When I edit an image from InDesign in Photoshop and save it the image color is totally different

[sacdaddy0951]

I have a document in InDesign of just images. When I use the "edit with Photoshop" feature, lately the color adjusments don't show up in the image back in InDesign; Even if I delete the image in InDesign and relink to the new image, the color stays the way it was before the changes. also the thumbnails in Bridge are a completely different color when you open the image in Camera Raw or Photoshop. AAny help.

[Randy Hagan]

Please excuse me for starting with the obvious, but it's so common that I hear it all the time, and have been occasionally guilty of it myself:

Are you saving your handiwork to the exact, placed file after doing your color correction? And are you doing your corrections directly in CameraRAW? In either case, you're not going to get the results you're expecting, because you're likely not transferring your corrections to the saved file that you've placed within InDesign.

As you're dealing with Camera RAW files, or DNG files, they're different files than the processed and compressed JPEG files you're getting out of the end of the process and placing into InDesign. Photoshop can read that relationship (the RAW file processed through ACR and the resultant JPG at the back end of Photoshop processing/output. But InDesign can't.

You can find out if your updated files are "taking" with InDesign by modifying one and updating it. Once you're done with the fix(es), open your Links panel and check the Creation Date: and Modified: date and time hacks. If you find the Modified: information doesn't show a time hack just seconds before, you're caught in a version control loop of modifying your RAW/DNG file and not applying it to your existing, placed JPEG file through Photoshop.

When you 're doing your work in Camera Raw and saving the file, you're updating your RAW/DNG file. In your Save Options, you need to specifically save your updated file in JPEG format. And, by default, changing that RAW file and opening it in Photoshop is set up to create a brand new JPEG file. So after you confirm that you're getting the color work you want from your CameraRAW corrections in a JPEG file, you not only have to open it in Photoshop, but use the File>Save As... menu command to select your original, saved file and replace your new corrected image for the one you already saved and placed within InDesign. It's the only way to be sure. That will ensure you're updating the file you've placed into InDesign. I know this from unfortunate experience, because I've been caught in this loop before myself.

Adobe engineered the workflow to, at all costs, protect your original RAW/DNG file. By turning out a copy of the original file every time you save (as) in ACR, the original file is maintained. That's where your version control issues come in. You've got to save the new Photoshop JPEG over the existing, placed JPEG to make the updated link. Working to set up your images in Photoshop and using the File>Save As... menu command to save your updates over the top will maintain the link every time.

Hope this helps,

Randy

[Scott Falkner]

As well as the advice given also check the layer options for the placed image. You might have the adjustment or edit on a layer htat is hidden in InDesign. This is not done in InDesign’s Layers panel but by right-clicking on the image and selecting Object Layer Options. Here you can pick which layers in the linked file will show.

[rob day]

What is the color mode, and format of the placed files? Do you save the images with a color profile embedded, and if so is InDesign using the profile? The Link Info panel will show an embedded profile, if there’s no profile Link Info will list the profile as Document RGB or Document CMYK. And is the images’s Status listed as OK after the correction?

[rob day]

Also, you can’t directly place a RAW file, but you can open RAW files as Smart Objects, which gives you access to the Camera RAW contols in a PSD, which can then be placed in InDesign. The Smart Object approach lets you avoid saving out an extra file for corrections and placing.

In your Camera RAW Preferences check Open in Photoshop as Smart Object. Then when you click Open Object you‘ll get a PSD with a Smart Object layer

Click the Smart Object icon to access and edit the Camera RAW controls:

The PSD with the Camera RAW smart layer can be placed directly in InDesign, and if you Edit Original the layer can be edited using the Camera Raw controls:

The Bridge, PSD, and ID color matches:

[sacdaddy0951]

First off, Thanks to everyone who replied.

Since this document is for the web the files are jpegs. I edit them in Photoshop just because on some I need to do selections. Originally I shot RAW and Jpeg and used the RAW files in Camera Raw and saved them out as jpegs. Then I set up the document using the image place script in InDesign and then packaged the document in InDesign. All of the problems I have had are with the placed jpegs in the InDesign folder. I use the edit with Photoshop feature in InDesign when I need to edit any of the placed images and save them back to the folder and relink the file if needed, and after the edits the changes show in InDesign but after I re-save the InDesign document and export it as a PDF, some of changes I just made like removing a yellowish background and putting the image on a white background, show up again in the PDF. I can't figure it out. It's very strange and frustrating. Also the thumbnails in Bridge have entirely different color hues than when you open the file in Camera Raw or Photosohp and some are even different when you place a file that has been color corrected in Camera Raw or Photoshop, into an InDesign document. I've made sure I'm using the same colorspace in Photoshop and InDesign but I think I may have to re-calibrate my monitor.

[rob day]

I've made sure I'm using the same colorspace in Photoshop and InDesign but I think I may have to re-calibrate my monitor.

But do the JPEGs you are placing have an embedded profile? Can you share a Package files sample via your CC account?

[rob day]

If the placed files are not saved with an embedded profile it would not be unusual to get inconsistent color previews between applications even with synchronized Color Settings. Color Settings handle the color management for future documents and don’t necessarily color manage existing docs.

Here is an RGB image saved with no profile previewing 3 different ways between PS, ID, and Bridge. Bridge displays untagged RGB images as Adobe RGB, Photoshop uses the current Color Setting’s Working Space when there is no profile embedded, and InDesign uses the containing document’s profile assignment (Edit>Assign Profiles...)

[rob day]

Since this document is for the web the files are jpegs....

I re-save the InDesign document and export it as a PDF.

Also, you don’t need to place JPEGs even when the PDF export is for web viewing—PSDs, TIFFs, PNGs, and JPEGs will all get converted the same way on export depending on your settings in the Compression, and Output tabs. You can spec a JPEG type of compression, but the image pixels inside of a PDF don’t have a file format.

For web PDFs you’ll want to flatten transparency and convert the color to sRGB—the Export>Output tab should be something like this: