Expert: LizaL - 3/13/2005

Question
Hi LizaL, im using photoshop 7.0. i have a problem. Every image i see or have saved is normal, but if i save an image from photoshop, it darkens the image. for example.. if i open a image with bright red in photoshop, and i edit it a lil.. then if i save it, the bright red becomes a darker red.. same thing for every color.. another example is gray..when i use the color, it always darkens the image when i save the file.. please help. thanks..

Answer
Hi Cameron,

The good news is that this is happening with all your pictures! That would indicate to me that it's not any one picture in general, which will hopefully make this easier to troubleshoot.

Now, you don't say whether you're using these images for print or onscreen display -- but I'm going to assume you're only talking about onscreen, for now. If that's wrong, let me know, as it might make a difference in how we handle the problem.

Anyway --

Two things come to mind: the color mode of the pictures you're having trouble with, and your color settings in Photoshop.


1. Is it possible you're changing color modes? For example -- could it be that you're opening a CMYK picture, then after you edit, saving it as RGB?

I know for a fact that CMYK images tend to look more "washed out," and lighter. So that made me wonder if you were editing in CMYK and then saving in another format. So that's something to check (Image pulldown menu> Mode >).



2. The more likely thing is your color environment in Photoshop.

On a Mac, if you go to the Photoshop pulldown menu and select Color Settings, you'll get this dialog box:

http://little-works.com/all_experts/colorsettings.png

(On a PC, it's either the File or Photoshop menus; I'm at my Mac right now, which I use the most :-) )


This dialog box contains a LOT of information that will dictate how your images are displayed. It adheres to universal printing standards (i.e., the U.S. Web coated SWOP setting in the CMYK pop-up menu), and is very reliable as to its settings.

This area of Photoshop dictates how your images will be viewed when you're working, and, loosely speaking, it can assign a "color profile" to your images. If you ever open a file in Photoshop that gives you a dialog box something like "...the color profile does not match the current environment..." it means that somebody has edited that image with a certain color profile, and your Photoshop isn't set up that way.


Granted, this is a big dialog box with a lot of intimidating choices, but one way to circumvent a lot of hassle is to first calibrate your monitor.

I don't know what kind of machine you're using, but on a PC running XP, you should have the Adobe Gamma program -- and on a Mac, you can calibrate through Displays Preferences (OS X). At any rate, however you do it, and whatever tool you use, do calibrate your monitor and make sure it's displaying color correctly, according to its make and model.

Then you can return to this Color Settings dialog box in Photoshop. The first step is to select your monitor in the pop-up menu where it says RGB. Here's how mine's set up:

http://little-works.com/all_experts/colorsettings2.png


After you do this, quit Photoshop, then open it again, and see if you still have the problem.

You can also turn off Color Management altogether -- see the selection in this part of the top pop-up menu?

http://little-works.com/all_experts/colorsettings3.png


Honestly, we could talk all day about this dialog box alone, there's so much information here. But I won't do that to you :-)  Instead, I'll refer you to some online docs that might explain it.

1. Here's a wealth of information on color management in Photoshop. Be sure to check out the Adobe online links that are posted here.

http://www.photoshopsupport.com/resources/color.html


2. I'm not crazy about the About.com site (too much sometimes meaningless and outdated info jammed into a page), but here are some links:
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshopcolormanagement/


3. This looks like someone's personal tutorial, but possibly informative:
http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/photoshop-color-settings.html



Hope this helps! And if it doesn't, please post back and let me know, and we'll figure something else out.

Lisa