... should I use that or go with Adobe RGB on that first line in color settings?

Jack, can we see a repost? I think the comp is outstanding. The color and lighting are just off a bit, so im excited to see the finished product.

This looks fine on my calibrated monitor, although I wouldn't mind seeing the dingy grey rapids in the foreground brightened up to more closely match the ones in the background.
I don't use Save for Web because so many folks seem to have the problems you've discussed here, while I've never had a problem using the ol' Save As.. technique (coupled with Edit->Convert to Profile). However, when using SfW, do you have the 'Embed Color Profile' box checked? If not, then SfW will strip the color profile in order to use the extra space saved for more image pixels.

As far as the first line in Working Spaces (RGB:), I use Adobe RGB. Many also use ProPhoto RGB in order to capture the largest possible color gamut, even though monitors and printers can't incorporate that wide of a gamut (..yet).

I'm with John about the dingy, grey rapids, but otherwise this looks good to me, on my calibrated monitor.

Here's a re-post..is the water too bright now? What about the rest of the image?

This looks a lot better, Jack! Didn't realize how dark the original was until you posted this one. The rapids in the foreground look great!
My only suggestions would be to mask off the waterfalls from the overall brightening, as they didn't need any at all and are now too bright, and to clone out the two sticks in that area. What a beautiful scene!
Could this be a candidate for a touch of the Orton effect? Note that if you choose to try that method, it brightens up the scene considerably, so use it on the darker version and then brighten accordingly.

Repost looks great, Jack!

Guy

I just saw this Jack! Great image! I agree with John's recommendations as well.

Jack - great scene. Like them both. The first has a little more somber mood and the second conveys spring to me. I almost like the first better for the mood. Nice.

I also didn't realize how dark the first one was until the re-post. I don't have any new suggestions above and beyond Johns.

The first image, while slightly dark, looks way more realistic on my unclaibrated monitor while the 2nd is oversaturated (yellows) to the point of looking fake. I prefer the whites of the 2nd image, however. It's a beautiful scene nonetheless.

I prefer the second one Jack, having been there with you it looks more realistic.

Thanks for all the comments everyone!

John, I am working on bring up the foreground stream and leaving the background intact.

Amy, Believe it or not, the 2nd image is more representative of the actual color at the time. Springtime brings out crazy green and yellow colors in the gorge that can look over-saturated but I used very little color correction in this image.