Photos are faded when printing from Lightroom but perfect when printed from Photoshop

[davidj61632793]

I used to use Aperture for photo management along with Photoshop for my editing. I've been away from photography for years (so forgotten a lot) but I recently started up again and now I'm using Lightroom Classic.

I have discovered that if I print a photo from Lightroom, it comes out rather faded (not a lot of color saturation and a bit darker. If I just "Edit" the photo in Photoshop and print from there, it comes out exactly as it should.

I don't understand what is wrong --- my monitor is calibrated (using Spyder5 Elite), the identical printer (Epson P900) and photo paper profiles (Epson Ultra Glossy 4x6) are set in both - color is being managed by the Lightroom or Photoshop, etc.

Any idea what I'm missing here (apart from growing insantity trying to troubleshoot this issue!) ?

Thanks in advance

[TheDigitalDog]

Start from scratch in LR and create a new user Print Template with every possible setting (for print driver and within LR's module) and try again. When printing with an Epson, always have the driver itself set for Presets: Default, NOT one you created and can use in Photoshop! ALL settings are stored in a template in LR, they all have to be correct meaning everything you can configure in the print driver outside a saved preset there:

 You should always test output using good color reference images designed for that task. The color reference images RGB values are such that they are set for output and are editing and display agnostic. Test the output this way and examine for the same color issues so we know it's not your image-specific issues causing the problems:
http://www.digitaldog.net/files/2014PrinterTestFileFlat.tif.zip

[davidj61632793]

I appreciate your respond and will look into this (and your book!). That said, as a novice user of Lightroom, I have never used any templates, all I did was define the profile, etc. But I'll give this a shot

[davidj61632793]

OK - I must still be missing something --- it's unclear to me how to create a new user print template with every possible setting. If I create a template, I just get, well, a new template. If I knew how to specify every possible setting properly, I probably wouldn't be having the issue. Photos still come out faded!

As for Photoshop, I've done nothing there other than specify the Epson printer and Epson Ultra Glossy paper.

[TheDigitalDog]

See:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/print-module-layouts-templates.html

Hugely powerful!

[davidj61632793]

Yes, I looked at that stuff -- it's clearly got all the options I need --- but none of this explains why my photos are faded when printed in Lightroom but not when printed from Photoshop (where I have not done any configuration either)

As far as I can tell, the purpose of these templates is to design the appropriate layout along with whatever settings you need for correct printing but since I don't know what are the right settings (as I don't know why the photos are faded only in Lightroom in the first place) these templates don't really help me much.

I would consider just completely resetting everything and starting from scratch but I don't want to lose the 14,000 or so photos that have already been imported and I don't trust that just resetting preferences will not screw up the catalog itself.

I think I'm going to have to try and hire a Lightroom consultant to help fix this issue.

[TheDigitalDog]

If you don't know the right settings to use, yeah, hire someone. 

If properly configured, print output from either PS or LR are going to be identical.

[davidj61632793]

Well, if I had known the right settings, I wouldn't have asked the question in the first place 🙂

I don't understand why Lightroom, using all defaults and just selecting the printer and paper profile would give a different result from Photoshop, again using all the defaults and just selecting the printer and paper profile.

[TheDigitalDog]

You seem to have the right settings for Photoshop.

But probably not for Lightroom Classic and I provided how the print templates work. And the Epson driver which differ if not correctly set in Lightroom Classic. 

---

@davidj61632793 wrote:

I don't understand why Lightroom, using all defaults and just selecting the printer and paper profile would give a different result from Photoshop, again using all the defaults and just selecting the printer and paper profile.

---

Because again, they are not a match, or they would produce the same results. And again, the configuration of templates in Lightroom Classic is a bit unique to that product and module, unlike Photoshop; everything you can possibly set with Printer Manages Color or Application Manages color, the print driver etc, are all part of the template. 

So again, jot down everything you feel is 'correct' in Photoshop; it's Print dialog and the Epson driver. 

Make sure a new, virgin Print Template is set up matching this as well, with the caveat in the driver Preset dropdown and maybe try again, with the color reference image discussed. 

[davidj61632793 · Accepted solution]

Well, for anybody else who runs into this issue, I solved the problem. Turns out that the "Color Management Profile" in Lightroom Classic was set to the MONITOR profile, not to the PRINTER profile.

I don't know anything about the internal format of these profiles but I would have thought that since Lightroom "knows" the printer that is being used, it might at least be able to detect/warn that the selected profile doesn't match the printer type.

That said, my thanks to everyone who took the time to respond to me.

[TheDigitalDog]

And as you were told why, the wrong profile was part of the print template! 

LR knows what you tell it. About profiles and every setting. Even when you tell it wrong. 🤔