Color Space Issues Again

Hi all.

I'm sincerely hoping for support in alleviating my headache. 

Back in November I was having issues with a Photoshop export displaying incorrect colors IN PHOTOSHOP when placed on top of the originating file.

Perhaps my communication was poor, though I am more inclined to believe that it was a case of, "it ain't what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you know for sure that just ain't so."

Several people attempting to help were insisting that it was because my monitor wasn't calibrated correctly or I wasn't looking in a color managed app.. even after I explained that doesn't make any sense because I'm looking at the exported picture after bringing it back into Photoshop on the same monitor in a program with the same color management. 😆

After a week, finally someone paid attention and decided to do their own test with my image and sure enough using the tool to measure the RGB values, they saw there was indeed a discrepancy and it turned out there was a bug in Photoshop that my observation of the color difference had alerted them to.

Photoshop was converting files when it shouldn't have been and I guess the air got reported. You can see it in my other posts and I'll link it below if you care to have a headache.

Now, the backstory is important because I'm having issues again and I very much appreciate it when people are willing to experience something that seems familiar for the completely new and novel experience it is. 

Currently I am getting a photo ready for my printer as it is running in a promotion in my store soon.

First I imported the digital negative (dng) into Lightroom where I made the basic adjustments. I then selected to further edit in Photoshop where I simply placed my signature in the lower left corner. I understand I can add a watermark upon export from lightroom, though I prefer to play with certain images a bit in Photoshop just to see if I'm missing something; changing rooms moving to a new environment etc will make things stand out that weren't visible before.

When I finished with my editing in Photoshop I saved it as a Photoshop document. The entire time I've been working in prophoto RGB. 

Upon accessing the PSD (the photo now having been further edited by Photoshop) in Lightroom, I do a final look over and then choose to export the photo.

The settings requested by my printing company are for a PNG file in the sRGB color space. 

The reason for this is because their AI software immediately creates mock-ups of the image I upload in different print mediums and with frames etc so that I have digital assets for marketing. They're also displayed on the website of my printing company and of course, srgb for the win.

Further, since it is not uncommon for them to find something else to make an adjustment on, I send them 16-bit files rather than take the chance of them creating holes in an 8-bit file.

So those are my settings in the export dialog from Lightroom classic. I have chosen a PNG 300 DPI in the srgb color space.

Upon investigating the exported photo, my media info program is telling me it is in the RGBA color space and if I open this newly exported photo into Photoshop Photoshop tells me it is in RGB. 

I love to learn. I come from learner space. I hate being wrong and the best way to shift to right when I find that I am wrong, is to simply admit it. 

So I very much appreciate new information and anyone who can tactfully point out my error.

Having now gone through the entire process several times transferring the photo from lightroom as a raw dng in prophoto RGB color space to edit in Photoshop, preserving those settings, then choosing to save it as a psd and access it again (the new saved version) in Lightroom to export as srgb in a PNG container, I've narrowed it down to:

A. I have an insufficient understanding of the limitations of the PNG container (as in I know you can't tag CMYK on a PNG but maybe there's more like maybe it can't be 16 bits but I'm going to have to Google that I'm pretty sure that's not the case and that wouldn't answer the question of why selecting srgb in my export is giving me a converted rgba file.)

B. The people at Adobe are attempting to make color science useless by not following standards, randomly retagging or converting stuff (as was the error we discovered with my last major challenge), or otherwise adding massive confusion and variation to a science that is hard enough when everything IS working.

😆

For real though.. it's not just Adobe. I'm beginning to think no one understands color science really. There's little agreement, no absolute standard, and for what standards there are, most apps and devices ignore them while others inadvertantly f them up.

Perhaps most people cannot see a minor hue or luminance variance. I'm not neurotypical. The gift that lets me sing with perfect pitch also lets me see when a painting on the wall is 1 mm askew and I've recently discovered I have greater sensitivity to hue shifts than the average person (as evidenced by not one other professional photographer being able to see the difference in the colors with my last challenge while it was glaringly obvious to me.)

As usual, I'm a bit long-winded.

I appreciate your patience. I appreciate your dedication. I appreciate your support.

Even if your suggestion or advice isn't the peace that directly solves the issue, it's all about being in motion.

You could be doing something else but instead you're here helping me and others.

So props on that.

In summary

Why the fudk are my 16-bit srgb PNG files being tagged rgba by Lightroom? 😆✌️💚

Here is the readout from MediaInfo.

You will have to trust that on the export dialog box I am correctly setting 16 bits, png, and srgb for color space because I don't feel like going in and taking a screenshot, pasting it in Photoshop editing it saving it as the right size and uploading it to post here. 😆

General

Complete name : F:\Pictures\NewPicLocation For Web Share\Ore BnW Test AGAIN (1 of 1).png

Format : PNG

Format/Info : Portable Network Graphic

File size : 296 MiB

Image

Format : PNG

Format/Info : Portable Network Graphic

Compression : Deflate

Width : 10 897 pixels

Height : 6 123 pixels

Color space : RGBA

Bit depth : 16 bits

Compression mode : Lossless

Stream size : 296 MiB (100%)

It is 3:27pm where I live in Michigan and I've been working on this since 9pm last night. 😮

I am going to go get a couple hours of sleep at least and I look forward to seeing who's replied when I return to the waking world.

I've also attached an 8bit RGBA tagged 8bit PNG so you can see what you're helping me with. ✌️

And as an aside, if you have experience printing on HD metal, I wonder if it's a good format for black and white or what your preferred medium is for black and white photography.