Frankly the examples of your image processing improvement shown on the above linked page, do not seem like improvements to me at all, especially when it comes to the sharpening effect. The “after” images look over-sharpened and pixilated.

At best, one would expect no alterations be made to the uploaded photos. At worst, if you feel you must cater to those unfamiliar with how to maximize the quality of their images themselves, you would at least provide those who do know how and choose to do it themselves the option of turning off this awful, annoying feature.

This and PS’s limitations on nesting galleries, but especially this oversharpening (which makes my carefully prepped images look lousy), truly makes me think I need to go elsewhere for a hosting solution. Something I am considering seriously, especially if you tell me this can’t be switched off.

As a new user, I appreciate the improvements, the images look fine–though I honestly doubt I would have been able to tell without the A/B comparisons.

I agree – many of the images now look over-sharpened, but not a huge deal. Tagged display images is more important IMO.

What I see doing the roll over as suggested is the new and better looses or compresses the blacks and look darker. So if less detail in the shadows in order to darken the highlights is your methodology I’d suggest someone go back to school. See above posts for why you’ve erred, again at PS. I don’t manage histograms and spend my time giving shadow detail and highlight detail to have PS remove it.

GEEZ, don’t they teach color theory anymore or does the new generation just not care.

Google chrome is now recognizing ICC profiles.

Based on the embedded profile, it looks like Photoshelter is using the LCMS color management module (CMM) for color transformations, which is also fantastic. Marti Maria, the author of Little CMS, definitely knows the correct transfer function for sRGB is not gamma 2.2, so the color management should be spot-on. (You can verify this by searching this pdf for “sRGB” – http://www.littlecms.com/LittleCMS2.4%20API.pdf) LCMS is a well-respected CMM.

http://www.littlecms.com/

Having display images converted to and tagged with sRGB is great, as color-managed browsers (like Safari) should be able to display accurate color regardless of the color space of the original uploaded to Photoshelter (Adobe RGB, ProPhoto, etc.), or when the browser is used on a wide-gamut monitor. Now, to get all current browsers to use color management….

–Rich

And as far as “geeking out” on Wikipedia about gamma curves, the author better “geek out” on color management before posting on the topic. The gamma curve for sRGB is NOT 2.2, as it has a linear component at the “foot” end of the curve. That’s old news. I would hope that Photoshelter is using a standard sRGB profile for the conversion and not a hacked profile with an approximated 2.2 gamma curve.

See:
http://www.sjbrown.co.uk/2004/05/14/gamma-correct-rendering/

And from the OP’s beloved Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRGB
“Unlike most other RGB color spaces, the sRGB gamma cannot be expressed as a single numerical value. The overall gamma is approximately 2.2, consisting of a linear (gamma 1.0) section near black, and a non-linear section elsewhere involving a 2.4 exponent and a gamma (slope of log output versus log input) changing from 1.0 through about 2.3.”