Image looks fine when looking using Chrome Browser but terrible in Lightroom

[Ian]

Background
I've calibrated my monitor using Spyder 3. The result looks terrible (way too green) so I've turned off calibration (right click spyder software and turned it off). Now things look better.

The problem
When I view this image using Chrome the colors and contrast look great (inc skin tones etc): http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mTDi-qVLfzc/TSuGt502mOI/AAAAAAAABdY/6ML-twkBcDI/s1600/monitor_cal.jpg

However when I import the image into Lightroom V2.7 (on my Win 7, 64 bit PC) it looks terrible. See here (image in chrome on left, image in Lightroom on right): http://www.factplanet.com/images/ChromeLightroom.jpg

What the heck is going on?

Note: When I imported this image I made sure that in the Import Process "Develop Settings" are set to "None".

Thanks for any advice!

Cheers,

Ian

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Hi Ian, welcome to the forum.

That looks like the result of a corrupted monitor profile, or certainly a bad one!

Which monitor you using, and how old is that Spyder 3? And have you downloaded the latest Spyder software from the website?

 

[Ian]

Thanks for your reply...

The monitor is not a great monitor (cheapish ASUS NT panel). However to me, that doesn't explain the fact that skin tones look good when viewing in Chrome but terrible in LR.

Spyder3Pro hardware is about 2 to 3 yrs old. I've hardly used it so I'd have thought its unlikely to be broken (but maybe it is). Software is V4.0.2 (updated a few weeks ago).

The only other information I have is that up until yesterday I was using an old Iiyama 450 CRT monitor. Someone lent me this current LCD panel because I have to take my PC somewhere and the old monitor weights as much as I do! (however, I have re calibrated since plugging LCD monitor in)

Any further thoughts? Thanks

 

[Hal P Anderson]

Ian,

Have you enabled colour management in Chrome? Evidently you need to: see this website.

I understand you to be saying that you turned off your calibration. That can't be good.

Hal

 

[Ian]

I opened the same image in Photoshop CS3 and it it looks exactly the same as the image when viewed in Lightroom (ie terrible).

Thanks Hal: I added the –enable-monitor-profile command to the Chrome properties but it came back with this error: Oops! Google Chrome could not find xn--enable-monitor-profile-y05m Anyway I reckon that it if I did get it working then it'd probably look like the image when shown in PS and in LR.

FYI: When I turn on Colour Management (right click on Spyder3 software in system tray (Win 7, 64bit) the image looks pretty much the same (terrible) but white becomes far too green.

Any other suggestions very much appreciated.

 

[Ian]

I seem to ahve fixed it to a "satisfactory" level. It was kind of random how I find the solution. I clicked "Start" and was going to look for the Chrome launch icon but noticed an application in my Start Menu called "Profile Chooser" (not sure where this comes from - maybe it's part of the Spyder software). I opened it, clicked on "All Monitor Profiles" and chose the profile from my previous monitor.

Things looked better straight away. I did a test print to my Epson 2880 and results look pretty good (maybe a little dark).

I wonder if my Spyder3 has died after all?

Thanks all !!

 

[Jddolbee]

I note that there are many comments in the forum such as this OP related to "color shift" problems that result in suggestions of possible corruption of the monitor color profile. My question is, once one has done the suggested troubleshooting to determine that the default monitor profile is bad, where does one go to obtain a new one? From Microsoft? From the monitor manufacturer?

Thanks

Jim

 

[Ian]

I'm not convinced that in this case the file was corrupt. It was definitely wrong because the colours were so bad. I used my Spyder3 to calibrate the monitor several times and each time got the exact same "terrible" results. I'm starting to think that it's knackered. I'm going to see if I can borrow a friends to find out.

Thanks for reading this!

 

[Victoria Bampton]

It does sound like there's a problem with the profiles the Spyder is creating. Do let us know if your friend's one works, and if it doesn't, we'll consider other possibilities.