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Question

Save As from psd to jpeg file too dark

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
October 23, 2022
4 replies
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With Photoshop 2022, working on grayscale images, in psd file foprmats.

When Saving As to jpg file the image sometimes comes out darker and with less contrast.

Why? What can I do?

Please help

Sverker Runeson

Windows

This topic has been closed for replies.

NB, colourmanagement

Community Expert

Do you assess the saved image in Photoshop? does it show up as having an embedded ICC profile?

I hope this helps
neil barstow, colourmanagement net :: adobe forum volunteer:: co-author: 'getting colour right'
google me "neil barstow colourmanagement" for lots of free articles on colour management

S

SverkAuthor

Participating Frequently

To continue, thanks for your efforts!, here is more specifics about my problem:

I edit 16bit grayscale images in Photoshop, saving directly as non flattened .psd files.

Then I also save them as .jpg. Sometimes , not all times, the jpg comes out darker and with less contrast.

This is obvious if I view them side by sideif if in a Bridge preview window,
or if I open both the .psd and the .jpg in Photoshop.

When it happens, it is a big nuiscance. I want to keep the psd as the original and the jpg as a compact to communicate -- and they need to look reasonably the same.

What am I doing wrong?

Why is this so?

D Fosse

Community Expert

Are you embedding the profile in both? It sounds like you're not; that would explain it.

In any case, grayscale is very risky and you need to be careful. Grayscale requires color management just like RGB to be represented correctly. Obviously there's no color, but the tone response curve still needs to be remapped correctly, or it will come out too dark or too washed out.

The problem is that a lot of applications don't support grayscale color management, even if they do support RGB color management. IOW that's like any other situation without color management: you need to pick a profile that roughly matches the output. In most common scenarios, Gray Gamma 2.2 is the best bet.

The Photoshop default dot gain grayscale profile is not good for anything. The dot gain profiles are generic profiles for offset print, but outdated and almost never used nowadays even for that.

I usually recommend RGB even for black and white images for these reasons. It just has a much better chance of being represented correctly in other applications.

TheDigitalDog

Inspiring

The image sometimes comes out darker and with less contrast viewed where? IF not a color managed application, it will not likely match Photoshop (and if it is, it will). We need to know where and how you view the image with less contrast.

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

NB, colourmanagement

Community Expert

Are you embedding the ICC profile in the saved file?

Are you viewing both image files in Photoshop? Beware image viewers that don't use ICC colourmanagment.

If you need greyscale for a particular reason, so be it, but it might be simpler to work in RGB with all channels equal. so that the image is monochrome - as D Fosse wrote, greyscale ICC profiles do not have wide support

I hope this helps
neil barstow, colourmanagement net :: adobe forum volunteer:: co-author: 'getting colour right'
google me "neil barstow colourmanagement" for lots of free articles on colour management

D Fosse

Community Expert

Use Gray Gamma 2.2 or sGray as grayscale profile in Photoshop. Grayscale color management support outside Photoshop is very uncertain, and the PS default dot gain profile will usually not be correctly handled.

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