I am so sick of not knowing what the hell is going on in Photoshop.

[valis2]

Tonight's debacle? I have my old listing photos from a listing I did on Etsy. The listing is still on Etsy, because it is a sold item. Anyway, I made another of the same thing.

The photos from the old listing look IDENTICAL to the batch I just took yesterday. I've cropped them, edited them slightly, etc. Let me make this clear: I have the old listing up in a browser window, and I have the Photoshop editor open, and yep, tone, background, everything is the same.

But when I upload thepics from Photoshop to Etsy to list the new item, those same pics are suddenly RADICALLY different. The green is nearly blue. They are so washed out it's crazy.

This has been happening over and over again. It's almost like Photoshop has developed a permanent green color/dark cast, and if I correct for it, the pics end up looking completely wrong. If I leave it, the pics look--well, not great, and I have to look at them through explorer in order to see what color they're being corrected to. I even have to look at explorer to see what color they actually ARE.

I am so confused. Seriously. I've taken another round of photos just now, and yet again, the color when it's uploaded to Etsy or whatever matches what the camera screen shows, but Photoshop makes it look deeply saturated and weirdly off-kilter.

Y'know, if I had a tag called "grah," every single entry would be tagged with it. grah.

Comments

[drusillas-rain.livejournal.com]

Have you ever tried paint dot net? It's a great freeware app that's a scaled down version of photoshop (but much stronger than e.g. paint). It's robust enough that based on what you've done above it should be able to cover your needs and is much simpler to use than photoshop (and much less likely to randomly recolour your photos the way photoshop did).

http://www.getpaint.net/

[valis2.livejournal.com]

You rock. *hugs* I will totally investigate this. I really just need a few specific tools, nothing fancy. *nodnod*

[acid.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's something I haven't seen before! Weird... unless you're saving as GIFs with limited palette that doesn't have any green, but that'd be really hard to do accidentally. And you'll definitely see the decreased image quality as well.

Another guess is that somehow your images are either starting off or ending up as CMYK color mode instead of RGB or vice versa, then some cyanish greens miiiight end up looking blue, and there's definitely a washed out effect. http://www.curvemeister.com/tutorials/widegamutcmyk/index.htm

I don't use windows software, but I heard good things about paint.net. I think they just released a new, faster version too. Google's Picasa is another alternative I've used for quick photo edits, if you don't mind depending on google for yet another thing in life.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I'm not saving as GIFs; I usually save as JPGs, and I just checked to make sure everything was in normal RGB instead of AdobeRGB. Still, this is weird.

And I will definitely check out that link. Thank you SO much, you rock!!

[jaelle-n-gilla.livejournal.com]

I was thinking the same thing. Plus, valis, you could check the size. Downsizing the image can do funny things to colours and rendering, especially in jpg. When you save as jpg, make sure the setting is the same (compression vs quality - you may want to set it to 100% quality rather than higher compression).

Another hint I can give is Paint Shop Pro by Correl. They have a 30 day trial version with all features. It's a bit different than Adobe but it has all the same features. Somewhere. It needs getting used to, though. Same for me since I never use Adobe. And guess what, it's much cheaper too. It's not a guarantee but may be worth the try.

One more try: Use png for uploading. Chances are the results are worse than jpg but with small images you won't see much of a difference.
Good luck! :)

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure it has anything to do with sizing or format. This color aberration appears BEFORE it's resized, and while it's still in PSD. I always set it to maximum quality and the least amount of compression.

I've tried PNG, and had the same weird results. :(

Thank you SO much for your advice! I really appreciate it.

[tapedeck.livejournal.com]

Open up phosho > edit > colour settings > make sure it's set to default/North America General Purpose 2.

That is the path for CS3ex, it may vary a little depending on your version of photoshop.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I have Elements 6, and it doesn't appear to have this option--it's all stuff like "optimize for computer monitor" and such. :(

[sinick.livejournal.com]

Make sure you haven't tinkered with your monitor's color profile. An improperly set profile can play merry hell with the palette of edited images.

R-click on your desktop > Properties option > Settings tab > Advanced button > Color Management tab.

If you've got any separate color profiles associated with your monitor, try removing them.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

There's only one profile in the Color Management tab. Also, I'm confused (bear with me, I'm not all that adept with tekmology); the colors are only incorrect in Photoshop. The pictures/colors all appear the same on Etsy, eBay, LJ, and Windows Explorer (when displayed on this monitor). They only appear tinted in Photoshop (when displayed on this monitor). So I think it's something to do with PS. I'm downloading a fresh version just to be sure.

[sinick.livejournal.com]

Photoshop takes your monitor profile (if you have one set) into account when saving images.

If I were you, I'd find out where you got that profile from, make sure you can re-install it if you want it, then remove it and see what happens.

I say this because I ran into similar problems once: images were being saved with a weird tint that wasn't apparent in the original. The problem disappeared when I nuked the monitor profile.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Excellent, I will check that out. Thank you SO much!

[sinick.livejournal.com]

Of course you'll need to reboot after removing the profile, before checking to see if the problem has gone.

Monitor profiles are loaded once on bootup.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! Thanks for the help. ;)

[droxy.livejournal.com]

What Sinik says and make sure you are sed to web colors only.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I'm still trying to figure this out--the pictures/colors all appear the same on Etsy, eBay, LJ, and Windows Explorer (when displayed on this monitor). They only appear tinted in Photoshop (when displayed on this monitor). I am thinking it's something to do with PS, and I'm getting a fresh version right now just to be certain.

SUGGESTION about photos...

[ook.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine is a whiz with this sort of thing.

He did suggest that you might have accidentally applied a color profile to the pictures. Photoshop will preview the picture with the profile applied, but then that profile gets ignored by most web presentations.

He said he needed to see before and after photos to examine the photo properties. He can probably tell you what's wrong.

Re: SUGGESTION about photos...

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Yes, I am afraid that's what's happening! I'm downloading a fresh copy just to check, and once I have that installed I'll know a little more. Thank you SO much--you are always such a help!