Color Space and the Web

Why do my photos look different on the web than on my screen? What is wrong with PhotoShelter???
The common gripe of photographer is that they spend time working on their images in their calibrated and profiled system, then when it’s put up on the web, it looks like crap. You might be surprised to hear that PhotoShelter has nothing to do with it.

This happens for the simple reason that the vast majority of web browsers are not color managed — meaning, all that nice profile information that gets embedded into the file gets ignored.

Common UNmanaged browsers include:
* Firefox
* Internet Explorer

Common Managed browsers include:
* Safari

So if you’ve shot in AdobeRGB, edit in your profiled computer, but then display it on the web in IE, you’re likely viewing a washed out version because IE displays in sRGB, and ignores any ICC profile information.

Here are a couple of great resources that have more detailed information:

• Gary Ballard has a great explanation with visual examples
• Microsoft explains it to you

About the author

Allen Murabayashi
Allen is CEO and co-founder of PhotoShelter. He is a regular contributor to the PhotoShelter blog, and he flosses daily.

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