Aurora Wallpaper has lost its 'vibrancy' after changing?

[Kardashian]

OK, I actually am not going crazy.

I use the Leopard wallpaper, 'Aurora'.

I have not changed it on this MacBook Pro, since when I got my refurb - it seemed to have more 'punch'.

Anyway, last night I went into Sys Prefs to change my screensaver - and stupidly clicked a wallpaper, instead.

No biggie, I'll just select Aurora and all will be fine.

Not so much.

This wallpaper is totally washed out - like, it's almost grey scale in comparison to the vibrancy of before.

To note:

• I have not changed the colour profile
• I have not adjusted the systems contrast in any way - everything else is the same brightness, contrast level, and colour
• I have not edited the 2 wallpapers you see, in the screenshots below

I have tried to Photoshop the wallpaper, to heighten the vibrancy of the pinks and darken the blacks - to match the originial - but it ends up looking very stark, and with a lot of blue underdones.

Basically, I just want to know:

1. Why did the vibrancy and effectively the whole wallpaper change once I chose another wallpaper, and then reverted back?
2. How can I get the wallpaper back, looking how it did?

I'd honestly really appreciate someones help here. I'll PayPal some money for a solution, or if someone can edit the wallpaper to look how it used to.

I loved my destop

 

[snverhallen]

Hi there, I compared your washed out desktop to mine and mine looks like your washed out one :S. So I don't really know what is going on, as I don't know how mine looked like in the beginning.

Also may I ask how did you get that album art in the corner of your screen, and what Adium skin you use? It's quite nice.

snverhallen

 

[allan.nyholm]

How does the wallpaper look when you view it in Preview? Still washed out? Because I must admit that this is kinda crazy what you're having.

You can find the wallpaper at "Your HD name here"/Library/Desktop Pictures/Nature/Aurora.jpg

 

[Kardashian]

Hi there, I compared your washed out desktop to mine and mine looks like your washed out one :S. So I don't really know what is going on, as I don't know how mine looked like in the beginning.

Also may I ask how did you get that album art in the corner of your screen, and what Adium skin you use? It's quite nice.

snverhallen

You can ask, I just can't tell you

No, really, I can't. I'm using a replacement MacBook Pro, and didn't keep any links - I just copied everything over by FW.

It's a CoverSutra mod. (Album art)
Adium is a mod from the July Desktops thread - however mine has been modified a bit further as I hated the contacts list. Its called HUD, however there's many variations.

Sorry I can't be more help.

How does the wallpaper look when you view it in Preview? Still washed out? Because I must admit that this is kinda crazy what you're having.

You can find the wallpaper at "Your HD name here"/Library/Desktop Pictures/Nature/Aurora.jpg

In Preview its washed out.

Quick weird point. I have my 'broken' MacBook Pro here as well. I've just re-installed Leopard on that - low and behold, the wallpaper is the lovely, vibrant version.

I hid the menu bar and dock, and took a screenshot - so at least now I've moved it back over to my new MBP, the wallpaper looks the same as it did before Vibrant!

Anyway, on the old MBP, I just changed the wallpaper and then reverted back to Aurora - and its gone to the 'washed' out version.

It seems once you change from the default wallpaper, it does something to the way it handles wallpaper colour and contrast

As for Preview, it opens the 'washed out' version.

To prove I'm not crazy - I've just taken a screenshot on the newly reinstalled Leopard. I took a screenshot with the default wall, changed it to something, then went back to the default. Look how it now shoes up...

 

[allan.nyholm]

What if you copy and use the Aurora wallpaper from "your hd name"/System/Library/CoreServices/ to the desktop and try and use that? Does that show up as vibrant? Btw. It's called DefaultDesktop.jpg

Maybe try and switch to a different colorprofile just for kicks. Try the television gamma and see if you get some vibrancy back.

 

[snverhallen]

What if you copy and use the Aurora wallpaper from "your hd name"/System/Library/CoreServices/ to the desktop and try and use that? Does that show up as vibrant? Btw. It's called DefaultDesktop.jpg

Maybe try and switch to a different colorprofile just for kicks. Try the television gamma and see if you get some vibrancy back.

I just tried that and it still appears washed out for me.

snverhallen

You can ask, I just can't tell you

No, really, I can't. I'm using a replacement MacBook Pro, and didn't keep any links - I just copied everything over by FW.

