Crazy Color Shift between "Library" and "Develop" Module

[JaredDeValk]

I hope you all are staying healthy and at home!

I recenty calibrated my monitor using x-rite software/hardware (First time doing this). However, now the colors between Lightroom “Library” and “Develop” inside Lightroom are completely different and I can not export the “Develop” module version? Color settings are not my wheelhouse, by any means, but I have always been able to correct minor issues – this is a major issue – Any insight woul dbe greatly appreciatted.

The first time I experienced a similar issue with color discrepancy between "Library " and “Develop” mode was after I upgraded OS to Catalina 10.15.4 – apparently Mac OS auto selects “HDR” in the display settings.

Thanks,
Jared

[Akash Sharma]

Hi Jared,

Sorry that you're seeing a huge shift in color between Library and Develop module while working in Lightroom.

The Library module and the second window use different color spaces and methods of rendering image previews than the Develop module. To speed up the curation process inside the Library module, pre-rendered image previews are displayed. These previews are lossy compressed 8-bit JPEGs in Adobe RGB. Depending on the photo, some loss of image details and color differences might happen.

Previews in the Library module and the second window are displayed using the Adobe RGB color space. In the Develop module, by default, Lightroom displays previews using the ProPhoto RGB color space.  

These differences, sometimes, make images look different.

Similar discussion with detailed info: https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/lightroom-classic-color-changes-drastically-f...

Thanks,

Akash

[JohanElzenga]

When you create a color profile in the XRite software, make sure that it is a version V2 one, not V4.

[JaredDeValk]

Will do -- thank you.  

Jared

[D Fosse]

Yes, this is a problem with the monitor profile. Rerun it and check all settings in i1Profiler. Version 2 and matrix-based are safe settings; version 4 and/or table-based (LUT) are often problematic.

Akash, there is no way that the different color spaces in Library vs Develop can cause this. First of all, in a color managed application any color space will be represented correctly. Within gamut limits there will not be any difference. If there is, there is a defective profile, or a defective profile conversion.

Secondly, the difference between Adobe RGB and (linear) ProPhoto is for all practical purposes outside the capabilities of any known monitor on the market. A wide gamut monitor clips everything outside Adobe RGB. A DCI-P3 unit is in theory capable of some colors outside Adobe RGB, but to a very limited degree.

Of course both Library and Develop end up in the same monitor profile. But since the source profiles are different, the actual conversion, the math, is different in the two cases. That's why a bad profile can affect one but not the other.

[JaredDeValk]

Thanks -- I will give this a try based on the V2 input.

The only thing that has worked thus far is the shut "Off" the Graphic accelrator or the decrepency is quite severe.  I have been working with Lightroom for years -- not an expert by any means, but the teo were not similar at all -- very odd.

I will recalibrate and see what that does and report back.  Many thanks for your response.

Jared

[JaredDeValk]

Update: 4/2 @ 3:35 PM EST

I ran a new color profile -- under V2 and turned the graphic card accelerator on and wound up with the same issues as yesterday.  The Develop module show super rich colors and contrast, while the Library looks washed out. I went to take a screen capture of the Develop image and as I was screen capturing it the screen captured part looked more like the Library version versus the Develop.  Perhaps this is a "Newbie to color profiles" error?  Develop will just show the image much better and you can not export it looking that good?  Just seems odd -- any further insight would be greatly appreciated.

Please note: If shut off the graphic accelerator things library and Develop look pretty much identical.

Thanks,

Jared

[D Fosse]

OK. Then it's a buggy video driver, possibly in combination with a marginal profile.

These are two sides to the same coin. With GPU on, the profile conversion from source profile (Adobe RGB/linear TRC ProPhoto) and into the monitor profile, is performed by the GPU.

With GPU off, it's shifted back to the CPU in the traditional way.

Either way, one of those profile conversions is failing when done in the GPU. Whether it's the profile or the driver can be hard to tell - a buggy driver can throw a marginal profile off, or a bad profile can throw a buggy driver off.

So either run with GPU off, or see if a driver update can fix it. Often with video drivers it can take a few versions to fix any given bug.

A side by side screenshot might help. Bad monitor profiles can sometimes have a "signature" in the form of excessive clipping in one channel.

With a good driver and a good monitor profile, this doesn't happen.

[JaredDeValk]

OK -- I went back to the drawing board and started over, thinking something has to still be wrong with the calibration process changed.  I turn the GPU back "ON" and then proceeed to run through the whole calibration process again, but this time using the x-rite software this time versus the Pallete Master Element software that was reccomended.  As the calibration process was doing it's thing (becasue it really is pretty easy to do), I noticed it was taking longer, to complete. After saving the newly-created custom profile, I am happy to report that the profile looks great in Library, Develop and Export to Photoshop with the GPU setting "ON".  I am chalking this one up to good ole' "User Error" after being misinformed about what hardware/ software calibration combo to use. Thank you all for your feedback -- and stay healthy!

Jared

[D Fosse]

Ah...BenQ Palette Master...you should have said so to begin with. The BenQ software is well known to be full of bugs and problems. This is exactly the kind of problem that has been reported over and over here in the forums.

That software appears to be more or less useless.

[JaredDeValk]

Yeah -- suprising, becasue I love thier hardware, but needless to say the software is no longer installed on my computer.

Thanks again,

Jared