Color Problems with CS4 Upgrade

Are you sure you have Photoshop's color settings set to preserve embedded profiles?

I thought I just posted this but apparently not. I am using a Mac. I could also, and will re-calibrate both monitors. Again, if I open the same image in cs3 and then again in cs4, and display them on the monitor at the same time they are different (very different). In addition acr and cs4 are definitely set to the same color space yet opening an image from acr to cs4 on the same monitor shows a big difference. It's really very puzzling, and I've got to believe its something simple. Tomorrows another day. Thanks for your help.

I think there were some issues in the Windows version of Photoshop CS3 dealing with multiple monitors and getting the correct ICC profiles for them in all cases, which were resolved in CS4.

I would make sure that both of your monitors are correctly calibrated, and you don't have a bad monitor profile causing you problems.

sRGB. As close as I can tell all of the settings (at least related to color settings) are the same in CS3 and CS4. If I have the same image opened in both versions of photoshop, and on the monitor at the same time, and there drastically different there has to be something set wrong, but I have no idea where to go from here.

What color settings do you have set in Photoshop? (If it is "Monitor Color" then that is your problem).

Again thanks for the response. Both of the color spaces (CS3 and CS4) were set to sRGB - I have changed the color spaces in ACR, and PS between sRGB, Adobe RGB, and ProPhoto. I can see the differences in the images on the monitor, however even when matched, or I do have it the use imbedded profile selected, when it is opened in PS CS4 its just a huge change.

It is most likely NOT a monitor profile problem since any monitor profile should be in effect for CS3, CS4, and ACR.

What IS likely the problem is a mis-match in working color space. You probably have a different working colorspace set in CS4 as compared to CS3 or you have the other color settings set in such as way so that CS3 automatically adapts and CS4 doesn't.

Here is what you need to check:
You need to check Edit>Color Settings... in both CS3 and CS4. If you want them to behave the same, they should be set the same. Your working colorspace is a matter of preference. The most common are sRGB, AdobeRGB, and ProPhoto. If you have no idea what I am talking about and most of your images are either displayed online, sent via email to friends and family, or printed at the local drugstore then sRGB is probably a good choice. As you have time to learn about colorspace, you can try others.

I usually use "Preserve Embedded Profiles" for the Profiles section of the color settings and I put the checkmarks in all the "Ask When" options of the Color Settings. That way, PS always reminds me if there is a mis-match coming into PS.

Now you need to check which colorspace ACR is using when it does its raw development. If you look under the image in the ACR editing window, you will see a line of blue, underlined text. Click on that and you can set what colorspace will be used by ACR to develop images. Normally, you will want to make this colorspace match your working colorspace in PS but if you set up the color settings in PS as I mentioned above, you don't have to necessarily. Using the settings above, if you happen to generate an image from ACR in the ProPhoto colorspace and your PS working space is set to sRGB, PS will prompt you to make a decision. You can then decide if you want to use the colorspace embedded in the incoming image (ProPhoto)or the default working space you had previously chosen for PS (sRGB).

If colorspace issues are new to you, they can be kind of confusing at first. You may just want to set both PS and ACR to sRGB and use that for now.

Thanks for the response I did change the default camera profile as you suggested (changed to ACR4.6). The image does show a subtle change in ACR, but still a huge change when its opened. Perhaps a better way to explain my problem is this. When I open an image with CS3 PS it looks great. The same image opened in CS4 PS looks dark and red. I have two monitors, and have only calibrated the LACIE - where does a given version of photoshop pick up the monitor ICC profile, and could it be that the two different versions of photoshop are utilizing a different ICC profile?

The default camera profile changed to "Adobe Standard" with Camera Raw 5.2. If you don't like it, change the default back.