It's a CoverSutra mod. (Album art)
Adium is a mod from the July Desktops thread - however mine has been modified a bit further as I hated the contacts list. Its called HUD, however there's many variations.

Sorry I can't be more help.

Sorry that I'm off topic again but which CoverSutra mod is it, I bought CoverSutra so I'd be interested in which one it would be. And do you mind uploading your mod for Adium directly because I can't seem to find the one your talking about and I like your contact list as well.

Much Appreciated,

snverhallen

 

[sickmacdoc]

I realize you said in your initial post about this crazy deal that you had not changed the color profile, but since you got the other one running to compare have you double checked that the same profile is currently assigned on both machines? (System Prefs-->Displays-->Color tab) ?

This whole thing is interesting, so please post back if you come on the solution! It would be a good note for any of us that work on Macs to have in the arsenal of tips and tricks! Good luck!

 

[Kardashian]

I realize you said in your initial post about this crazy deal that you had not changed the color profile, but since you got the other one running to compare have you double checked that the same profile is currently assigned on both machines? (System Prefs-->Displays-->Color tab) ?

This whole thing is interesting, so please post back if you come on the solution! It would be a good note for any of us that work on Macs to have in the arsenal of tips and tricks! Good luck!

Both are set to Adobe RGB.

 

[James17]

Both are set to Adobe RGB.

I am under the impression it should be set to the profile "Color LCD" and not Adobe RGB.

 

[Amdahl]

JPG thumbnail?

In CoverFlow, sometimes a picture will appear very blurry. This is caused by a thumbnail-preview being embedded in the JPG. Pressing Command-I will show the preview, because the icon in the upper left will be a thumbnail instead of the JPEG-generic icon. You can click that preview and Command-X it out. Do you think this might be happening with your wallpaper?

 

[SimonJ]

Hey, just thought I'd chime in...

I've observed the same thing on my iMac so I tried to google around. I didn't find any information but I did find a more vibrant version of the wallpaper here.

Hope that helps.

 

[apfhex]

Both are set to Adobe RGB.

Maybe I have an idea what's going on here — just guessing. I use a custom calibrated profile and the Auora wall looks the same no matter how many times I change the wallpaper. But if I set my color profile to Adobe RGB (1998), then switch around wallpapers, Auora does appear washed out just like if your screenshots. Maybe with fresh install of Leopard, the wallpaper isn't adjusted to your color profile, but when you change it, it adjusts and it just so happens that with Adobe RGB it looks washed out.

Anyway, try using a different color profile and I bet it will look normal.

 

[Kardashian]

..I did find a more vibrant version of the wallpaper here.

Hope that helps.

The hassle I had yesterday to get my wallpaper vibrant again was beyond, and you chime in first time with a bigger version

I had to do something in terminal to hide my menu bar, and then hide the dock, take a screenshot of that, save it, then e-mail it over to the new Mac.

All very stressful.

Anyway, thank you. Very much. I'll back this up incase the same thing happens on any future machines.

 

[SimonJ]

The hassle I had yesterday to get my wallpaper vibrant again was beyond, and you chime in first time with a bigger version

I had to do something in terminal to hide my menu bar, and then hide the dock, take a screenshot of that, save it, then e-mail it over to the new Mac.

All very stressful.

Anyway, thank you. Very much. I'll back this up incase the same thing happens on any future machines.

If I understand what you just said correctly, wouldn't it be easier to just set the wallpaper to either "fit to screen" or "fill screen" in system preferences? Or adjust its size with Preview? Maybe I'm just confused...

 

[Kardashian]

Maybe I have an idea what's going on here — just guessing. I use a custom calibrated profile and the Auora wall looks the same no matter how many times I change the wallpaper. But if I set my color profile to Adobe RGB (1998), then switch around wallpapers, Auora does appear washed out just like if your screenshots. Maybe with fresh install of Leopard, the wallpaper isn't adjusted to your color profile, but when you change it, it adjusts and it just so happens that with Adobe RGB it looks washed out.

Anyway, try using a different color profile and I bet it will look normal.

It doesn't look as vibrant - but it is a damn sight better.

Its near the vibrancy of the freshly installed Leopard.

What you're saying does make perfect sense, IMO.

Well done.

 

[ThirteenXIII]

does thishappen on different user accounts?

seems kind of odd.