Why are your photos washed out on flickr?

A lot of people have asked me why their photos appear washed out or dull or flat or lacking color, colorless, dim, etc. on the photosharing website flickr. Photos uploaded to flickr can sometimes just not look as colorful as they do on your computer at home or when printed.

I am not going to get into a technical description of color spaces, color profiles, colorsynching, sRGB, etc, etc. Most people just glaze over. Instead, here is what works for me.

I use Photoshop on the Mac (CS1). Before I upload my photo I save it to the Generic RGB profile. To do this I go to Image, Mode, Convert to Profile…then select Generic RGB in the destination Space drop-down menu. Save your image. Upload it.

Remember, this is for the web, not for printing.

I have an example. On my flick stream I have two photos that illustrate the difference between the original sRGB image and the Generic RGB image. Open both in tabs and click back and forth. You will be able to exactly compare them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ecstaticist/220730258/ - sRGB
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ecstaticist/220789200/ - generic RGB

The proof is in the viewing. The technical details don’t really matter.

Have fun!

Forget the Science: here are the Climate Change Odds

You can’t wait for scientific certainty about global climate change because certainty is something rarely achieved in science. Much of what we take as certain in fact has a margin of error, or unaccounted for possibilities. We do not know the fundamental nature of the universe. We do not have a unified theory of everything. We do not have a computer model that mirrors reality and can therefore show you what exactly is happening in the climate.

However, the evidence that we are causing global climate change by burning carbon-based fuels is very, very strong. As strong as it is for much of what we take as fact in our daily lives; facts we use to make decisions and take actions about outcomes important to us.

All of this aside, one should ask one’s self: what is the best course of action EVEN in the face of uncertainty. The answer to that has to do with possible outcomes. If you are prepared to embrace all of the possible outcomes of a course of action (or inaction) then you can be comfortable adopting that course. If you are not…well, watch this video for the full story. It may change your mind about how and when to act on the global warming issue.