Calibrating colors in Lightroom, Photoshop and Windows?

[oswin]

My Lightroom, Photoshop and Windows are each showing very different colors.

I've already set my color profile on Windows and Photoshop (I don't know how to do this in Lightroom, just can't find the option). However, when I "Save As" JPGs from Photoshop, it still turns out different in Windows Picture Viewer.

Does anyone know whats going on?

[vector1]

Unless I'm mistaken, I think lightroom does not support color management for editing of images. It's fixed somehow.

[Hitz]

Originally Posted by vector1 Unless I'm mistaken, I think lightroom does not support color management for editing of images. It's fixed somehow.

Lightroom is certainly a colour managed application.

[Hitz]

Originally Posted by oswin My Lightroom, Photoshop and Windows are each showing very different colors. I've already set my color profile on Windows and Photoshop (I don't know how to do this in Lightroom, just can't find the option). However, when I "Save As" JPGs from Photoshop, it still turns out different in Windows Picture Viewer. Does anyone know whats going on?

"Windows Picture Viewer", IE, and FireFox all are not colour managed, and they effectively use monitor profile. The problem is your monitor is far off a "standard" sRGB gamut. That what causes difference between colour managed PS and Windows Picture Viewer.

[oswin]

Originally Posted by Hitz "Windows Picture Viewer", IE, and FireFox all are not colour managed, and they effectively use monitor profile. The problem is your monitor is far off a "standard" sRGB gamut. That what causes difference between colour managed PS and Windows Picture Viewer.

I've set my monitor to use the sRGB profile. Seems like it doesn't help the colors

Any ideas?

[grantyale]

Originally Posted by Hitz "Windows Picture Viewer", IE, and FireFox all are not colour managed, and they effectively use monitor profile. The problem is your monitor is far off a "standard" sRGB gamut. That what causes difference between colour managed PS and Windows Picture Viewer.

No.... not quite

Windows Picture and Fax Viewer actually looks at the ICC profile inside the pictures but it assumes the output space to be SRGB. So AdobeRGB files will not look desaturated with this software. However, IE and firefox don't look at the ICC by default. There's a way to tell IE to look at it but it requires some non-W3C HTML coding.

An advisible solution is to calibrate the monitor to sRGB (or at least gamma 2.2) and load the lookup table upon startup. and don't post ARGB pics online.

[vector1]

Sorry, I meant that lightroom is not a user adjustable color management program? It's fixed somehow?

[Hitz]

Originally Posted by oswin I've set my monitor to use the sRGB profile. Seems like it doesn't help the colors Any ideas?

Is your monitor calibrated? Do you use any gamma loader programs, such as Adobe Gamma Loader that comes with PS, or loaders that come with calibration software or display adapter's drivers? They can screw graphic adapter's LUT table.

Try to do this. Turn off PS colour management by forcing to use monitor profile:

1) In "View -> Proof Setup" menu choose "Monitor RGB"
2) Then choose "View -> Proof Colors"

After that, compare colours in PS and "Windows Picture and Fax Viewer" and IE. Is there any difference now?

[Hitz]

Originally Posted by grantyale No.... not quite Windows Picture and Fax Viewer actually looks at the ICC profile inside the pictures but it assumes the output space to be SRGB.

My mistake. I've just double checked. Windows Picture and Fax Viewer is indeed a colour managed application.

[Hitz]

Originally Posted by vector1 Sorry, I meant that lightroom is not a user adjustable color management program? It's fixed somehow?

I don't understand what you mean by that.

Lightroom reads a monitor profile and embedded profiles from JPEG, TIFF, and PSD files, and then uses both to compute (R,G,B) values for display output. That's exactly what colour managed applications, like PS, do. Side notes: RAW files typically do not carry an embedded profile, so both Lightroom and PS use a matching camera input profile that comes with Adobe Camera RAW.

In PS you can manually preconfigure a default working profile for newly created files. In Lightroom you don't need that. If it helps: according to Adobe, internally Lightroom uses ProPhoto as a working profile and 16-bit processing.

