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A
Angelsix
Participant
June 23, 2023
Answered

JPG now opens in PE with blotchy sky

  • June 23, 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 564 views

    Yesterday I upgraded from Photoshop Elements [PE] 2018 to PE 2023.  I mostly use Irfanview [IV] for viewing and quick edits.  When I want to do something more, I open the file in PE.

    After installing PE 2023, I opened a pic (from 2003) in IV, and decided I liked it enough that I wanted to use 'perspective crop', so opened it in PE 2023.  To my surprise, the sky in the pic appeared very blotchy.  I'd never seen that difference between the two programs' display of a picture before.  When I saved the pic with PE 2023, the resulting pic retained that blotchiness even when viewed with IV.  I haven't yet deleted PE 2018, so tried the same with PE 2018 and got the same result as PE 2023.  Looking at the original pic in IV, I see some artifacts in the sky portion, but not nearly so distracting in the PE versions.  If PE showed the same view as IV, I could have quickly removed the sky artifacts with PE's tools, but in the PE version, it would be a much greater job.

   I'm hoping somebody can explain to me what's going on here and, more importantly, how to get the pic to be the same in PE as I see it in IV.  I've used PE for years, and never noticed any difference in how a pic displays.  This does make me think that PE 2023 and PE 2018 may use some shared files, so when I installed PE 2023 it updated some aspects for PE 2018.

   I'm attaching the original pic, and the pic as opened and saved by PE 2023 so, hopefully, you can quickly see what I'm talking about.

   Thanks for any insights.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer hatstead

    Please check your post. The images appear identical on my equipment.

    3 replies

    Greg_S.
    Community Expert
    Greg_S.Community Expert
    Community Expert
    June 24, 2023

    I don't have a known answer but perhaps Elements uses a more accurate file viewer than the other software.  Or perhaps it has something to do with the color space of the file. If the original file used a larger color gamut such as Adobe RGB but the file is being viewed in the sRGB color space, the number of colors available will be reduced and could result in a blotchy sky. 

     

    (I'm just throwing out spitballs here.)

      A
      AngelsixAuthor
      Participant
      June 30, 2023

      Thanks.  Yes, very possibly in being set up to do the clearest view of much higher res JPG files, Adobe has abandoned some older protocol for automatically smoothing JPG files that was needed in the early days of everyday digital photography.  It's weird that I can't figure some workaround so I could at least show people here how much nicer the pic looks with older viewers, and I tried various tricks to do that, all unsuccessfully.  Oh, well ....

      Greg_S.
      Community Expert
      Greg_S.Community Expert
      Community Expert
      June 24, 2023

      The latest photo you have posted is a very low resolution image - less than 1 MP.  It is therefore not surprising that it displays a good deal of noise or color banding.  I assume this is what you mean when you say blotchy.  If you are unhappy with the sky, you can easily replace it, using the Perfect Landscape Guided Edit.

       

       

      Note that the replacement sky is a much higher resolution than your photo and if you zoom in, the pixelation is not noticeable in the sky area:

        A
        AngelsixAuthor
        Participant
        June 24, 2023

        Thanks for your analysis.  Yes, it's low-res, from my first digital camera, in 2003.  However, that does not explain why it is blotchy (as your post shows) sometimes, but when I use other programs, it isn't.

         

         

        hatstead
        hatsteadCorrect answer
        Inspiring
        June 23, 2023

        Please check your post. The images appear identical on my equipment.

          A
          AngelsixAuthor
          Participant
          June 23, 2023

          So, the problem just gets weirder.  Yes, I get the same result when I click on them.  I'm attaching another copy of the one that, on my computer, does not look blotchy on my computer, but does look identically blotchy above, 

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