Different colors (saturated reds) between Develop & Library modules

[Soji_Okita]

Hello all,

On my new machine (mac mini m2 pro with ventura 13.2) I have color inconsistencies between Library & Develop modules. I use Lightroom 12.2

This happens only on pictures with very saturated reds.

The reds are much more saturated in the Develop modules than in the Library modules.

If I proof to Adobe RGB the colors in the Develop module then matches the one in the Library modules.

My monitor is wide gamut and calibrated with an i1 sensor and DisplayCAL.

Some notes:

- I checked with GPU on/off -> no change

- I checked with some other monitor profiles like -> some have consistent colors between modules (Adobe RGB, sRGB), some not (Display P3 / Wide Gamut RGB / The generic Dell u2713h / all the profiles made by DisplayCal).

Playing the secondary window and virtual copies I managed to get the 2 color rendering at the same time (see attachment).

I can share the example picture (original DNG) with very saturated red (concert lighting) for which the difference is particularly visible - I tried to attach it here but it was refused.

On my old computer (windows 10 PC) the colors are similar between modules (and close to the colors I get on Library module).

I've used Ligthroom for years but I'm pretty new on MacOS so I have no clue what can cause the problem.

It's not a real blocker because most pictures don't have over-saturated reds and most of the time the processing will tone down the saturation - but this probably shows that there is something wrong somewhere and I'd want to have this fixed if possible...

[richardplondon · Accepted solution]

I believe what you see in Library module is cached previews saved for AdobeRGB colour gamut.

In the case of Develop, the full capabilities of your display and its colour management should get used - the internal LrC working space in which the image is being processed, having a very wide gamut itself.

So if saturated hues are present which go beyond the ability of AdobeRGB to express - and if your monitor can display such hues - a difference is to be expected between the modules in that respect. There are also slight differences in the appearance of sharpening, and of noise / detail pixel scaling 

[Soji_Okita]

Thanks for your answer.

This make sense -> when I compare my monitor profile with Adobe RGB there is some additional space in the reds (I'm not sure it's perfectly true but that's what the color profile says -> I'll try a calibration with another software to be sure).

On my old computer I used the same monitor (Dell u2713h) but with hardware calibration, but thanks to Dell there is not way to do a hardware calibration on a mac so I use software calibration.

So this may explain that I've never experienced this before.

Anyway, having color outside Adobe RGB is going to be problematic at some point (for printing or web export) so I'll continue handling it this way:

- softproof to Adobe RGB

- if any visible difference, change the settings

- once the difference is minor, I consider it as OK.

As said above, this happens only in very specific conditions, most pictures show no visible difference in rendering.

I thought this was a bug - I'm pleased to see that it's not.

Thanks again 🙂