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Question

Photoshop changing displayed colors randomly

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
December 17, 2020
5 replies
3868 views

Hi everyone,

This is a critical issue for me, which makes the outcome product from PS just unpredictable, in terms of colors and/or brightness of the final images. I have run through lots of similiar cases reported in the internet, in discussion groups, etc., with some workarounds proposals, but no stable not ultimate solution so far, so I am just disperate. I am preparing images in PS and I just can’t be sure what quality images will be saved/printed/published/delivered.

The issue regards working with two monitors – one in laptop, the other external, an Eizo one, and it regards apparently hardware monitor profiles, which are being used by Photoshop incorectly.

I am using Photoshop on Eizo monitor only, so expecting Eizo profile to be used by Photoshop.

I am always using the latest version of PS, also always hoping, that Adobe would fix the problem.

I am running MacBook Pro with Catalina 10.15.7, but the issue was present also in previous versions.

The simple example of this, while working with an image is that: I am having a couple of some simple adjustements layers in the Layer Panel. Now I click on the last layer (the bottom one), and then make a second click on an empty area below this layer – these are just clicks which should change nothing. Instead, each click changes the brightness of the image with each single click. Just a magic.

Another case – I am opening a JPG image and this is being displayed by PS desatureted (just from the very start). I just maximize the PS app window (click on the green circle button in the left right corner – as usual to OSX) and the image gets saturated properly.

Another case – I go to full screen view in PS (F button) and the image gets oversaturated.

Another case – PS displays image properly, I switch to Chrome browser (on the same Eizo monitor) and go back to PS – the image gets oversaturated.

Generally, some actions distroy displayed color/brightness, some other actions restore from incorrectly displayed

Anyway, PS behaviour is just the behavior is random. I can never be sure if an image is being displayed properly or not, so I am not sure if my processing is in proper direction (if i.e. PS desaturates, I am going to more saturate, which in turn can make the final image oversaturated). I perform lots of processing also as a service to others, so this is just disaster when I can’t be sure if what I see in PS is correct or wrong.

I tried some other workaround like setting on my laprop the profile od Eizo monitor (even if getting wrong colors on laptop screen) – to deprive PS of a chance of using incorrect profile, but PS is inpredictible, sometimes working correctly, sometimes not. So generally a failure.

Is anyone familiar with a solution? Is Adobe addressing this with some priority? From my searches I have found, the users are straggling with this from far ago.

Please see attached video screenshots with examples.

Thanks, Tomek

Photoshop_-_color_problems.zip

Photoshop_-_changing_brightness.zip

This topic has been closed for replies.

tomekbuAuthor

Participating Frequently

For everyone interested - this threas is continued at Adobe Photoshop Family as "Photoshop 22.1.0: Critical problem with colours / hw profiles on two monitors"

https://feedback.photoshop.com/conversations/photoshop/photoshop-2210-critical-problem-with-colours-hw-profiles-on-two-monitors/5fdcfc5b35994b51065c7190

D Fosse

Community Expert

Good to see that Jeffrey is on the ball, then maybe we can get to the bottom of this. I've been curious about this for a long time, since similar reports have been cropping up intermittently for years, but no explanation ever suggested. All these cases have had a couple of common factors (wrong monitor profile with laptop/iMac + external display, a high proportion of them Eizos). Unfortunately I've never seen it myself, so there hasn't been anything I could investigate here.

D

defaulte9qhmnnmz5bv

Participant

This is also happening to me, however, on my end evrytime i go fullscreen my image becomes muted. I am using wacom one and macbook pro '17 with latest OS. Its very frustrating, according to other older forums it has to do with. the proof setup under the view tab in PS. I am new to PS and Wacom so having this bug its new territory, and frustrating haha

tomekbuAuthor

Participating Frequently

@Exoskeleton1994 Thank you very much, each information is important I think, hopefully make some progress. I am using Thunderbolt connection stright to my Mac.

I have done some other tests - tried to remove all the profiles from Mac, but this did't change anything.

There are lots of other cases with this problem I am facing - I have registered more screenshots.

The issue paralyzes my work now. Sadly speaking, I do not believe Adobe to rush for resolving this and treat with priotity - I do not understand their approach. We are paying them every month so much and instead of fixing critical errors in the top advanced and best known application in the world with AI technology, we are getting new fancy features like 'sky replacement' or tuning apps's graphic elements. There are so many critical problems like distroing image files by PS or loosing them with no chance to save a file - issues present from so long time at Adobe Photoshop Family, which I am facing also my self. This is just incredible.

@D Fosse Thank you, this is just my own post I have registered yesterday on the Feedback Forum.

D Fosse

Community Expert

Here's tomekbu's thread in the feedback forum. Several others seem to be experiencing similar issues now, so I suggest everyone add their voices to that thread.

https://feedback.photoshop.com/conversations/photoshop/photoshop-2210-critical-problem-with-colours-hw-profiles-on-two-monitors/5fdcfc5b35994b51065c7190

So far it seems everyone affected in this round are Mac users. So keep an open mind that this could be an Apple bug. That can happen on Mac because while the profile conversions are called by the application, they are actually executed by the OS.

D Fosse

Community Expert

I've seen this reported from time to time over the years, always in a laptop + external display configuration. Mostly MBP/iMac, but it happens on Windows too.

What happens is that Photoshop isn't using the correct monitor profile.

No, that has nothing to do with hardware calibration of the Eizo. The monitor profile is a different matter. The profile doesn't adjust anything - it's a map, a description of the monitor's behavior in its calibrated state. Or for that matter whatever state it's in, by whatever means - the point is that the profile records the current state. The monitor profile is just a standard icc-spec profile, like any other icc profile.

With normal operation, Photoshop uses whatever profile it gets from the operating system. So if this is a bug, it's very hard to say where it is. It could be that the profile is "marginal", not quite to spec, so that Photoshop tries to reject it. That's just my theory.

If you're using Colornavigator, try to set it to make version 2 and matrix-based profiles, not version 4 and table-based (LUT) which is the default. Both the latter can be problematic in some circumstances.

It's here in Colornavigator 7 (general preferences; scroll down). Note that I'm using Colornavigator myself, with a dual monitor configuration, and I have never had any issues in Photoshop. But some other applications don't like LUT profiles, so there may be something there.

tomekbuAuthor

Participating Frequently

Yes, I definitely agree, that Photoshop isn't using the correct monitor profile. I have also seen lots of similiar cases reported by others, but none solution.

Thanks for you suggesion with Navigator7 - I have changed the settings according to your suggestions (restarted), but no success. The behaviour ist random. Now a simple JPG opened is desaturated, after swiching PS app window to max and back the colors come back. This is insane.

I have tried once again to set laptops's profile to the same as Eizo, trying to leave no chance for PS to select from other profiles, it helps for some situations, but in others the error comes back.

So no progress so far. I can remember, that somewhere two years ago I was not facing this, so there was the time, PS was working properly with my external Eizo.

tomekbuAuthor

Participating Frequently

I have installed an older version of PS 21.2.4 and the problem stays the same - no difference.

I have got an even simpler examples of the error, when every click in PS application window (in neutral areas or on the image) is changing the image look - saturation/brightness, seams that each single click causes PS to apply different hardware profile --> see attached video screenshot.

I have tested the situation with all the same hardware (lamptop, Eizo) but I have run PS CS6 (yes - very old version) with OS High Sierra - no problem at all, I have done lots of tests with only positive effects. This would indicate, the problem came with newer verions of PS or OS, however considering the behaviour of PS I have just described, I doubt OS to be the reason.

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