Colorspace Issue between LR & CS3

[hammer88]

Hi everyone,

First post on LR Forums. I did some browsing & searching through the forum and didn't find an exact answer so here goes. I noticed that images look different to me in Lightroom versus my CS3. So I guess reading this forum, I've learned that LR uses ProPhotoRGB and I'm guessing my CS3 is not using it.

So my question is what should I do to resolve this difference? Can I make my CS3 use the same colorspace? I noticed that the colorspace in my CS3 is more like what I would see on the web.

If I export a image out of LR and specify the sRGB colorspace, will it look the same as it does in LR or will it be completely different? I just don't want to make adjustments in LR that don't resemble what they would look like outside of the LR.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Welcome to the forum hammer88.

Would you like to put your system specs in your signature, as it helps give specific advise.

So are you noticing this problem on exported images or while using Edit with... or both?

You want your Photoshop Colour Settings to match your LR space - or vice versa.

Pictures are worth a thousand words so:

Photoshop's colour settings

Edit with settings (in LR preferences)

Export settings (in LR Export dialog)

Which space you edit in is up to you (that's a whole nother discussion!) but try to keep them the same.

If you tick the Photoshop colour settings marked in blue, it'll warn you if you ever mismatch and ask you what to you.

 

[hammer88]

AWESOME!!!! CAN'T WAIT TO TRY THIS WHEN I GET HOME. I will post my specs as well when I get home. I was referring to the difference in colors when I was viewing pictures.

So just to clarify one of my dilemmas. I had this indoor evening condo shot (no attachment because i'm at work). When I viewed in LR it looked nicer than in CS3. If I had properly exported the image out of LR specifying the sRGB colorspace, would it then look the same as it did in LR when I view it in a web browser? I didn't know how to do this at the time, so I just made some edits in CS3 and shared it.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Yes, it should look exactly the same in CS3 as it did in LR - and the most likely reason it didn't is the colour profiles. If not, we start looking at corrupted monitor profiles and the suchlike.

 

[hammer88]

Great! All done! I attached screenshots of my settings. My LR was previously sending edits to CS3 in proPhotoRGB while my CS3 settings were sRGB. Why didn't I notice this earlier... gosh! :cheesy:

The "Additional External Editor" only matters if I use something other than CS3, right? If that's true then it's not much of an issue for me since I'm only using Adobe...

Am i losing anything by using sRGB ovre proPhotoRGB? or should I use proPhotoRGB in both CS3 & LR and just make sure I export to sRGB?

View attachment 84

View attachment 85

 

[Kiwigeoff]

Great! All done! I attached screenshots of my settings. My LR was previously sending edits to CS3 in proPhotoRGB while my CS3 settings were sRGB. Why didn't I notice this earlier... gosh! :cheesy:

The "Additional External Editor" only matters if I use something other than CS3, right? If that's true then it's not much of an issue for me since I'm only using Adobe...

Am i losing anything by using sRGB ovre proPhotoRGB? or should I use proPhotoRGB in both CS3 & LR and just make sure I export to sRGB?

View attachment 84

View attachment 85

Can take some thinking to figure it all out !!
Now for me I use prophoto in LR and PS. This is so I am working with the widest space available, when I want to put on the web or send out to print etc, I convert to sRGB as a last step. You will probably get lots of differing responses though!!:lol::lol:

 

[Mick Seymour]

Pictures are worth a thousand words so:

Perfect Victoria. If you've time, your post deserves to be in Tricks and Tips.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Your wish is my command Mick!

 

[chris02]

Welcome to the forum hammer88.

Would you like to put your system specs in your signature, as it helps give specific advise.

So are you noticing this problem on exported images or while using Edit with... or both?

You want your Photoshop Colour Settings to match your LR space - or vice versa.

Pictures are worth a thousand words so:

Photoshop's colour settings

Edit with settings (in LR preferences)

Export settings (in LR Export dialog)

Which space you edit in is up to you (that's a whole nother discussion!) but try to keep them the same.

If you tick the Photoshop colour settings marked in blue, it'll warn you if you ever mismatch and ask you what to you.

