Strange complaints....

thinktank · Feb 19, 2008

I have been getting some strange complaints from windows users. They are telling me that my photos do not look good. Not to say that I am the most accomplished photographer in the world....but I think I take some pretty good shots.

When viewing my photos on a Windows machine....be it via my Web Gallery or one of a few websites....the photos don't looks so good. Is it my fault that these people have crappy monitors? Should I change how I display my photos to accommodate them? There are still a lot of Windows users out there and considering that a couple of the websites are business sites.....I suppose that I should try to accommodate this. I just don't know how. Now that I only own Macs with good screens......what do I do?

Has anyone else ran into this concern? There must be a solution. Most of the creative world uses Macs and most of the consumer world views info on PC's.....

James- · Feb 19, 2008

Well what about makeing the image smaller I no that is a pretty crappy answer :s

Lifeisabeach · Feb 19, 2008

What is it that they don't like about your photos? Have examples to share?

D3v1L80Y · Feb 19, 2008

If you are embedding any color profiles with your images, then a Windows user won't be able to decode it. The only browser that can interpret and properly display embedded color profiles is Safari.
So, I would avoid embedding anything into the photos if that is the case.

Village Idiot · Feb 19, 2008

mscadden said:
I have been getting some strange complaints from windows users. They are telling me that my photos do not look good. Not to say that I am the most accomplished photographer in the world....but I think I take some pretty good shots.

When viewing my photos on a Windows machine....be it via my Web Gallery or one of a few websites....the photos don't looks so good. Is it my fault that these people have crappy monitors? Should I change how I display my photos to accommodate them? There are still a lot of Windows users out there and considering that a couple of the websites are business sites.....I suppose that I should try to accommodate this. I just don't know how. Now that I only own Macs with good screens......what do I do?

Has anyone else ran into this concern? There must be a solution. Most of the creative world uses Macs and most of the consumer world views info on PC's.....

I wouldn't say that the MBP's monitor is good and that a PC's monitor is crappy, especially since PC's generally aren't tied to one type of monitor. The Apple LCD's are notorious for being badly calibrated out of the box and that could be your problem. My MBP is horrible, but I haven't spent the money on a calibration tool yet. My Dell notebook and LG 22" FP are much closer to a normally calibrated screen. The MBP's are usually a lot brighter out of the box and need gamma reduced. Editing a photo on the MBP to a correct exposure and then viewing it on any other monitor I use ends up making it look dark.

Plus, don't edit in aRGB mode, just use standard RGB. It's what the rest of the world uses.

EORI · Feb 19, 2008

mscadden said:
They are telling me that my photos do not look good... When viewing my photos on a Windows machine....be it via my Web Gallery or one of a few websites....the photos don't looks so good.

As others have already noted, the iMac screen is going to be brighter, and I also find the images to be more saturated. But that's true of whatever you view on your iMac, whether it's an image or movie.

On the other hand, what you are seeing on the typical PC monitor is going to be a more accurate rendering of your image.

For this very reason, I have an Eizo monitor connected to my iMac, and when I'm editing images, that's what I use. Both monitors are periodically color calibrated.

Another phenomenon that I've found with the iMac monitor is the lack of "sharpness" compared to my Eizo. When I play back images on the iMac, they are not as crisp.

thinktank · Feb 20, 2008

Thank you for all of the comments. I use a MBP connected to a 30" Cinema, calibrated with a

I think D3v1L80Y has solved my problem. I tried installing Safari on a friends PC and the photos look fine.

Sorry for the harsh words about PC monitors. Just frustrated.

Thank you to Village Idiot as well. I was using aRGB on my Nikon D200....I will use a normal RGB profile from now on. That also seemed to solve the problem.

xstep · Feb 20, 2008

Maybe you are noticing the old gamma issue.

MacHeadCase · Feb 20, 2008

xstep said:
Maybe you are noticing the old gamma issue.

Yep, that's what I was going to suggest too. Macs and WinBoxes don't have the same colour gamma.

That's why many times you can tell when an image was made on a WinBox : colours look washed out, just plain blah, lifeless.

Village Idiot · Feb 20, 2008

MacHeadCase said:
Yep, that's what I was going to suggest too. Macs and WinBoxes don't have the same colour gamma.

That's why many times you can tell when an image was made on a WinBox : colours look washed out, just plain blah, lifeless.

I disagree. It's entirely dependent on a calibrated monitor and what profile you're viewing the image as. If you're viewing and sRGB profile picture on a correctly calibrated monitor on a mac, then it should be the exact same on a Windows pc with a correctly calibrated monitor using the same color space. That and it's also dependent on how the person who is editing the picture, is editing the picture.

From my MBP:

From my Dell Notebook:

Strange complaints....

thinktank

James-

Lifeisabeach

D3v1L80Y

Village Idiot

EORI

thinktank

xstep

MacHeadCase

Guest

Village Idiot

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