[glipski]

Originally Posted by richardj7

When I "Save for Web", greens and reds become desaturated (red becomes orange, and green loses its brilliance). I tried saving directly to .jpg but to no avail. I cannot retain the vivid colors that I see on the screen, just prior to saving. Here is my workflow:

• I've calibrated my screen with Monaco Optrix, as much as can be done on my PowerBook G4 17" screen
• I shoot RAW out of my 1d MKII (Adobe RGB)
• Process RAW in Bridge (CS2) - Color space Adobe RGB - white balance, exposure adjustments, etc.
• Open in CS2, do some further tweaking adjustments - Color space is still Adobe RGB in CS2 as default as I open the files
• From 16 bits to 8 bits
• Reduce to 72dpi @ 800 pixels tall (for vertical portraits)
• If I'm going to use Unsharp Mask or High Pass/Soft Light, I first convert from Adobe RGB to sRGB, using Convert to Profile
• If I'm going to use Fred Miranda's Intellisharpen, I'll use the Convert to Profile after the Miranda process
• Then Save for Web

As soon as the Save for Web window opens, using "2-up" comparison, the "Original" window already shows a reduction in red and green color saturation, becoming dull compared to the photo before saving. To keep within the parameters of a lot of forums (i.e. 300k or less), the quality will be around 85 before saving. The red becomes even more orangy, and the greens become duller/darker.

Any suggestions to keep the colors as vibrant to what I see before saving? I know there is some loss of quality in saving, but I've seen vibrant colors on a lot of web sites, and would like to do the same, without manually pre-tweaking blindly, and hope that it will come out okay.

Try converting to sRGB prior to making your adjustments. That way, it'll be more WYSIWYG for the web versions of the photo. I'd only do it for the web copies though...but you already know that.