Hi Victoria

I think I am going mad, I cant find the dialogue box in windows cs3 to set the colour setting, please help.

Chris

 

[Kiwigeoff]

It's in the "Edit" drop down menu or on a Mac shift+cmd+k

 

[chris02]

Many thanks Geoff, brain not working.

I have set both LR and PS to Prophoto and ticked all the Colour Management boxes, problem is that when I select edit a photo in PS from LR and when it opens in PS I then say open in Pro photo it looks a lot pinker than the version in LR, please help.

 

[Kiwigeoff]

Many thanks Geoff, brain not working.

I have set both LR and PS to Prophoto and ticked all the Colour Management boxes, problem is that when I select edit a photo in PS from LR and when it opens in PS I then say open in Pro photo it looks a lot pinker than the version in LR, please help.

You have calibrated your monitor haven't you????

 

[chris02]

Sure have Huey Pro, just tried setting both LR and PS to Abobe RGB 1998 and now there photos look almost the same. What are the negatives of leaving it set to Abobe?

 

[Kiwigeoff]

Sure have Huey Pro, just tried setting both LR and PS to Abobe RGB 1998 and now there photos look almost the same. What are the negatives of leaving it set to Abobe?

How do you set LR to AdobeRGB? I presume that you mean for export and editing though.
Now here is the trick part: while LR processes file in it's version of prophotoRGB called "melissa" the previews, which are what we see, are generally Adobe RGB unless you have large and high quality selected. Slightly confusing but that is how it is as of today. That would explain why they "look" the same when PS is set to AdobeRGB. Practical differences in use, not a lot.

 

[chris02]

Yes, right click in LR and edit with LR adjustments, also previews are set to medium.

I will play some more with a range of shots to see what happens.
Many thanks.

PS England to draw the series at the weekend

 

[hammer88]

actually... for chris (XP), i think it would be Edit->Color Settings

 

[chris02]

Hi Rich

Vista is the same, once I was pointed in the correct direction. Thought it would be in preferences!

 

[billg71]

On XP/CS3, it's Edit-Color Settings.

 

[hammer88]

Hate to bring this up again.. I thought I had it all fixed. But maybe something changed? I attached two images. One is the export from Lightroom and one is a screen capture of how it looked in Lightroom.

I exported to JPEG with the settings sRGB 8bit @ 24' pixels per inch. Is this just the loss of tonal depth going from 16 bit to 8 bit? The issue actually came up in CS3 as well even thought I had the colorspaces matching up as detailed in the beginning of this thread. any thoughts?

I can forward the original file if that helps.

 

[Brad Snyder]

Rich, you say
a) screen cap from LR
b) exported jpg

What app is displaying the jpg? Is it color managed?

(BTW, LR on left, jpg on right?)

 

[hammer88]

yes... LR on left (more yellow) and LR export (more blue).

the LR is a screen capture pasted into CS3 & cropped.

the jpg is just the exact export coming out of LR. it displays that way in CS3 or any other jpg viewer...

 

[Victoria Bampton]

That's not an 8bit issue I don't think. I'm wondering how accurate the screen capture software is though.

So if the LR export looks the same in every program, colour managed or not, then it doesn't sound like a colour mismatch.

If you haven't changed settings anywhere else, try recalibrating your monitor, as LR uses the profile slightly differently than most.

 

[hammer88]

victoria.. i didn't use anything special to screen capture.. just alt-printscreen. i'm at work now on a different pc and i'm still seeing the difference. so i don't think it's the way my monitor is interpreting the jpg. unless LR is using some color calibration on my local system to export.

the funny thing is... when i take the image w/ LR adjustments and send it to CS3 for editing in Lightroom, it actually looks like the LR image (yellow tones) for a split second on open and then something seems to get applied and then poof.. it's got blue tints...

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Something's really odd here Rich. You should be able to see exactly the same thing in LR as the resulting jpeg.

So let me get this the right way round - when you're seeing it in LR, it's the yellow version or the blue version? And the exported one is the opposite?

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Ok, one other thing I've just spotted - neither of the attached files has a colour space tag. Had you done a save for web before posting? Or have you got 'minimize embedded metadata' ticked in the export dialog?