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lukas__m_
lukas__m_
Participant
August 11, 2018
Question

Lightroom 7.4 - Exported pictures look different to the preview

  • August 11, 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 3132 views

I was editing some raw pictures I took of the stars and noticed, that the exports look different. I tried to export it into jpg and tiff, but they never looked the same as in the preview in Lightroom.

I also tried to overshoot the colors to figure out, which changes won't get taken and it looks like "Highlights", "Shadows", "Whites" and "Blacks" get completly ignored in the export.

I also tried to change the color profile to ProPhoto and that looked even worse - also when I made sure the same settings are applied in photoshop it never looked the same as in the preview.

When changing tabs from "Library" to "Develop" the preview picture changes significant too.

For trying a different approach, I downloaded the new Lightroom CC but the results were also bad.

I'm using Lightroom Classic 7.4 on a Windows 10 Pro (1803).

This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

J
Community Expert
Jao vdLCommunity Expert
Community Expert
August 12, 2018

Oh and another subtlety is what color space the scaling is done in for displaying the image. If this is done in linear (i.e. luminosity scale), you get an ostensibly more correct image, but almost all viewers do this scaling and averaging in a gamma-corrected space (that's what they have available in the jpeg file so this takes less math!) and what you get with noisy areas in this case is that you get a different emphasis than in the linear space (typically birghter)

lukas__m_
lukas__m_Author
Participant
August 12, 2018

However, there is one thing I would like to point out:

I took similar pictures at the beginning of the year (also stars) and there the export looked exactly the way it was supposed to in Lightroom.

I opened the pictures again with IrfanView to make sure it looks good.

This is why I am a bit persistent and somehow thinking of a bug within lightroom.

Per Berntsen
Community Expert
Per BerntsenCommunity Expert
Community Expert
August 12, 2018

I was editing some raw pictures I took of the stars and noticed, that the exports look different.

What kind of difference? Is there a difference in noise or sharpness? Noise and sharpening has to be applied and evaluated at 1:1 view – any other view will be inaccurate and misleading because of image scaling. So you need to apply noise reduction and sharpening at 1:1 in Lightroom, and then view the exported image at 1:1 (100%) as well.

As for viewing exported images, follow the advice given by https://forums.adobe.com/people/Jao%20vdL

The only color managed native application on Windows 10 is the Windows Photo Viewer, not to be confused with the Photos app, which is not color managed. Also don't use the File explorer, Paint, Edge and Windows Explorer to view images – they're not color managed.

Irfanview​ is a free, color managed image viewer (you need to turn on color management under Settings).

You can also use Adobe Bridge, which is included in your subscription.

When changing tabs from "Library" to "Develop" the preview picture changes significant too.

If the difference involves noise and sharpening, you have to view the image at 1:1 in both Library and Develop - they use different previews. If it is a color difference, it is an indication of a defective monitor profile, probably delivered by a Windows update.

Try setting the monitor profile to sRGB (use Adobe RGB if you have a wide gamut monitor).

Go to Control panel > Color management, add the sRGB profile, and set it as default. Make sure Use my settings for this device is checked.

If this fixes the problem, you should ideally calibrate the monitor with a hardware calibrator.

    lukas__m_
    lukas__m_Author
    Participant
    August 12, 2018

    Thank you for your answers, Jao VDL and Per Berntsen.

    I tried changing the color of the display, but it did not change it everywhere, even though I used IrfanView. I also sent the same picture to my friend which has an EIZO color calibrated screen and he had the same issues with that specific picture.

    When looking at both pictures 1:1, they actually look the same.

    Regarding the difference: I would say that it is noise, but it actually just shows some stars better in the preview, here is a picture:

    When looking at it 1:1:

    Are there any other steps I could try?

    J
    Community Expert
    Jao vdLCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 12, 2018

    No this is something you can't do anything about. This happens in noisy images because of simple math and is unavoidable. What is happening is that different viewers use different scaling algorithms to show you the image. Some scaling algorithms emphasize noise, others do the opposite and simply average neighboring pixels. Many scaling algorithms try to strike some happy medium between the two but there is no accepted standard. This is done because the resolution of your display is lower than the actual image and the viewer has to scale down in order to show your image. Lightroom uses one algorithm, your viewer another.

    If you want control over how your image looks viewed on a display, export at a smaller size (e.g. 1200 pixels on the long side for example) and use a degree of output sharpening. Typically medium display will give good results. If the viewer doesn't have to scale, you will see the image exactly like exported.

    J
    Community Expert
    Jao vdLCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 12, 2018

    Make sure you view the exported images in a color managed application. Windows picture viewer is to always color managed and internet explorer definitely isn't color managed correctly. Also make sure you calibrate your screen using a hardware calibrator.

    If you use a color managed application, it will not matter at all what color space you use. They will all look identical. If you don't use color managed apps your images will always look different except if you make windows assume that your display is perfectly sRGB (remove any profile you see associated with your display in your screen's properties panel). That will ensure every app including Lightroom will show the wrong color.

    Bottom line: calibrate your screen and only use color managed apps. On windows you really have to make sure you do as very few apps are color managed. On Macs basically everything is color managed.

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