I'm running nVidia 7900GS with new Ben Q 24" monitor. I agree with your
assumption that:
> I'm no expert on these things, but it looks like Photo Gallery is
> (internally at least) dropping the colour depth, thus loosing details where
> colours are similar tones/contrast etc.
This is especially true when looking at the hair in the test image.
Also, if it were a driver problem, it would affect the other applications
too. It doesnt. Photoshop, Paint and browsers all display the image
perfectly.
I suspect the new Windows Color System WCS is the culprit. I've done some
reading and you can find some very interesting things regarding the way WCS
handles images at this page :
http://blogs.msdn.com/color_blog/default.aspx
Download the test image they have provided here and see how Vista Photo
Gallery handles the image compared to other applications.
Again, this is an issue that clearly must be resolved as soon as possible
before the world of digital photographers gets wind of this problem. Are
there any Microsoft developers of the Vista Photo Gallery that can read this
board to run the side x side tests that we have done?
"Slugsie" wrote:
> OK, I viewed your image, and at first I couldn't see a problem. I overlaid
> an MS Paint and a PaintShop Pro X window and it all looked OK. I took a
> screen grab (attached) and was just about to upload it saying it all looked
> perfect, when I looked at the *screen grab* in Photo Gallery, and it looked
> awful. Once I knew what I was looking for I could then see the problem
> fairly easily.
>
> I'm no expert on these things, but it looks like Photo Gallery is
> (internally at least) dropping the colour depth, thus loosing details where
> colours are similar tones/contrast etc. This could also potentially be a
> driver problem too.
>
> What is your hardware? I have an nVidia 7600GS AGP, latest beta drivers.
> Monitor is a Dell 2407fpw using the driver from Windows Update.
>
> --
> </Slugsie>
> "Michael J" <MichaelJ@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news
E8E1EFA-03CB-4E38-8473-635A4F410B5F@microsoft.com...
> > That might be true, but I want to be clear that the photo gallery view
> > (non-slideshow mode) does indeed display a poorer quality when simply
> > viewing
> > an image - and more importantly when making color corrections to an image
> > within photo gallery. If you don't have accurate color to begin with, then
> > you will be changing the color - to try to correct something that is
> > already
> > corrected - further skewing the color from the source (your fine digital
> > camera, for instance).
> >
> > Can anyone else confirm that they are seeing this? I've included the test
> > image again here:
> >
> > http://www.jurick.net/archive/galler...t/IMG_4353.jpg
> >>
> >> When viewing in Vista WPG, notice the girls hair on the right, then open
> >> the
> >> image in another program and you'll see a dramatic difference. The image
> >> is
> >> tagged with an sRGB profile.
> >
> > "Slugsie" wrote:
> >
> >> I think that when Photo Gallery goes into SlideShow mode (click the big
> >> square button at center bottom) it drops down to a very low resolution to
> >> display the images. This has obvious problems. If you double click an
> >> image
> >> whilst in the thumbnail mode it keeps your current resolution, and thus
> >> does
> >> a much better job of viewing images, at least for me anyway.
> >>
> >> I think that the SlideShow mode is designed for viewing images on a
> >> device
> >> like a TV, using a '10 foot interface' (as MS like to call it). It's not
> >> designed to be used sat at the desktop (a '2 foot interface').
> >>
> >> Oh, and I agree, it sucks.
> >>
> >> --
> >> </Slugsie>
> >> "Simon Cobb" <Simon Cobb@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> >> news87B1CA7-C835-4B32-81DE-B8D81AA08C53@microsoft.com...
> >> > I'm running Vista Ultimate RTM on a high end system. I just loaded
> >> > 60-odd
> >> > JPG images taken with a Nikon D40 DSLR onto my PC and viewed them
> >> > through
> >> > WPG. Given this was a brand new camera and these were the first images
> >> > I
> >> > had
> >> > shot, I was horrified with their quality and initially assumed my
> >> > camera
> >> > was
> >> > faulty. The images were terribly over-saturated, unsharp and noisy. I
> >> > then
> >> > opened the images for editing in Microsoft Digital Image Suite. Lo and
> >> > behold, the images are sharp and properly saturated.
> >> >
> >> > While I'm relieved that my camera is performing correctly, what on
> >> > earth
> >> > is
> >> > going on with WPG to cause such appalling display characteristics?
> >> >
> >> > Incidentally, I saw similarly poor results when I viewed the images in
> >> > the
> >> > new Slide Show viewer.
> >> >
> >> > Anyone else seen similar results? Is there a fix?
> >> >
> >> > Regards,
> >> >
> >> > Simon
> >>
> >>
>