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NormanStormin
NormanStormin
Known Participant
December 9, 2023
Question

Is there any way to get Lightroom Classic to display the Color Space of images?

  • December 9, 2023
  • 4 replies
  • 4897 views

I understand that Lightroom converts images color spaces internally for display into ProPhotoRGB.

I fairly often use Lightroom for viewing and exporting generated images, like scans, photoshop files and so on. 

Sometimes I would like to be able to see what the color space of a image is, to make sure its correct. And sometimes to compare various colour spaces. (not very often, to be sure.)

But I cannot find any way to make LIghtroom display the colour space of the original image. 

I realise I can look in Bridge, but thats flipping to other software that is not displaying images the same way as Lightroom. 

 

So... Is there anyway of showing the color space of images in Lightroom?

 

Thanks

    4 replies

    johnrellis
    johnrellis
    Genius
    December 9, 2023

    [This post contains formatting and embedded images that don't appear in email. View the post in your Web browser.]

     

    Several methods:

     

    1. Make a smart collection for each of the common color profiles (Prophoto RGB, Adobe RGB, sRGB), e.g.

     

     

    2. Use the Metadata Viewer plugin to view the field ICC_Profile:ProfileDescription.

     

    3. Use the Any Filter plugin to view and filter the profiles for many photos at once:

     

     

      NormanStormin
      NormanStorminAuthor
      Known Participant
      December 10, 2023

      Thank you for those tools. Having looked at a number of files, its certainly going to be a challenge to try to find all the places that the color profile information may or may not be stored. So far, its DEEPLY inconsistent.

       

      Cheers

      johnrellis
      johnrellis
      Genius
      December 10, 2023

      "Having looked at a number of files, its certainly going to be a challenge to try to find all the places that the color profile information may or may not be stored. So far, its DEEPLY inconsistent."

       

      For the non-raw image formats recognized by LR (JPEG, TIFF, PNG, PSD, PSB), the industry standards are consistent and followed by LR:

       

      - If the photo is sRGB or AdobeRGB, the field EXIF:ColorSpace could contain the sole indication that the photo is in sRGB or Adobe RGB.  Usually it's cameras that use just EXIF:ColorSpace, but some apps do too.

       

      - If the photo is in some other color space, EXIF:ColorSpace will be Uncalibrated and the ICC profile will be stored in the ICC_Profile metadata section. The name of the profile is in ICC_Profile:ProfileDescription.  When LR exports an sRGB JPEG, it sets both EXIF:ColorSpace and ICC_Profile (as do many other apps), even though it's sufficient to just use EXIF:ColorSpace in that case.

       

      The two plugin methods I listed above will show you EXIF:ColorSpace and ICC_Profile:ProfileDescription. LR's smart collection criterion Source Color Profile incorporates both EXIF:ColorSpace and ICC_Profile:ProfileDescription.

       

      When you examine one of these formats in Windows File Explorer, it just shows you EXIF:ColorSpace, so photos with an ICCC color profile that isn't sRGB or Adobe RGB will show up as "uncalibrated".

       

      When you examine these formats in Mac Finder Preview with Tools > Show Inspector, the General Info tab's field ColorSync Profile will show the combination of EXIF:ColorSpace and ICC_Profile. It's EXIF tab's ColorSpace field will show EXIF:ColorSpace.

       

      When you examine these formats in Mac Finder, the Preview panel will show the combination of EXIF:ColorSpace and ICC_Profile in the field Color Profile.

       

       

        Conrad_C
        Community Expert
        Conrad_CCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        December 9, 2023

        You might look for a non-Adobe plug-in for Lightroom Classic that can display an image’s embedded profile. I don’t know if one does, but there are so many useful plug-ins out there that it might exist.

         

        A more immediate solution would be to right-click the image in Lightroom Classic, choose Show in Explorer to select it on the desktop, and then open File Properties to inspect the color profile. If you get into the habit, that can be a very quick two steps: right-click (to have Lightroom select it on the desktop) and then press Alt-Enter (to pop open Properties).

         

        (For the Mac users reading this, choose Photo > Show in Finder, and in the Finder you would choose File > Get Info. Be sure to look at the Color Profile line, not the Color Space line.)

         

        Advanced users could open the image already selected on the desktop directly into whatever color profile inspection software they have around, such as ColorSync Utility that’s included with every Mac.

        D Fosse
        Community Expert
        D FosseCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        December 9, 2023

        First to clear up common misunderstandings about Lightroom Classic and ProPhoto:

         

        • Lightroom does not convert into ProPhoto. All RGB files retain their original color spaces.
        • Raw files are processed internally in a custom color space that uses ProPhoto primaries, but a linear tone respone curve. This is not the same as ProPhoto RGB.
        • If you "Edit in Photoshop", you choose what standard color space to encode into. This does not have to be ProPhoto RGB just because it happens to be the default.

         

        With that out of the way - no, I'm not aware of any way to get LrC to display the color space of RGB files.

        dj_paige
        dj_paige
        Legend
        December 9, 2023

        Adobe has done the hard work behind the scenes to handle colors properly inside the program, so that you the human user don't have to worry about color spaces within the program. The only way I know of to determine how the image would look in other colors spaces is to export the image in whatever color space(s) you want, or to use soft-proofing.

        R
        Community Expert
        richardplondonCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        December 9, 2023

        The image within Lrc is not "in" any particular colourspace meaningfully, but it may be of interest to inspect the imported file or else to inspect an exported file. These files' 'Details' info can be looked at via the OS file browser, and include what colourspace ('representation', below) the file has been encoded to.

         

        One other indicator may help you from within LrC, so far as camera JPG: by industry standard, the initial character of the picture filename switches to an underscore whenever the camera is set to shoot for AdobeRGB instead of sRGB.

         

        Personally, so far as derived files (PS edits chiefly) I sometimes set 16-bit ProPhoto and other times 8-bit AdobeRGB, depending on the task.Probably file size alone would let me distinguish those two. But I don't know how I would conduct myself any differently within LrC, on having that information. 8-bit or 16-bit is probably more central than colourspace but this is not presented inside the Catalog either.

        D Fosse
        Community Expert
        D FosseCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        December 9, 2023
        quote

        The image within Lrc is not "in" any particular colourspace meaningfully


        By @richardplondon

         

        Actually it is: RGB files are in their original color spaces; raw files in linear TRC ProPhoto. But the latter is strictly for internal processing and not really relevant anywhere else. For external use (Export or Edit in) the file is encoded into whatever color space the user chooses.

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