Topic: ProPhoto RGB Viewer (Read 13677 times)

Michael Erlewine · « **on:** February 10, 2015, 04:35:36 pm »

Is there any free viewer that would allow me to show an album of photos to folks in ProPhoto RGB format?

howardm · « **Reply #1 on:** February 10, 2015, 05:37:09 pm »

it'd be helpful to know if it's Mac or Windows.

Do you realize that ProPhoto is an editing colorspace which is HUGE and no device is actually capable of displaying it all?
A color-managed application will read the images in ProPhoto and translate it to the display colorspace.

Michael Erlewine · « **Reply #2 on:** February 10, 2015, 05:42:21 pm »

I do realize it is huge, but I confess that I don't quite understand how to harness. ProPhoto RGB outside of LR and PS.

I am on a PC. What I would like to do is find something short of PS or LR that could accept and "album" of photos in ProPhoto RGB that I could send to others, who then could see my photos in ProPhoto RGB. This would not be for the web, but for computers, in this case PC. Since PS and LR can show these, it would be great to have a small, free appliction that could show this color space. I assume PDF won't work, right?

digitaldog · « **Reply #3 on:** February 10, 2015, 05:50:18 pm »

Quote from: Michael Erlewine on February 10, 2015, 05:42:21 pm

I do realize it is huge, but I confess that I don't quite understand how to harness. ProPhoto RGB outside of LR and PS.

You just need an ICC aware application, then it will preview just like ProPhoto RGB inside of LR and PS. It could be a browser.

howardm · « **Reply #4 on:** February 10, 2015, 05:51:03 pm »

maybe check out 'irfanview'

Bart_van_der_Wolf · « **Reply #5 on:** February 10, 2015, 05:54:47 pm »

Quote from: howardm on February 10, 2015, 05:51:03 pm

maybe check out 'irfanview'

Exactly what I was about to suggest, although it offers way more than just a colormanagement aware viewer.

Cheers,
Bart

Michael Erlewine · « **Reply #6 on:** February 10, 2015, 06:02:29 pm »

Looking at Irfanview, I don't see ProPhoto RGB supported, and looking at files that it does not work.

Can anyone name a free Viewer that might display ProPhoto RGB?

Also, does anyone know whether Adobe Acrobat PDF can be made to do this?

With so many of us working in ProPHoto RGB, it would seem that a image viewer that could display a PDF with ProPhoto RGB files in it, like an album, would be very useful.

Slobodan Blagojevic · « **Reply #7 on:** February 10, 2015, 06:03:50 pm »

Quote from: Michael Erlewine on February 10, 2015, 05:42:21 pm

... What I would like to do is find something short of PS or LR that could accept and "album" of photos in ProPhoto RGB that I could send to others, who then could see my photos in ProPhoto RGB. This would not be for the web, but for computers, in this case PC. Since PS and LR can show these, it would be great to have a small, free appliction that could show this color space.

Pardon my ignorance, but I am not sure one can say they (or PS and LR) can actually see ProPhoto space. PS, LR, and color-managed browsers can work with ProPhoto, but what you will see is something much closer to sRGB (on a standard monitor) or Adobe RGB (on a wide-gamut monitor) after conversion from ProPhoto.

Michael Erlewine · « **Reply #8 on:** February 10, 2015, 06:11:27 pm »

I understand, but what I am asking here also is understandable. I have thousands of photos in PS and LR stored in ProPhoto RGB, but cannot show them to anyone who does not have these apps. Apparently no one knows the answer to these questions that I keep repeating"

What is a free color-managed viewer, if you know?

What about PDF and color-management.

I would appreciate any information on these question. And thanks for the info everyone provided so far.

Bart_van_der_Wolf · « **Reply #9 on:** February 10, 2015, 06:11:44 pm »

Quote from: Michael Erlewine on February 10, 2015, 06:02:29 pm

Looking at Irfanview, I don't see ProPhoto RGB supported, and looking at files that it does not work.

