Flickr upload distorts color?

The only processing Flickr does is converting to jpg if it isn't already and resizing to all their different sizes. What file format are you exporting out of Camera RAW with? Make sure it's jpg, so Flickr doesn't have to change that. I'd also be interested to see the original exported photo vs Flickr's version. I feel like it's easiest to see in that first photo, near her hair. Can you upload your original exported image to a different service like Photobucket or Imgur so we can see the difference?

 

I don't know why it happens or how to solve it, but I've noticed this as well with my photos, so you're not alone!

 

I have noticed that my photos are coming out slightly darker on Flickr than on my computer and phone. I don't know why. It's only been the last week or so. I thought that it was just me!

 

I personally convert all of mine to jpg using my photo software before I upload to any website. That way I can control what changes are made to the RAW file before it appears on my screen as a jpg. If you are uploading it as a RAW file you are then relying on Flickr's own conversion software which may not be as sophisticated as your own. I noticed in the EXIF data that the compression is "Compression - JPEG (old-style)" and I don't understand why it's old style.

 

@aae3748 Oh, thanks for the info, what you're doing is absolutely fine and pretty much what I do except you also use the Tiff process in between. I'd be really interested in knowing why you do the Tiff step as it could be very useful to me. I normally go from the RAW to jpg.
So, it seems that this is entirely down to how Flickr handles the photograph. How bizarre, I'll have to check on my own photos on Flickr and see if it's also happening to mine.
Thanks for the heads up, I'm going to be wary of Flickr now.

 

@aae3748 Thanks very much for the Tiff info. I see the reasoning now. I'll try that if I need to do some editing, I rarely do. I try, ha ha try, and keep the image as shot.
Thanks again for the tiff tip, well, and the heads up on Flickr. I'm having trouble seeing the difference at the moment because most of my photos are largely black, but when I load a bright one I'm going to examine it carefully. The problem is we have little choice of hosts. I use Deviantart but it's not recommended for posting here.

 

EvieVSflickr by DominiqueBB, on Flickr


I'm not finding any major difference between the Flickr version and my original on the left side. I took this screen grab and opened it in Photoshop sampling colors with the eyedropper to compare the values in both shots with no great variation.

I shoot in Raw in a big format, take it into Adobe's camera raw and then Photoshop. I resize the photo in Photoshop and then export to JPG. I don't want Flickr to reduce the image size for me, I'm thinking that if Flickr is reducing the size of the photo with their own algorithms it might not be as good as the ones Adobe uses. Every time you save a file in JPG you loose some information during the compression ( unlike TIF which is a lossless compression ), so if flickr is compressing again when resizing you loose even more information which might explain the color change.

 

What color space are you using?
ACR supports three, sRGB, aRGB and ProPhoto RGB.
Of these, sRGB is the most confining and ProPhoto RGB
the most inclusive. Websites such as Flickr normally
display the photos in sRGB. If you are editing in the
aRGB or ProPhoto RGB color spaces you may be seeing
color shifts resulting from the change to the RGB color
space.

Try converting your JPG image to the sRGB color space
before uploading and see it that helps any.

 

Photoshop has so many options I learn more all the time.
Here's a tip you might find useful.
If you are working in ProPhoto color space and want to save
a .jpg in sRGB color space, export it rather than save.
Export to .jpg will export in sRGB color space even if you
are working in ProPhoto.
Export saves in ,png by default but you can set the default to .jpg.