Problem with images imported into iPhoto being altered

[boydcake]

Just got my first Mac (MBPro 17") and am getting used to the change from PC.

I imported hundreds of master drawings into iPhoto but they appeared much darker and slightly discolored. Editing them with iPhoto is not very effective and not something I prefer to do because it is important that the images resemble the original art as closely as possible. I noticed my Mac does various things automatically for me that usually enhance my experience, but is iPhoto enhancing my images for me? Is there a way to set a preference that iPhoto retain all the original features of the image?

I experimented with turning off a feature called ColorSync but when I reimported the images it did not help with the problem. I also tried searching the issue on Google but am still confused. I think it may be important to note that images were originally saved as large maximum quality JPEGS from Photoshop CS4. Maybe converting them to PNGs would help? I am unsure. I really like organizing in iPhoto and do not want to have to keep them separated from the program so help is much appreciated!

 

[Tumbleweed666]

OK maybe I am way off base here, but could it be as simple as the screen on the Macbook being different to your PC? Try this, pick a photo that you dont like the look of in iPhoto, and export it, as original outside of iPhoto and put it back on your PC and view them side by side. I suspect you will find the two are identical.

Have you colour calibrated your Macbook screen?

 

[boydcake]

No, I first imported my files to the Mac before I began importing them to iPhoto. The images look perfectly correct in the regular folder they are stored in on the desktop. My previous laptop also had a rich glossy screen similar to the Mac.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

No, I first imported my files to the Mac before I began importing them to iPhoto. The images look perfectly correct in the regular folder they are stored in on the desktop. My previous laptop also had a rich glossy screen similar to the Mac.

So if you compare a photo you imported into iPhoto next to the original, side by side on the same screen, they look different? Thats not right 🙁

Is it all photos or just certain ones? Anyway, I'm stumped. Maybe try the photo forum here? Its not an issue I have with iPhoto or have ever heard mentioned.

 

[boydcake]

Now that you mentioned it my regular photos look the same in both regular and iPhoto folders. I suppose that narrows it down to the Photoshop work. I Googled and found others having issues with Photoshop images and iPhoto. I will try their suggestions but the worse case scenario is that I keep my art files separate from iPhoto to maintain quality, which really is not a big problem at all.

I am pretty sure sure I will be able to work it out by experimenting with color settings and different file types when processing a Photoshop project into an image. Thanks for the replies! And thanks Tumbleweed, your observation was extremely helpful!

 

[boydcake]

Solution

In case anyone else runs into the issue and finds the board I am going to put the solution I found to my issue.

Any JPEG images I had saved using Photoshop CS4 and imported into iPhoto looked discolored and much darker. I found iPhoto recognized the difference between random JPEGs and JPEGs associated with Photoshop .app files. I went back through these JPEGs and opened them in ColorSync and re-saved them as PNG files. These files look normal once imported into iPhoto.

Not sure if saving the files as PNG directly in Photoshop would rectify the issue, but it is worth a try if you are having the same problem. At least if that fails you can use ColorSync to make the images iPhoto friendly.

 

[PaulMoore]

I definitely have a problem with iPhoto making JPEGs it imports from my camera darker.

I checked today, importing a picture to iPhoto direct from the camera and then manually adding the same JPEG from the camera to the desktop. As a test I imported them both into a Pages document and sure enough, the one from iPhoto was darker even though I had done no editing on the image.

How on earth does this happen and how do I stop it?

 

[GmacDaddy]

Similar problem, opposite effects

I organize my photos in iPhoto and occasionally do an alteration in PS CS3. I found this thread after a search because I'm having the same problem with altered images in iPhoto, but mine are washed out and lighter, not darker. I tried saving as tif, png, psd, none worked any better. What helped slightly is to check "Embed color profile". But the imported image still has slight contrast and saturation differences than the original.

The strange thing is, if I again export the original iPhoto jpeg and the altered/re-imported image, they look the same in Photoshop. In other words, it seems like only iPhoto displays the images differently. But since I like to view photos in iPhoto, I'd like to figure out a solution.