Color issue when getting a new computer

[Rcoolen17]

Hi there, I hope I’m posting in the correct place.

I recently got a new to me iMac (2020 27” inch) and my colors aren’t coming out right in PS which is throwing off my whole editing flow.

I have some actions that I use & they don’t look right when using them anymore. I’ve tried deleting them & re-adding them which hasn’t helped.

I was using a 2014 iMac before which I used since 2014, but unfortunately I no longer have it so I have no clue what the color profile settings were or anything.

Does anyone know what the best color profile is to be on? PS is currently on sRGB and the computer is in Apple RGB. I’ve tried switching the computer to sRGB to match which hasn’t changed anything.

When using the action I am using, it used to give me great skin tones, it would down the greens & up the oranges a bit, but now it just turns everything very green.
I have a wedding gallery I'm trying to get through & this is just totally killing my workflow & it's very frustrating. I could get the colors to where they need to be manually but when I have 300+ photos to edit this is not ideal.

Thanks in advance.  

[NB, colourmanagement net]

@Rcoolen17 this is a good place for colour appearance questions.

Ds display screens can differ significantly unless calibrated and profiled well and set to a reasonable brightness.

There is no BEST colour profile for a mac screen - each screen has its own characteristics a nd ideally needs a custom calibration and profile which is done with a device like ther Calibrite I!i1 display range. With traditional type LCD Apple displays the default ICC display profile option in your system would be "Apple LCD". It doesn’t need to "match" the Photoshop profile you use [of sRGB], the colour management system uses both display and image ICC profiles to provide an accurate preview. 

Is your iMac screen one of the new Apple display types called XDR?

They are very bright out of the box and a fair bit more complex to set up and calibrate - but it can be done well with some patience and a good sensor with suitable software.

I am UK based, but work in collaboration with basICColor in Germany who have written a specific manual for using their basICColor Display software with XDR displays. I have cleunts who have tested it with good success.

Here's some info about the reference modes of XDR type displays from Apple

Contact me via my website if you'd like to read that manual. 

I hope this helps
neil barstow, colourmanagement net - adobe forum volunteer - co-author: 'getting colour right'
google me "neil barstow colourmanagement" for lots of free articles on colour management
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[D Fosse]

Does anyone know what the best color profile is to be on? PS is currently on sRGB and the computer is in Apple RGB.

By @Rcoolen17

The best color profile is one that is there, embedded in the file.

The PS color settings aren't important. The embedded document profile will always override it. Always make sure the color profile is embedded.

I don't know what you mean by "the computer is in Apple RGB", but if by that you mean the monitor profile, then that's very wrong. Only one profile is correct as monitor profile, and that's the one that describes the monitor's actual and current response. If it doesn't do that, Photoshop can't display correctly. The monitor profile is a map, and like any map, it has to correspond to the actual terrain.

That's why people use calibrators. It measures your display and writes a monitor profile based on that measurement.

Note that there are two profiles in this chain: the embedded document profile, and the monitor profile at system level. Both need to be correct and accurate.

[Lumigraphics]

Don't use Apple RGB for the display. Get a hardware calibrator if possible, but there should be a "Color LCD" or "iMac LCD" display profile. That is the best to use if you don't have a calibrator.

The Intel iMacs do not have an HDR screen, so that isn't an issue. They are pretty good for color fidelity and decent for uniformity. They are Retina (high resolution) and listed as P3 wide color gamut so you can work use AdobeRGB as your working profile (it will be reasonably well covered) if sRGB is too limiting.

One thing to watch out for is proper scaling. Most applications are scaled when you use a scaled resolution, but Photoshop is not. This means at default screen resolution, you have to set Photoshop to display at 200% to get the effect of 100% resolution on a non-Retina display.

[NB, colourmanagement net]

@Lumigraphics Yep I agree with that " Don't use Apple RGB for the display. Get a hardware calibrator if possible, but there should be a "Color LCD" or "iMac LCD" display profile. That is the best to use if you don't have a calibrator."

Good to know that Intel iMacs do not have an HDR screen, I do realise that it’s a 2020 and that's an Intel machine, it seems - with a retina display. Nice kit.

When a display 'Apple XDR' then it all gets more complex @Rcoolen17 please ignore my XDR comments. 

It's right that you'd be best with a calibrator, but might get w away with the default "Color LCD" or "iMac LCD" profiles. 

You may be in the rare but unfortunate situation I have occasionally come across where a user starts calibrating, [or gets better calibrated new gear] and their old images just look wrong.

This can be because the old system was not set up correctly.

This is the very basis of colourmanagement, "device independence".  Any well calibrated and profiled device in the chain can be replaced with another well calibrated and profiled device and continuity image appearance will be achieved (within device capability of course) 

I hope this helps
neil barstow, colourmanagement net - adobe forum volunteer - co-author: 'getting colour right'
google me "neil barstow colourmanagement" for lots of free articles on colour management
Help others by clicking "Correct Answer" if the question is answered.
Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.

[Conrad_C]

I second the post that advises to not select Apple RGB as a display profile, because Apple RGB is a legacy profile that represents the type of CRT display that Apple was selling 30 years ago. Today, the only use for Apple RGB is as an embedded profile for old images edited on one of those old CRT displays.

If the iMac display has not been calibrated or profiled, I also agree that the default Apple profile for an iMac should be selected, and that is named either iMac or Color LCD.

sRGB should not be selected as the display profile for a 2020 iMac. The reason is that the display profile must represent the characteristics of the display in use, and the 2020 iMac display uses the Display P3 color gamut, not the sRGB color gamut.

sRGB and Adobe RGB are primarily device-independent spaces for editing. They can be selected as a display profile only if you are 100% certain that the display exactly matches one of those gamuts, but the 2020 iMac does not: For any Retina iMac released after 2015, the display gamut is P3.

So it’s OK for Photoshop to be set to sRGB for editing, but the display profile should be matched to the display (iMac, Color LCD, or a custom profile generated by display profiling software).