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big_9779
Participant
May 30, 2025
Answered

JPG Color Shift When Importing into Lightroom

  • May 30, 2025
  • 6 replies
  • 351 views

Hello Adobe Support,

 

I’m using a Canon 5D Mark IV and I usually shoot in JPG. I’ve noticed that when I import my JPG files into Lightroom Classic, the colors appear noticeably different from what I see on the camera’s LCD or when viewing the image in other basic image viewers. The color looks flatter, less saturated, and not as true to what was captured in-camera.

 

I understand that RAW files often lose the in-camera Picture Style when opened in Lightroom, but in this case, I’m working with JPG files, which should already be processed by the camera.

 

Is there a way to preserve the exact color and tonal look of my original JPGs when importing them into Lightroom, without any changes to the appearance?

 

I’ve tried checking the profile in the Develop module, and Lightroom applies “Adobe Color” by default. Changing the profile helps a bit, but it still doesn’t match the original JPG appearance from the camera.

 

Is there any way to import JPGs into Lightroom without Lightroom applying any additional color interpretation or profile changes?

 

Thank you for your help!

Correct answer johnrellis

Building on Aleke's reply:

 

"Is there a way to preserve the exact color and tonal look of my original JPGs when importing them into Lightroom, without any changes to the appearance?"

 

In general, LR will display imported JPEGs faithfully, nearly identical as to how they are viewed in other viewers, e.g. Mac Preview or Adobe Photoshop. Some specific things to check:

 

1. "I’ve tried checking the profile in the Develop module, and Lightroom applies “Adobe Color” by default." Triple-check that. When you open one of the JPEGs in LR Develop, do you see Profile: Color or Profile: Adobe Color?  Profile: Adobe Color only applies to raws, so if that's what you see, you're editing a raw, not a JPEG. If you see Profile: Color, then proceed.

 

2. Open one of the JPEGs in Develop and click Reset. If the colors change, do they now look better? If the colors change, that suggests you're applying a Develop preset on Import.  In the Import window's right column, set Apply During Import > Develop Settings to None.

 

3. Open one of the imported photos in the Mac Preview app in particular. Does it look similar to what you see in LR, or closer to what you expect?

 

4. Quickly test if the color profile assigned to your display is corrupt or incompatible with LR:

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-do-i-change-my-monitor-profile-to-check-whether-its-corrupted/

6 replies

johnrellis
johnrellis
Genius
February 9, 2026

[View this post in your web browser. It contains formatting and images that don't appear in email.]

 

​@d.avalanche  The imported straight-out-of-camera JPEGs become more saturated/vibrant compared to the originals viewed in macOS Preview  … OM System OM-1 JPEG engine (color space is set to AdobeRGB)

You’re tripping over a longstanding bug in the Mac OS core libraries used by most Mac apps to display photos (including Mac Preview but not LR or Photoshop). The Mac libraries think the photo’s color profile is sRGB rather than Adobe RGB.  Open the sample photo in Mac Preview and do Tools > Show Inspector :

 

But Exiftool shows the camera is correctly recording the Adobe RGB profile according to the EXIF standard:

[EXIF] Color Space              : Uncalibrated
[EXIF] Interoperability Index   : R03 - DCF option file (Adobe RGB)
[EXIF] Interoperability Version : 0100

 

To get Mac Preview and other Mac apps to correctly display the colors, you need to use Photoshop or another standards-compliant program to reassign the Adobe RGB profile, which will also store the profile in another part of the photo metadata (ICC_Profile) that Mac OS recognizes.

 

Note that if you try to use Preview’s Tools > Assign Profile to explicitly assign Adobe RGB, that too will fail (it’s also buggy).

 

This bug has been present in Mac OS for many, many years, but Apple clearly doesn’t care.

    d.avalanche
    d.avalanche
    Participant
    February 10, 2026

    Wow, I wouldn’t have guessed that it was so deeply rooted. Thanks ​@johnrellis !

    Ian Lyons
    Community Expert
    Ian LyonsCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 9, 2026

    Best stick with the other thread as JR Ellis has already replied. You’ve also provided images as he requested.

    d.avalanche
    d.avalanche
    Participant
    February 9, 2026

    Hey there,

    I’ve initially posted my question in continuation to 982290 but I figured nobody would take a look at it since it was answered.

    Here’s my issue: I decided to switch to JPEG-only shooting on my OM System OM-1 as an experiment. But I recently noticed a strange behavior when I import those photos to LrC (it happens in Lr Mobile as well but that is beyond the scope of this post).