Hi Michael,

You need to set the preferences to use colormanagement.
Options | Properties/settings | Zoom/Colormanagement | Enable and there also set the monitor color profile to convert to.

Cheers,
Bart

Slobodan Blagojevic · « **Reply #10 on:** February 10, 2015, 06:31:07 pm »

Quote from: Michael Erlewine on February 10, 2015, 06:11:27 pm

I understand, but what I am asking here also is understandable. I have thousands of photos in PS and LR stored in ProPhoto RGB, but cannot show them to anyone who does not have these apps...

To show them, you'd have to export them out of PS or LR. During export, one of the questions is in which color space you'd like to export them. Choosing sRGB is the safest option if the intention is web use. Anything else, like AdobeRGB, would require either a color-aware browser, separate viewer app, or a wide-gamut monitor. I really do not see the reason to insist on sending them as ProPhoto RGB.

Michael Erlewine · « **Reply #11 on:** February 10, 2015, 07:02:15 pm »

The reason is that ProPhoto RGB looks very much better in LR or PS than does sRGB, does it not. Certainly ProPhoto RGB looks better than .JPG.

howardm · « **Reply #12 on:** February 10, 2015, 07:09:06 pm »

You're really quite confused about this whole thing.

Take a browse through this........
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/color-management-printing.htm

Slobodan Blagojevic · « **Reply #13 on:** February 10, 2015, 07:16:53 pm »

Quote from: Michael Erlewine on February 10, 2015, 07:02:15 pm

The reason is that ProPhoto RGB looks very much better in LR or PS than does sRGB, does it not. Certainly ProPhoto RGB looks better than .JPG.

It does not, on both counts.

howardm · « **Reply #14 on:** February 10, 2015, 07:21:18 pm »

Riddle me this.......

so if you do all this and then your aunt Mabel launches the album w/ her old computer and mediocre sRGB (maybe) monitor, would your images 'look better' simply because of ProPhoto? Or would the viewer map ProPhoto to the monitor's colorspace?

Michael Erlewine · « **Reply #15 on:** February 10, 2015, 07:24:47 pm »

Ok. I will go study and see if the light dawns. I agree that I am ignorant, and thanks to you folks for trying to steer me clear of my ignorance.

ProPhoto Tiffs look better than sRGB .JPGs. That much I know. I also understand that ProPhoto can't be shown on most monitors, certainly not mine, in full value.

The rest I will try to study up. What I wish I could do is make a PDF album that contained ProPhoto RGB images rather than sRGB .jpgs, which is what I have to do now. I would like to create albums that can be sent over the internet to be viewed on a PC, and that would show some of what I see in LR when I edit. The moment I send them to sRGB .jpg, it looks worse.

howardm: I am sure you all are correct. What I don't understand is why there does not seems to be some format that will look better than sRGB JPG images in a PDF file.

Slobodan Blagojevic · « **Reply #16 on:** February 10, 2015, 07:30:28 pm »

Quote from: Michael Erlewine on February 10, 2015, 07:24:47 pm

... why there does not seems to be some format that will look better than sRGB JPG images in a PDF file.

Unless one has a wide-gamut monitor, the answer is: because monitors are very similar to sRGB, so nothing that is "better" than sRGB can be seen on them anyway.

Michael Erlewine · « **Reply #17 on:** February 10, 2015, 07:38:23 pm »

OK. I get it. Sorry for the confusion, but that is how we learn. What are your thoughts about sRGB Tiff files (not lossy) as compared to sRGB JPG (lossy) files ?

digitaldog · « **Reply #18 on:** February 10, 2015, 07:39:44 pm »

Quote from: Michael Erlewine on February 10, 2015, 06:11:27 pm

What about PDF and color-management.

That can work too if Acrobat is setup properly for the PDF.

howardm · « **Reply #19 on:** February 10, 2015, 07:40:06 pm »

have you explored some of Lightroom's 'publishing' features ?

Author Topic: ProPhoto RGB Viewer (Read 13677 times)