Color shift when exporting from LR into PS

Question

I have read numerous articles about this, and I still have a problem.

When I export a RAW image from LR into PS (using CTL/CMD-E), the image appears in PS with a color shift, generally appearing with deeper saturation and more reddish hues. In the example attached here, the image on the right is the RAW image as displayed in LR. The image on the left is the same image opened in PS, but no changes made in PS, just simple saved and returned to LR. As you can see in the body of the guitar and in the man's face, the colors do not match.

My LR use a ProPhoto color space. PS is set to use the embedded profile of the image; this I know because in PS I have the color settings set up to warn me when I open a file with a profile mismatch, which it did and I selected the option to use the embedded profile. Nonetheless, the colors still shifted.

Now, I just calibrated my monitor and PS was using that as its working space. Just to see, I changed the working space on PS to ProPhoto to match LR. No warning about a profile mismatch this time, as expected, still set to use embedded profiles, and . . . same result.

Any help is greatly appreciated as to what could be going on. I want the colors to match between LR and PS, especially since I export proofs from LR and I would prefer to show my clients the colors they can expect (especially brides who picked the colors of their decor particularly).

Thank you in advance.

D Fosse · Accepted Answer

I think this is ACR / Lightroom versions out of sync like Per said. Don't trust you have the "latest" versions - go in and check the numbers.

This is normally not particularly important, but a while ago a complete overhaul was made to camera profiles, with some new profiles and, most importantly, a completely new default profile. This is the problem. One profile is used in Lightroom, and then the image is sent to ACR with the same settings but a different camera profile is used.

If you haven't done the latest CC update, you should be on ACR 10.5 and Lightroom 7.5.

If you have, it's ACR 11.0 and Lightroom 8.0.

Per Berntsen · Answer

First of all, make sure that Camera Raw versions in Lightroom and Photoshop match.

In LR go to Help > About Lightroom – in PS go to Help > About plugins > Camera Raw to verify.

If they don't match, update one or both, so that ACR versions match.

It they do match, the problem is probably caused by a defective or incompatible monitor profile.

Try setting the monitor profile to sRGB (use Adobe RGB if you have a wide gamut monitor). If that fixes the issue, recalibrate, and make sure to make a version 2, matrix based profile. (do not use version 4 or table based)

Now, I just calibrated my monitor and PS was using that as its working space.

If you mean that you used the monitor profile as the working space, don't ever do that! It effectively disables color management.

The working space should be a standard color space like sRGB or Adobe RGB.

And there is no need for working spaces or image profiles to match between LR and PS. Both are color managed, and will display correct colors regardless. But unless required, profile conversions should be avoided, so set Color management policies to Preserve embedded profiles in the PS Color settings.

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