Png Photo upload is very dark

[Sakki Salubria]

For some reason when I take a RL Photo and put it in Photoshop and make it transparent by converting to a png 512x512.  When I upload it into SL it becomes very dark.  But when viewed in Adobe Photoshop it looks normal.  What is causing this?  Can I fix it?

I am trying to make Framed Photos for my house.  Any help would be appreciated.

[Lindal Kidd]

If it's to be a framed photo, don't make it transparent!  An easy way to insure this is to save it as a 24 bit .TGA file instead of .PNG.

Textures in SL often look dark because of the local light intensity.  To make your photos stand out, set the texture to Full Bright.

Make sure that the texture COLOR is the default white.  Anything else will darken (and/or tint) your photo texture.

[Sakki Salubria]

I tried Full Bright, but it had very litte effect on it.  I will try a targa, and see if that helps.  The last one I did I made the frame in Photoshop.  Is it better then to download the tga or png and put it on a prim?

[Linear Planer]

Emphasizing what Lindal said, 'Make sure that the texture COLOR is the default white.  Anything else will darken (and/or tint) your photo texture.'

You need to place textures on a white prim face to see them in their full color. If a prim is dark, Full Bright will have little to no effect. You use Full Bright so the picture shows up regardles of time of day (i.e. at midnight, it will still be bright as ever).

You can use PNG or TGA, but you don't need any transparancy. You can even use JPEG (jpg), but many say you are going to see a loss in quality, however I've had no problems when I set the quality slider to maximum. Best to experiment and see what is suitable for your purpose.

[Lindal Kidd]

I don't understand.  You "made the frame in Photoshop"?  You can make a frame TEXTURE in Photoshop, or you can put a frame around your photo image and then save the combination as a texture of a framed photograph.

If you did the former, then I assume you are planning to have a frame prim, with the frame texture on it, and a photo prim, with the photo texture on it.

If you did the latter, you can produce the illusion of a framed photo on a single prim.

Or do you mean that your uploaded textures appear dark even before you put them on a prim?  Dark when you first upload them and they appear in the texture viewing window on your screen?  This could be because they have an alpha texture saved with them.  To fix that, see my earlier comment about saving them as 24 bit TGA files.  Or it might be because SL's gamma is different than the rest of your computer's.  Check your Environment settings, the Advanced Sky editor, lighting tab.

[Sakki Salubria]

Yes, I did the illusion of a framed photo on a single prim.  I can't remember if it was dark during the upload.  Trying to do a tga now.  I just have to remember how.  I have very little knowledge of photoshop, trying to teach myself.

[Kerryth Tarantal]

It may not be necessary to give up png. Unless you need transparency on the image, I recommend flattening it in Photoshop before you upload it. Select All  and then Control-Shift-C to copy the composite image (assuming you have layers in your working file). Paste the image into a new file. Go to the Layers menu and choose "Flatten Image". This will take out all the transparency and turn the pasted layer into a background file with a little padlock icon on it. "Save As" png or tga (I prefer the former) and uncheck the Save As Copy option (because that will leave you with your untitled new psd file still there, which can be confusing). See if this helps.

But I'm thinking maybe the real problem may have something to do with the gamma settings being mismatched between SL and Photoshop. I had a similar problem when I first started uploading textures a couple of years ago, except the reverse: they were too light. I found a forum post that helped me adjust Photoshop settings to better match SL. Perhaps someone who is expert at this will chime in because I don't remember what the exact solution was or where I found it.

[Linear Planer]

It's safer in Photoshop to use Image --> Duplicate and check the Merged Layers Only box. That way you get a flattened copy and preserve your original in layers. Too many times, I accidentally saved my flattened PSD   (woops!!)

[Kerryth Tarantal]

Yes, that's why I suggested making a new file with the merged copy and flattening the new one. I should have added something about saving the original with all the layers.

[Sakki Salubria]

Yes, it is on a white prim and full bright.

[Sakki Salubria]

Well I flattened it and it still uploads dark.  This time I caught it before paying the 10L at least.  But it must be a viewer issue.  Because if I open it with my windows picture and fax viewer it is also very dark, but the thumbnail view is light and so is the photoshop view.

I looked at my gamma in SL and it is at 0.00 it says lower is lighter, so I assume that's as light as it gets.

 

Any other suggestions?

 

BTW thanks for all of you suggestions so far

[Bowfluv Curtiss]

If you are just laying a texture on a prim .. then the "save as"  I think should be .jpg .. (save as Photopshop option) .. If there is a need to see through the texture then, and only then .tga (but its a bit of a process and for a PS Newish Person this might be a bit difficult) OR much easier and much smaller in file size .png ..I have never had the problem of a texture being too dark, it changes a bit, but usually not too dark if you just lay it over a white prim.. 

[Sakki Salubria]

Ok, I finally got it to work with a targa saved with an alpha.  I think I was confused when you said not transparent, so I flattened it, and did not check the alpha window.  But of course that won't work.  The targa version does not get dark.  But any form of png does, flat or not.

 

Thanks

[Lindal Kidd]

I'm no Photoshop expert, but I am not sure flattening and saving as .png gets rid of the alpha channel.  If any part of the image has transparency in it, it will be saved in the .png file (which supports alpha channels).

I've uploaded .png files that I never intended to have any transparency, only to find that they produced alpha channel sorting errors when applied to prims, because somewhere in the file there were a few transparent pixels.

That's why I suggested using a .tga format in 24 bits.  No alpha channel, no transparency, no problems!

[Snowshift Moomintoog]

I'm not sure who marks a question "answered", but I believe this one is not.

This appears to be a much broader problem that sometimes includes Javascript, sometimes a Nikon camera profile, sometimes a Macintosh. See this thread with illustrations for other perspectives.

http://forums.aurigma.com/yaf_postst2069_PRB-Thumbnails-for-Some-JPEG-Files-Are-Too-Dark-Image-Uploader-for-Java.aspx

I actually have this same problem in Wikipedia, Facebook.

Up until my LCD monitor broke, and I had to use an old ViewSonic UltraBrite, I *thought* the problem might simply be an incompatibility between my quite old (professional) camera, and the graphics card tech for a PC card purchased only last year. Now that both monitors have the same problem, the above thread seems more likely. Regards, Snow

[Lindal Kidd]

The OP is the one who can mark a question "Answered".  That doesn't mean that discussion can't continue, just that the OP got a response that was satisfactory to them...and in this case, they did!