Hi everyone,
I was wondering if anyone can help me with something. Often when I upload an image, the colour appears significantly faded from the original (it seems to happen more with warmer colours). Subsequently I either leave up an image I'm not 100% happy with or take it down, boost the colour and re-upload it, which is quite frustrating for both me and everyone else (esp. the mods, to whom I sincerely apologise). Has anyone else ever had this problem or know of any way it could be avoided? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers, Kelcey.

Kelcey, on the upload page, ever see the "we recommend uploading in the PNG format" statement, way up on top?

PNG is what's known as a lossless format, and won't degrade once it's been chewed up, and spit back out by the image servers. JPEG's on the other hand, will.

That's why you have a third eye Rob, to compensate for my complete and utter blindness:) I shall try this right now, thanks a million for the help.

Hmm, the coloured image (Bathing Birdy) worked perfectly but the sepia image (Ponderment) lost some reds. Still a better result though, thanks again Rob:)

Does your editing software allow you to assign a color profile? If so, make sure it's set to sRGB, or that you convert your image to the sRGB color profile before you upload. That should take care of most of the color loss issues.

Thanks for the help, however I tried uploading images that had been both assigned the sRGB profile and converted to PNG and I still lost a lot of red. I'm really at a loss here, the last thing I want to do is make life harder for those running the site but if my image comes up looking faded I'm going to be compelled to take it down and fix it. 'Tis very frustrating for all involved, I just wish I had the solution.

Hi Kelcey - I have the same problem with PNG's which lose their colour when I upload them and these are images that I have worked on in Photoshop CS2 sRGB and saved as PNGs. What I do is open them in Fotofiltre and it shows me what the colour loss will be - don't ask me why - I am no technique expert. soooo I just boost colour and contrast there and save again - probably not the correct way to do it but it works :)

I think the problem is that the colour profile you view the image in on screen can be different to the colour profile online. There's a fairly simple way to deal with it. In Photoshop, go to 'View' and then 'Proof setup' and click on 'Windows RGB' (or 'Macintosh RGB' if you're using a Mac). This sets the colour profile for proofing to the profile used in Windows. Now, when you open a photo click on 'View' again and then 'Proof colours'. This shows you the colours as they will appear online. I try to remember to do this immediately when I open a file for editing, so that I see all the work I do as it will appear online. What I haven't worked out is how to view in 'Proof colours' by default, which would be useful because I often forget to set it until I'm halfway through the edit.

If you're using Paint Shop Pro I'm sure the same facility exists, but I'm not familiar with the programme - can anyone help?

If you're not using either programme, you can still check what the image will look like. Just right-click on it, choose 'Open with' and select your web browser. You will then see the image in Firefox, Internet Explorer or whatever it is you use, as it will appear on the site.

Hope that helps!

Ok, so i read nigel's comment and would like to ask the following (even though it will no doubt make me sound like an idiot).......is sRGB the same as sRGB1EC61966-2.1?
in the conversion options should the engine be ADOBE (ACE) and is the intent Relative colormetric? Finally, should Use Black point compensation and Use Dither both be checked.
i also keep finding loss of color so sometimes over compensate in saturation only to be dissatisfied. i always upload in PNG.
thanks!

Hi Jen. I'm not an expert on this, but I seem to have eliminated my own colour loss problems so I guess something's worked. On the sRGB issue, the important thing is that your camera is set to the same colour space as Photoshop. According to my book, you only need Adobe sRGB if you are going to do lots of printing yourself. I have my camera and Photoshop set to sRGB, which seems to work fine. The long name for sRGB you've quoted above (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) is apparently just that - the long name for standard sRGB.

I'm afraid I can't help on the conversion engine option and intent - can you tell me if these are in Photoshop or on your camera, and if PS where they are under the menus?

You will also need to make sure you've calibrated your monitor as best you can. The best way apparently (I've never done it) is to use a colour calibration device like eye-one, but it costs. Otherwise you can do it for free, but less reliably, by using the built-in calibration software on your computer. If you don't know how to do this, let me know and I'll do another note here.

Here's something else that I've done which may also have helped. Open a photo. Then go under the 'Image' menu then 'Adjustments' and choose 'Curves'. Double-click on the black eyedropper tool (at the bottom of the Curves pop-up box, the first of the three eydroppers). The colour picker will now appear, asking you to select your target shadow colour. Now you are going to enter some new preferences. Double click in the 'R' field to highlight it, type in a 10, then press the tab key to jump to the 'G' field. Enter a 10 there and then tab to the 'B' field and enter 10 there as well. Now click OK. This will remove any colour cast introduced by the camera into shadow areas of your photos. Next you need to make the highlight areas neutral. Double-click on the white eyedropper (the third one in the row) and double click in the 'R' field. Enter 245 for R, then tab into 'G' and enter 245, then 'B' and enter 245. Click OK. Finally, enter your midtone preferences (double click on the middle eyedropper). Enter 'R' 133, 'G' 133 and 'B' 133. Then click OK. Now click OK again to exit Curves. You will then get a warning dialogue asking if you want to set the new colours as defaults. Click Yes. There, enough for this message. Let me know if any of it helps.

those settings i mentioned are under edit.....convert to profile.... i really appreciate your help, nigel. thanks, jen

Jen, I've just checked it out on mine. I never use this action, but I just tried it to see what happened and it hugely changes the histogram. Where the curve was reasonably well distributed, after doing the 'convert to profile' command it bunched much more heavily towards white, with very little black. My advice would be not to use 'Convert to profile'. I've never noticed it before and never use it - and as I say, I don't have the problem of my photos looking different when uploaded any more. Just for info, the settings on my system are the same defaults you refer to - sRGB long name, Adobe (ACE), relative colorimetric etc.