    Prerequisites:

    • Lightroom Classic 15.0.1
    • macOS 15.7.3
    • OM System OM-1 JPEG engine (color space is set to AdobeRGB)

    Issue
    The imported straight-out-of-camera JPEGs become more saturated/vibrant compared to the originals viewed in macOS Preview or on iPhone 16 Pro’s camera roll/Photos app. 

    I double checked the following:

    • no presets are being applied to the files during import
    • there are no specific settings in LrC that would indicate any changes of color/tone on import

    For instance, look at the teal storage cubes on the first screenshot. On the left (in LrC) they are way more saturated. On the right (macOS Preview) they are the same as captured in-camera.

    On the second screenshot the greens and yellows of the player’s hoodie, as well as the reds of the Christmas tree, are also more vibrant as if somebody gave them a minor saturation boost.
     

    Just to reiterate, I’m only dealing with JPEGs here, no raw profile matching is taking place.

     

    It’s not that big of a deal but it is quite annoying and especially noticeable on skin tones. I don’t want any additional implicit changes to my photos even if the software might consider the colors too dull. Dealing with inaccurate colors between the in-camera and Adobe “matching” raw profiles (at least for OM System/Olympus) is bad as it is, but having to deal with it in JPEGs as well - that’s just too much.

     

    Does anyone have an idea what might be happening here and how to get rid of it?

    Thanks!

    Google Drive link to the original JPEGs.

     

     

    d.avalanche
    d.avalanche
    Participant
    February 9, 2026

    Hey there!

    I have an issue with very similar symptoms but in my case the imported JPEGs (from OM System OM-1) become more saturated. I’ve actually observed this at first in Lightroom mobile but now I verified the very same behavior in Lightroom Classic. 

    I double checked everything above:

    • no presets are being applied during import
    • there are no specific settings in LrC that would indicate any changes of color/tone on import.

    For instance, look at the teal storage cubes on the first screenshot. On the left (in LrC) they are way more saturated.

    On the second screenshot the greens and yellows of the hoodie, as well as the reds of the Christmas tree are also more vibrant.

     

    Any idea what’s going on?

     

    johnrellis
    johnrellis
    Genius
    February 9, 2026

    ​@d.avalanche  Attach one of the problem JPEGs here, and we can see if the issue occurs in other LR installations. That will quickly narrow down the problem and identify solutions. If the forum won't let you attach the file here, upload it to Wetransfer, Dropbox, Google Drive or similar free service and post the sharing link here. 

    d.avalanche
    d.avalanche
    Participant
    February 9, 2026

    Sure, take a look.
    Google Drive

    johnrellis
    johnrellisCorrect answer
    Genius
    May 30, 2025

    Building on Aleke's reply:

     

    "Is there a way to preserve the exact color and tonal look of my original JPGs when importing them into Lightroom, without any changes to the appearance?"

     

    In general, LR will display imported JPEGs faithfully, nearly identical as to how they are viewed in other viewers, e.g. Mac Preview or Adobe Photoshop. Some specific things to check:

     

    1. "I’ve tried checking the profile in the Develop module, and Lightroom applies “Adobe Color” by default." Triple-check that. When you open one of the JPEGs in LR Develop, do you see Profile: Color or Profile: Adobe Color?  Profile: Adobe Color only applies to raws, so if that's what you see, you're editing a raw, not a JPEG. If you see Profile: Color, then proceed.

     

    2. Open one of the JPEGs in Develop and click Reset. If the colors change, do they now look better? If the colors change, that suggests you're applying a Develop preset on Import.  In the Import window's right column, set Apply During Import > Develop Settings to None.

     

    3. Open one of the imported photos in the Mac Preview app in particular. Does it look similar to what you see in LR, or closer to what you expect?

     

    4. Quickly test if the color profile assigned to your display is corrupt or incompatible with LR:

    https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-do-i-change-my-monitor-profile-to-check-whether-its-corrupted/

      A
      Community Manager
      AlekeCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      May 30, 2025

      Hi @big_9779! Welcome to the community—it's great to have you here!

      To help figure this out, could you let me know which version of Lightroom Classic you're using? Also, is this issue happening with all JPGs or just the ones from your Canon camera?

      If you’re able to share a few examples showing how your photos look in Lightroom compared to other apps, that would be super helpful for troubleshooting.

      Thanks so much, and looking forward to helping you out!
      Alek

      *(If you mention me with an @, like @Aleke, I’ll get a notification and can respond faster.)*
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