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ryans97066424
Participating Frequently
February 26, 2022
Question

Export with Gray Gamma 2.2 Profile?

  • February 26, 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 6848 views

I'm working on a large project that is all black and white based and I want to export the files from LR in Gray Gamma 2.2 format. I've added the profile to propper folders but LR still does not give me this as an option.

Am I missing something?

If not, why would a basic feature like this not be included?

 

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    2 replies

    TheDigitalDog
    TheDigitalDog
    Inspiring
    February 26, 2022

    If you export as an RGB Working Space in a 2.2 gamma (as you MUST from from LR; it only deals with RGB), there will be no difference printing that or converting that to a single channel grayscale document. Which you must do in Photoshp which does support other color models. IOW; single channel grayscale 2.2 gamma, three channel RGB 2.2 gamma, the same with the addition of two more channels, a bigger document.

    IF you must export from LR, you must end up with RGB; convert to a single channel in Photoshop for a smaller document or print the RGB document; save difference.

    You can do this in high bit of course from Lightroom Classic.

    Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
    R
    ryans97066424Author
    Participating Frequently
    June 7, 2022

    Circling back on this. This is a feature in Camera RAW. I can export as 16bit grayscale without issue. If LR is truly a RAW processor this should be an option.

    R
    ryans97066424Author
    Participating Frequently
    June 7, 2022
    @ryans97066424 wrote:

    Circling back on this. This is a feature in Camera RAW. I can export as 16bit grayscale without issue. If LR is truly a RAW processor this should be an option.

     

    Actually no, ACR is using Photoshop to convert to grayscale or CMYK, LR can't since it's an RGB only processing engine. 

    LR is a true raw processor. That it isn't able to deal with anything but RGB data does not change that fact. 

     

    Now if you want to ask Adobe's LR team to consider revamping itself to handle conversions to grayscale and CMYK, you file a feature request and sit back, hope a lot of users upvote and maybe they will. 

     

    https://www.lightroomqueen.com/send-bug-report-feature-request-adobe/


    "But these go to 11"

    "it's a feature, not something we overlooked"

     

    Sure, it's working in RGB, but that's no reason it can't / shouldn't export to grayscale if one desired.

    LR handles all of my 16bit .tif  grayscale files perfectly, even if it's doing so in RBG internally.

    This is about exporting files.

     

     

     

    Per Berntsen
    Community Expert
    Per BerntsenCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 26, 2022

    Lightroom is RGB based, and although you can import greyscale files, exports can only be RGB.

    If you want greyscale, you'll have to convert the files in Photoshop.

    Note that greyscale profiles are pretty much unsupported outside Photoshop, and if you're exporting jpgs for screen viewing (or Tiff/PSD for other purposes), and converting them to Greyscale, they may not display correctly in web browsers, image viewers or other applications.

    Also note that converting the color mode of a jpg and resaving it is not recommended. Jpg is a final format, not meant for editing and resaving, which will affect image quality to some extent.

     

    One might think that greyscale jpgs would be smaller than RGB jpgs, but they are practically the same size, because the RGB channels are identical, and will compress as if there was only one channel.

    The two jpgs below were created using Save As in Photoshop, with quality set to 10.

     

     

    RGB, 571 kb

     

     

    Greyscale, 554 kb

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      ryans97066424Author
      Participating Frequently
      February 26, 2022

      I'm a proffesional printer and export 16bit .tif files.

      I use grayscale files ALL the time with my RIP software.

      I have thousands of images that are in grayscale so these little things add up over time.

      Saving files as uncopmress 16bit .tif in Grayscale rather than RGB also saves lots of storage space and reduces the time needed to upload files to my cloud backup.

      It's a minor extra step, just anoying that I have to export all the images, and use an action script to covert them to the needed profile when it could just be something easy Adobe could/should have as a standard option.

       

       

       

      Per Berntsen
      Community Expert
      Per BerntsenCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      February 26, 2022

      I understand. I'm not a professional printer, but I print all my own work, and occasionally for other photographers.

      I have hundreds of scans of black & white negatives saved as greyscale 16-bit tiffs with ZIP compression.

      After dust removal and rough adjustments, I import them in Lightroom for further editing.

      For printing I export 8-bit tiffs, that are then converted to greyscale in Photoshop, and printed using Advanced black & white in the Epson printer driver.

       

      You can, if you wish, create a feature request for the ability to export in greyscale (Conversation type: Idea), and I'd be happy to vote for it.

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