color management - Why are my Lightroom exports too dark in Flickr?

I've been using LR3 for a while now and have noticed that when I export a photo to JPG and upload it to Flickr it ends up slightly darker. The exported photo is ok, it's the image when viewed through Flickr that is darker.

I'm exporting the photos as sRGB. I've noticed that in the EXIF data some applications (such as PS Elements) there's a "Color Element" tag that is set to sRGB, whilst my LR3 exports don't seem to have this. I've also read that it can be down to some browsers not supporting color management. I use Firefox 3.6 which apparently does have color management support. I've looked at the image in Chrome and it still exhibits the same problem.

A friend of mine is seeing the same problem when he exports from LR3 and uploads to Flickr, so I know it's not something specific to my PC. Is this a Flickr problem (ie it's doing something strange with the color space), or could it be a monitor calibration problem? I'm not totally sure it's down to calibration as they do look correct on my PC, it's only the images that Flickr renders that are the problem.

Answer

Several things:

• The exif "Color Element" tag is not directly related to ICC profile. Your image can have an Adobe RGB profile, yet still say "sRGB." Applications should use the attached profile, not the exif tag, when determining how to render colors. Ideally the EXIF color element tag should match the attached color profile, but there is nothing that will enforce the behavior.

This is definitely a color management issue. To diagnose try the following:

• Download the image from flickr to your computer. open it in Photoshop PS and see if the image renders as you expect. If it does, then it's your browser's color management configuration. Firefox 3.6 does have color management, and while it's turned on by default, if you upgraded from Firefox 2.x, color management may be turned off.

To check:

1. type about:config in the address bar


2. hit enter


3. click the "I'll be careful button"


4. type "color_management" in the search bar

You should see three values:

• gfx.color_management.display_profile


• gfx.color_management.mode


• gfx.color_management.rendering_indent

On my computer the values are (in order from above): blank (nothing),2,0

• 
  

  If the image doesn't render correctly on your computer, open the image in PS Elements and inspect the color profile, and ensure it's sRGB. If there is no profile, then LR3 either didn't actually embed a profile, or Flickr removed it.

  
  


• 
  
  

  Since the images right out of LR3 look right, double check that the embedded profile is sRGB. If it's not, then you likely have an export issue. If it's there, then Flickr removed your profile (which seems unlikely).