Howcome a digital picture looks one way on a mac, and another on a pc?

I just got a digital camera and I noticed that the same picture that looks fine on my mac looks super dark when I see it on a pc.
Is there a reason for that? Is there something I can do to fix it, or is that just how it is?

I'm not very good at this kind of thing so if you know the answer, pretend you're explaining it to a six year old.

Thanks. :hi:

bet someone over in the photo group forum would know. Maybe you could post your question there :hi:

I'm a graphic designer, and I've done a lot of work that ended up being seen on both platforms. I don't know the answer as to why, and it may not be universally true, but Macs are indeed brighter. When designing or working with digital photograpy, you have to keep that difference in mind, and of course bend to the lowest common denominator - the average PC user.

So, you're not crazy, it's just the way it is. :)

On properly calibrated monitors, the image will appear the same universally.

A lot of it has to do with two things, color "temperature", Macs use a "cooler" color temp by default, and the "color space" within which you are working which, for the most part, defines the color gamut within which you can work.

For printing purposes, simply calibrating your monitor to your printer is sufficient, or if for professional printing, calibrating your monitor to Pantone standards.

For web display, if everyone saves their pictures in a typical sRGB color space, it will appear universally the same.

Most people leave the default color space settings alone when saving for the web and don't pay any attention, that's why the most recent versions of Photoshop (both PC and Mac), have a "save for web" function that will convert photos to a universal color space.

Might also be the brightness setting of the PC in question...

You posted a (very hot) picture in the Yowzah thread, but on my Mac, it looked way dark. I looked at the "histogram" of the file in photoshop, and it was, in fact too dark. I corrected it thusly:



The histogram should show that the brightest point of the picture is actually white, and the darkest is black.

on edit: I did a screen cap that shows how in the original (dark photo) the bell curve stops at about 2/3 of the way across the scale, indicating that the brightest pixels are not white, but actually fairly dark, and most of the pixels in the image are on the dark end of the scale. The bottom photo shows the adjusted image with the bell curve fairly balanced within the scale, a little heavy on the bright side because of the light background and white posters. This is a good picture to do this exercise with actually.



So, a simple way to adjust your computer would to look at the picture above, and adjust your brightness/contrast settings so that it looks "normal" on screen. Send this picture to the PC you were talking about and see how it looks there. it may look too dark, again, due to an improperly calibrated monitor. There are more sophisticated calibration methods, but for just casual use, this should work.

Also, on edit, most PC users never calibrate or adjust their monitors, and use them at the settings right out of the carton, which are usually on the dark side.

:) Yowzah yet again...

G

I see what you mean. That pic on my mac had kind of a golden light thing going on--which I liked but you're right, it made it look darker too.
It looks a lot better after you worked your magic.

Thank you for the advice (and the compliments). I'll play around some more and see what happens.

The gamma (mid-tones) on a Mac are brighter. Some programs have an adjustment (Macromedia Fireworks for one) to compensate. Also if you have Adobe apps, they install a control panel called Adobe Gamma that gives you control.

--IMM

Your advice is very helpful--answered questions I've had for years, actually. A big fat thanks to all who responded.

or just PM me a couple. ;)

And the only calibration tip I can give you:

"The sun isn't yellow, it's chicken....."

My camera (Nikon D100) allows me to set for sRGB (for most PCs) or AdobeRGB (Most Macs). I think there's another setting, too.

I highly recommend the Nikon School if it comes to a city near you. If you already have a good foundation in general photography, skip the first class and take only the second class--managing your work load or something like that. They probably have a schedule of classes on the Nikon web site. Doesn't matter, by the way, if you have a Nikon. what they have to teach is pretty universal for all digital cameras.

I'm not a mac guy, but check your mac's gamma settings. They need to be upped as your gamma is too low.

Gamma isn't brightness either... if you do graphics design, upping the brightness would not be good. :)

Choose the "sRGB" color profile for your Mac display. Assuming you are using OS X, go to the Apple Menu > System Preferences > Displays > Color > Choose "sRGB" from the list. (It won't be a perfect match, but will be much better than what you are seeing now).

Basically you are experiencing a classic color management problem. Every device (e.g., camera, printer, monitor, etc.) represents color in a different way. For example, printers use ink or dye. Monitors use phosphors or liquid crystals. So, it's not surprising that a single image will look different when displayed using different technologies. Think of walking into the TV department of an electronics store where all models are tuned to the same channel, but the color, saturation and brightness vary from set to set. Same thing here.

"Color Management" was invented as a process to fix this problem and allow folks to share images and color files among designers, artists, photographers, editors, print shops, etc. with consistent results. Color Management works first by profiling a device's color capabilities. This process results in a "color profile" which describes exactly how a particular monitor, printer, or camera understands color. In a color managed workflow, the computer operating system manages the differences between input color (e.g., from a camera or scanner), display color (e.g. a CRT or LCD monitor), and printed color by calculating color translations using the profiles.

That's a VERY simplistic explanation. And, if everyone uses "color management" properly things are swell. The problem is nobody uses color management properly. In an effort to make things simpler, a consortium of companies (including HP and Microsoft) defined a default color space called "Standard RGB" or "sRGB" which would be used as a default profile for Windows, digital cameras, inkjet printers, etc. Manufacturers agreed to use sRGB as a default, thus allowing Windows users to get good results from most printers, cameras, and monitors out of the box.

Although sRGB was chosen as a limited (smaller color gamut) and lowest common denominator solution for consumer devices, the approach works quite nicely for most people using Windows. Of course, not everyone uses Windows. As you discovered, one problem Mac users have is due to the fact that Apple settled on another default color space long before sRGB was defined. Apple RGB is the de facto standard among Mac users and is the default setting for new Macs. The upshot of this different standard is that the same image can appear brighter on the Mac and darker when viewing on Windows.

The situation is sorta like Beta vs. VHS. Apple arguably chose a better color space for professional applications, but sRGB has won widespread industry and consumer adoption. More images are created using sRGB than Apple RGB these days. Luckily, Mac users can switch to an sRGB display profile using the System Preferences easily enough. The result is an on-screen simulation of what Windows users see. For most consumers who share photos this is a good recommendation. However, this is not advice for professional designers or photographers. Color Management can be tuned perfectly through proper device calibration as other posters in this thread have touched upon.

The bottom line is if you can't beat 'em, join 'em -- Make your Mac display images like a PC by choosing sRGB.

Hope that helps a bit.