Colors Appear Faded or Muted in a Video

If you notice that photos in your Animoto videos look a little faded or washed out, it could be their color space is set to ProPhoto RGB, instead of sRGB.

There's a lot to be said about color space, but here's the super short version:

Color spaces such as ProPhoto RGB have a very wide color gamut, capable of producing a very wide range of colors for print materials. Computer monitors on the other hand, can't produce as many colors.

You can think of ProPhoto RGB as a color space for print, and sRGB as a color space for TV and computer monitors. That's why Animoto recommends exporting photos to sRGB prior to upload.

If you're experiencing this problem, you may be shooting with a camera RAW format and post-processing your photos in a professional application such as Lightroom. The good news is the fix should be fairly easy.

How to export an sRGB photo using Adobe Lightroom

When exporting your photos, Lightroom provides an option to convert the photo to the sRGB color space. You'll find the option under File Settings section. Look for "Color Space" and change it to sRGB, as shown below. 

 

Why doesn't Animoto support ProPhoto RGB?

The short answer is: we could and we might. But, since sRGB is really the right color space to use for digital displays, we think the best place for the conversion to happen is on your end. 

 

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10 Comments

  • Avatar
    Alisha McGraw
    My color space is sRGB in Lr & Ps and I'm noticing some of the photos are faded/dull/off color. :( not sure what else I can do to make them look right (and I am using the animoto original video so there isn't an overlay making them a different color). When I open the image anywhere else the colors are vibrant.
  • Avatar
    Alisha McGraw
    ***I think I found the problem!!** When saving from Ps there is a check box just above Save that says embed ProPhoto cool profile *uncheck that :) I work in a sRGB space and dont use the ProPhoto RGB at all...or at least I didnt think I did until I saw that!! It's weird that only a few of my images have that box checked but if that helps anyone else it helped me.
  • Avatar
    Ashley Winning

    im so annoyed right now nothing is working not ever the prophoto cool thing

  • Avatar
    Alisha McGraw

    sorry I see a typo cool was supposed to say color "color profile" -- here's unfortunately what I had to do. (it's not easy or quick) Open Photoshop. Go to Edit>color settings, and see if it is currently set to ProPhoto RGB or sRGB. No matter what it is click on something different, save and close PS. Then reopen PS and again Edit>Color Settings and click on the working space to be sRGB IEC61966-2.1 - click the Color Management Policies to be Covert to Working RGB. The find the images that are faded/awkward and open them individually in Photoshop. Your PS should prompt you to change them to be sRGB since that is now your working space and those are not sRGB. Make 1 change in the image once it is open (anything - even the simplest thing or adding a B at the end of the image name works) and save the image. The now saved image should be in sRGB.

  • Avatar
    Alisha McGraw

    typo *Convert to Working RGB

  • Avatar
    Ashley Winning

    omg you just saved my life i was so stressed out thank you so much

  • Avatar
    Alisha McGraw

    Welcome (I know your pain and the hours upon hours it took me to figure it out)! & Step 2 now that the panic is over.... Open your LR ...Click Lightroom > Preferences. Under Preferences find the External Editing Tab. Change your Color Space for the 'Edit in Adobe PS CC 2015' & the 'Additional External Editor' both to sRGB. <3 Problem solved for future LR too.

  • Avatar
    Alisha McGraw

    If you do that you should be good until there is some up date that messes things up again lol.

  • Avatar
    Kelly Rasmussen

    My animoto only looks blurry on FB but nowhere else. I am wondering why? As soon as it enlarges onto the screen, every picture is blurred.

  • Avatar
    VSA AJEWEL

    My photos are all blurry

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