Colors in slideshow do not look like originals

[TinaMB Profile Private message]

Hello, I am new to using this product. I have ProShow Gold and I made my very first slideshow. I played it on my TV only to discover that it looks grainy and the colors are off. By off, I mean, WAY off. Photographers on a facebook page I follow suggested that my TV isn't calibrated so that could be why. That makes sense, so I was encouraged to view the slideshow (from the DVD I burned) from my computer. While the grainy-ness was better, the colors were still off. This has brought immense frustration for me. I was asked to check what color profile my images were exported from. I only used Lightroom5 and the color profile is sRGB. I never changed my settings as I'm also new to Lightroom5. I did not use Photoshop for any of the images because I didn't have Ps until very recently. I made this slideshow of images for my sister's labor and delivery. I purchased licensed music for it, and I literally spent hours working on this slideshow. I don't know what to check to correct this. I wasted several DVD's trying to re-do it again and again, only to get the same results. I'm not sure how to post pictures on this forum but I cannot post the slideshow due to it being a birth images. If someone can tell me how to post pictures, I will be happy to provide visuals. I am beside myself. I really need help. Thank you.

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

Welcome !! If your TV was the problem with the colors, then I would expect that any other shows/dvd's you watched would also exhibit the same problem. Are the images you used jpg or just what? I can think of a couple of ways if you were shooting raw (the images, not the mother ) and going through Lightroom where you could get in trouble (I think) since lightroom uses sidecar files to track corrections to the images and Proshow doesn't know what to do with those files. Without seeing one of the images, I can't do more than make a guess. You can post images here (well sort of) - you have to first post the image to a public server somewhere (I use the free Photobucket) and the image must be less than 600 pixels in any direction. Then you add a link here to the image on the public server and it looks like it is included in your post here). If you want to pm me, I'll give you my email address and you can send me an image - I'll see if I see anything odd or if we can figure out what is going on.

mikey

[debngar Profile Private message]

Use the picture mode button on the TV remote to see if the TV is set on standard, movie or dynamic. Standard has the least saturation and contrast as compared to the other two. I don't calibrate my TV since it's not hooked up to my computer. Most people receiving a DVD from me won't have calibrated TVs either. Playback will likely vary from one person's TV to the next due to the way they have their TV's settings adjusted.

Try using the 80% default saturation setting in rendering for DVD. I made the mistake once of setting it to 100% and skin tones came out bright orange! I'm not sure if the box is set by default to desaturate to 80% in DVD options so you may want to look at that setting.

Shows I make and play via my 10 yr old thin screen TV look ok. But I just tested a show yesterday, that was ok on my TV, on another person's rear projection TV, and it looked awful. Not much can be done about that, I think.

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

Since you say that the DVD played on your computer still shows bad color, I'm wondering if just one more test might help: Render to an .exe and play that on your computer. If the colors are still off and they weren't off in Lightroom, it's got to be something with the photo files themselves, perhaps caused by Lightroom as Mikey suggested.

Barbara

[TinaMB Profile Private message]

http://s187.photobucket.com/user/ctygir ... 2.jpg.html

I shot all my images in RAW, edited in Lightroom 5, exported as jpgs. All my images in the slideshow are jpgs. If you can see this link, the image on the LEFT is my original jpg. I used this original for the slideshow. The image on the right is a snapshot taken directly from my computer screen, which is calibrated. That image on the RIGHT is from my slideshow. As you can see, a drastic difference. There are more images like this and yes, some skin tones were yellow. I guess at this point I'm not too greatly concerned about the TV viewing of it because like everyone has pointed out, the TV isn't calibrated . But from the computer, it shouldn't look like this. And what's even more puzzling, is that before I made the slideshow into a DVD, I previewed it over and over again and it looks NOTHING like what is saved to the DVD.

How do I render the file to an .exe file? When in ProShow, I just hit DVD at the top and is that where I make the file a different extension? Please understand that I am very new to this software. And this is my first slideshow...

Where is the default saturation setting located?

[debngar Profile Private message]

Where is the default saturation setting located?

Publish>DVD>Options>DVD Output Options There is a tick box in this section to set the desaturation level.

I shoot in Raw, process in LR (older version), export full size jpgs in sRGB for slideshows, printing, etc. I'm not sure why your pictures are coming out different in this case.

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

OK, one question I have is what size jpg did you export the files? That is different from my normal workflow (I just shoot jpg large/fine) and work with the jpgs direct (well, I tweak them in Photoshop first, but that usually doesn't involve shifting the color at all). The newer TV's handle full color better than the crt based ones, but from what I see in your image, it doesn't look like the color is shifted so much as just the contrast bumped up (which desaturate will fix for a DVD).

mikey

[TinaMB Profile Private message]

I shoot RAW, export full /highest resolution in jpg.

I will try to do another DVD adjusting the saturation and see if it's any better. I will report back to you with the results. Thank you so much.

[TinaMB Profile Private message]

Publish>DVD>Options>DVD Output Options There is a tick box in this section to set the desaturation level.

There is a spot for video clip quality with a drop down : normal quality or high quality....do I select high quality?

and anti flicker is checked. Leave that as is?

And under DVD type, it is by default set to DVD HQ (High Quality-Safe). When I clicked on that, I see a drop down menu of other options and there is a higher quality above the safe. Should I select that one?

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

If you can see this link, the image on the LEFT is my original jpg. I used this original for the slideshow. The image on the right is a snapshot taken directly from my computer screen, which is calibrated. That image on the RIGHT is from my slideshow. As you can see, a drastic difference.

Weird. What I see is that the screenshot on the right shows far better white balance, the one on the left with its whites being tinged yellow. The saturation level seems fairly correct, given that babies easily turn beet-red and that the pastels in the cap look fine.

How do I render the file to an .exe file? When in ProShow, I just hit DVD at the top and is that where I make the file a different extension? Please understand that I am very new to this software. And this is my first slideshow...

Don't sweat it. You're going through the initial frustrations of learning new software. We all go through that, but the frustrations don't end. They show up periodically and unfortunately.

As for rendering to an .exe, in the Publish section, choose "Executable."

All the wrinkles will get smoothed out...eventually!

Barbara

[TinaMB Profile Private message]

Okay...I reduced the saturation to 80% and it looks good on TV. Here is my dilemma. I cannot view it on my computer. AT ALL. It will not auto play. In the program, these are what I have selected.

Under OPTIONS, I selected the following: DVD HQ (High Quality-Maximum), Anti-flicker, desaturation 80%, Video clip quality-High quality

Under EXECUTABLE, I selected the following: Include PC executable, window size is default 800x600 px, Image quality 100%, Video Quality MAX.

Why can I not see this on my computer? When I load my DVD in my computer player, a box pops up asking me what to do with the blank DVD. It is not blank. I can view on my TV but not my computer. What am I doing wrong????? I don't understand.....please help me.

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

If you look at the DVD in Windows Explorer, do you see files and folders? If so, do you see your show's name followed by the .exe extension? If you do, what happens when you double-click the .exe file?

Barbara

[TinaMB Profile Private message]

There is no .exe extension. My show is saved like this: Gina's Birthstory.psh

When I double click on it, it immediately pulls it up in the proshow gold program.

Should it be saved as an .exe extension?? How do I do that? When I was done creating my slideshow, I hit SAVE and it saved it the way it's saved now.

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

It sounds as if the PC executable you told it to create wasn't included on the DVD for some reason. However, it's truly odd that the .psh file is on the DVD. In other words, I've no idea what's happened here.

Barbara

[TinaMB Profile Private message]

...well, now you can fully understand my frustration. I may have to contact them directly about this....