Now in PS you have fine control over colour engine settings, where you can choose the engine, intent for out-of-gamut colours, etc, although many PS users would be better off by not touching any of those advanced settings without clear knowledge. Adobe doesn't give you that level of control in LR. However that doesn't mean LR is not a colour managed application.

[Hitz]

Originally Posted by oswin My Lightroom, Photoshop and Windows are each showing very different colors.

Regarding LR vs PS colour difference.

Try changing PS color settings as:
- Engine: Adobe (ACE)
- Intent: Relative Colorimetric
- Use Black Point Compensation: ON
- Desaturate Monitor Colors By: OFF
- Blend RGB Colors Using Gamma: OFF

Then:
- "View -> Proof Colors": OFF

Then compare image in Lightroom to the same image in PS.

[oswin]

Originally Posted by Hitz Regarding LR vs PS colour difference. Try changing PS color settings as: - Engine: Adobe (ACE) - Intent: Relative Colorimetric - Use Black Point Compensation: ON - Desaturate Monitor Colors By: OFF - Blend RGB Colors Using Gamma: OFF Then: - "View -> Proof Colors": OFF Then compare image in Lightroom to the same image in PS.

That works! Thanks sooo much! I've been struggling with this for a long time

I notice that RAW still shows as different colors in PS and LR, is this because of what you said earlier?

Quote: RAW files typically do not carry an embedded profile, so both Lightroom and PS use a matching camera input profile that comes with Adobe Camera RAW

Anything I can do to make sure both PS and Lightroom use the same camera input profile?

Thanks so much for your tips!

[oswin]

I think i know what's going on now. When I edit and image in Lightroom, the edits are not saved in the original RAW file.

When I open the RAW file in PS, this is the "out of camera" image without all the edits done in LR. Is that right? I have to use the edit in PS feature from within LR.

[Hitz]

Originally Posted by oswin I think i know what's going on now. When I edit and image in Lightroom, the edits are not saved in the original RAW file. When I open the RAW file in PS, this is the "out of camera" image without all the edits done in LR. Is that right? I have to use the edit in PS feature from within LR.

No, Lightroom doesn't touch a RAW file. Consider RAW as a digital negative which is never changed. Here is what you can do for Photoshop to see the edits that you've made in LR:

1) In Lightroom setup external editors: "Edit -> Preferences...", "External Editors" tab, "Edit in Adobe Photoshop CS*" section:

- File Format: PSD

- Color Space: choose the one which you are comfortable with. I'd recommend starting with sRGB and once you master profile conversions, you may explore AdobeRGB or ProPhoto.

- Bit Depth: I'd suggest 16-bit, unless your PC is low on RAM (1GB or less)

2) Once you did that, you can launch Photoshop as an external editor directly from Lightroom. For instance, after editing in the Develop module either press Ctrl+E or choose "Photo -> Edit in Adobe Photoshop CS*..." from menu.

LR will show you editing options. I'd choose "Edit a Copy with Lightroom Adjustments" and "Stack with original". That's about it.

[oswin]

Originally Posted by Hitz No, Lightroom doesn't touch a RAW file. Consider RAW as a digital negative which is never changed. Here is what you can do for Photoshop to see the edits that you've made in LR: 1) In Lightroom setup external editors: "Edit -> Preferences...", "External Editors" tab, "Edit in Adobe Photoshop CS*" section: - File Format: PSD - Color Space: choose the one which you are comfortable with. I'd recommend starting with sRGB and once you master profile conversions, you may explore AdobeRGB or ProPhoto. - Bit Depth: I'd suggest 16-bit, unless your PC is low on RAM (1GB or less) 2) Once you did that, you can launch Photoshop as an external editor directly from Lightroom. For instance, after editing in the Develop module either press Ctrl+E or choose "Photo -> Edit in Adobe Photoshop CS*..." from menu. LR will show you editing options. I'd choose "Edit a Copy with Lightroom Adjustments" and "Stack with original". That's about it.

Thank you for all your tips! I managed to get PS and LR to show the same colors! You're my PS/LR GURU!