Color problem, but not calibration

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I've been struggling with a color issue for days, and I've finally got the problem defined, at least. I'm hoping someone here as encountered something like this before.

I'm running Lightroom 2.4 on my MacBook Pro. I have an Samsung T26' external monitor, and do most of my photo editing on the external monitor.

It turns out that photos in Lightroom look totally different on the two screens. However, I'm pretty sure it's not a calibration issue: If I export some image and look at it OUTSIDE Lightroom (using, for example, Preview to view the file) on both screens, it looks the same on the two screens and different from how it looked inside Lightroom on the Samsung T26'. So in short, a photo in Lightroom on the Samsung monitor is far less saturated (it's not a subtle difference: check this out: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnamartinsf/3824515976/) than an exported version of that photo on either screen.

Why would Lightroom behave differently with different screens if the screens themselves are calibrated to look the same?

Any ideas? Thanks ahead of time.
 
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what colour space are you exporting it as?
 
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I've tried exporting both as sRGB and AdobeRGB, same result. But again: The exported image looks exactly the same -- on both screen -- as it looks in LR on the MacBook Pro screen. Likewise, if I upload the exported image to Flickr, it looks exactly the same on both screens as it looks in LR on the MacBook Pro screen. The image *inside LR* is the anomaly: it looks far, far different on the Samsung monitor screen than it does on the MacBook Pro screen.
 
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which gives the correct colour, the Mac Book Pro screen or the Samsung Monitor. Sounds like one isn't being colour managed
 
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If by "correct", you mean "colors look right in Lightroom on the unedited shot, out of the camera", then the MacBook Pro screen is the "correct" one. Remember, this is the kicker: The exported-from-Lightroom JPG's look alike on both screens, and look alike in both Firefox or Safari on both screens when uploaded to Flickr. For what it's worth, I really pushed the settings both on the Mac calibration wizard and the mechanical controls on the Samsung screen, and there's no adjustment that results in images inside Lightroom looking even remotely the same on the two screens.
 
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I'm curious how you "calibrated the screens to look the same". As far as I know you cannot calibrate an external monitor and the built in display separately on a MacBookPro. Maybe the newest generation is different though?

If you compare the images, make sure to drag the window onto the screen completely. So not as in the example you showed where one window is spread over two screens. You might be able to see the image shift color a bit a split second after you've dragged it onto the second screen in it's entirety.

What profiles do the displays use according to the System prefs > Displays > Color?

Both LR and Preview are color managed, and I've not had a problem using either with dual screens (on a G5 that is).

How do you get LR on both screens? Drag, or use the dual screen mode in LR?

What browser do you use? Safari is color managed, but only for images with embedded profile. FF 3.5.2 on default settings the same, provided it works with your display profile. You can set color management of or "full" (assumes sRGB for images without profile) however.
FF 3.'.11 has color management disabled by default, and is fully color managed when set to.
 
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In 2''9/9 version of MBP, an external screen can be calibrated separately. I created separate profiles for each screen.

In the photo of my Samsung screen, both Firefox and LR windows are *completely* on the Samsung screen. Here's the issue: Dragging an app from the Samsung screen over to the MBP screen results in a sudden "pop" where the window seems suddenly to light up (brightens up) on the MBP screen, and the colors are much more saturatecd. I tried a Dell monitor instead of the Samsung, and same thing happens. Even at 1''% brightness, the external screen (whether the Samsung or the Dell) is dull and desaturated by comparison to the MBP screen.

I'm using the latest versions of FF (3.5.2) and Safari (4.'.2)

Thanks for helping me try to figure this out. Any ideas, anyone?
 
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LR has had some problems with certain types of calibration profiles. I'm guessing it has trouble using the calibration profile on the external monitor. Try re-calibrating the external screen. What are you using for calibration ?

Also as a test, set both screens to an sRGB default profile and see if LR now matches what Preview displays on both screens, this would prove the profile on the external monitor is not working with LR.
 
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I've tried every standard calibration profile available on the Mac (it has quite a few) for each screen, the default profile for each screen, and have calibrated each screen many, many times (using the calibration software that's built into the Mac OS) -- lots of things change about the appearance of the screens when I do this, of course, but this one thing doesn't change: When I drag LR from the external monitor to the MacBook Pro screen, it "pops" and brightens/saturates, regardless of how the monitors are calibrated. It turns out that the MacBook Pro's version of the image in LR is what the image will ultimately look like when exported. And again, this turns out to be true with two different external monitors, different brands.

It's totally perplexing. I'm wondering whether it might be a hardware issue. I'll call Apple tomorrow.
 
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Thanks everyone and ... I can't believe it, but I finally got things working. Ironically, what does *not* work is calibration -- What *does* work is using the same color profile on both the MBP and the external screen. No more popping. I guess Lightroom does something strange when it's trying to make sense of two different color profiles... I don't understand it, but now it's fine. I'd like to tweak the color a bit, but I can live with this.
 
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[quote author=starstuff link=topic=7557.msg51774#msg51774 date=125'484279]
Thanks everyone and ... I can't believe it, but I finally got things working. Ironically, what does *not* work is calibration -- What *does* work is using the same color profile on both the MBP and the external screen. No more popping. I guess Lightroom does something strange when it's trying to make sense of two different color profiles... I don't understand it, but now it's fine. I'd like to tweak the color a bit, but I can live with this.
[/quote]

Getting the colours right is still a mystery to me and that is why I rarely print.
 
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[quote author=starstuff link=topic=7557.msg51774#msg51774 date=125'484279]
Thanks everyone and ... I can't believe it, but I finally got things working. Ironically, what does *not* work is calibration -- What *does* work is using the same color profile on both the MBP and the external screen. No more popping. I guess Lightroom does something strange when it's trying to make sense of two different color profiles... I don't understand it, but now it's fine. I'd like to tweak the color a bit, but I can live with this.
[/quote]

That is exactly what I said to try in my last post ???
 
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Sizzlingbadger: You were definitely on the right track. Running the standard sRGB profile on both screens didn't do the trick though -- what was needed was to use the MBP profile in both places. Go figure. ;)

Thanks again, all.
 
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sounds like something odd going on with the dual screen implementation on the Macbook, I would call Apple to see if they can explain what's going on.
 
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[quote author=René damkot link=topic=7557.msg51985#msg51985 date=125'7718'6]
Sounds like you indeed still cannot calibrate both screens independantly on a MBP, since the video card only has a single LUT. Only the last screen calibrated will be accurate. For the first, the correct icc profile is used, but the data in th LUT will not be the data that should be there for that icc profile...
[/quote]

You most certainly can calibrate both screens independently on a Macbook Pro. Something else is going on with Starstuff's system.
 
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