Consistent color and brightness

[LumenLux]

My current concern is one that I have hidden on a back shelf for years. I think others of you have solved, or resolved, long ago.

I am creating in PTE. Image #14 needs to reveal more detail in shadows. Within PTE I open Photoshop Elements and edit to desired brightness, contrast, etc. Use edited Image #14 in PTE. PTE create .exe file. Run .exe file. Enjoy beautiful photos. Then I realize that the color/brightness levels in .exe sometimes are quite different than the same image as I perceived it in Elements.

Is there some way to cross-calibrate PTE and other editors and viewers we may use?

The attached screen shot attempts to illustrate the issue. The upper left is as seen in Photoshop Elements, and then used in PTE. The upper right image is screen shot from the .EXE from PTE. The Elements view shows me more light and detail in the river-bottom shadows. For me, it is very difficult and not time-worthy to have to guessimate repeatedly how bright etc. in editor, to yield desired view in final .exe. How do you accomplish this?

[Lin Evans]

Hi Robert,

I suspect that your issue may be related to colorspace as set up in Elements. PTE images are best viewed in sRGB and if your Elements images are manipulated and saved in sRGB then they should appear identical in PTE. If they are manipulated and saved as RGB or Adobe RGB or other available colorspace, then there probably will be significant differences viewing them with PTE.

I don't have Elements to test this with, but that's essentially how it works with Photoshop so I'm assuming it would be the same with Elements.

In Photoshop the colorspace is accessed by "Edit" "Color Settings" "RGB" then choose sRGB from the dropdown list...

Best regards,

Lin

[jt49]

... PTE images are best viewed in sRGB and if your Elements images are manipulated and saved in sRGB then they should appear identical in PTE. If they are manipulated and saved as RGB or Adobe RGB or other available colorspace, then there probably will be significant differences viewing them with PTE ...

This is a good advice, but only in cases where the monitor is set to sRGB, as well. It may also be ok if no color management is used, and if the monitor is set to 'standard'. In cases where the monitor is calibrated to a particular color space, say xRGB, then PTE should be used with images that are xRGB, as well. But if you use PTE with sRGB images in an aRGB environment, the result will be horrible, see here.

Color managed applications like Photoshop, and even XnView, look at the monitor settings, and they perform corresponding transformations, if needed. PTE is not color managed, and doing color management on the fly would have consequences regarding performance.

Regards,

jt