Color Management question

[Trains1985]

Hi all,

When I look at my jpeg photos on my display they appear as they did when I took them, using my SLR camera, except in Photoshop CC. I've attached an example of this (Photoshop on Left and Window's 10's "Photos" on Right). Many of them have a slight difference (in saturation, I think), if not something similar.

Does Adobe have a custom ICC profile of its own, etc.? If so, how do I revise it, so my photos portray themselves the way they do in non-Adobe applications?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Sand Patch

[Mike_Gondek]

Yes Adobe uses the working spaces defined under edit >> color settings.

WIthout knowing what app you originally viewed the photo in and on what OS, cannot help any further.

[Trains1985]

Thank you! I adjusted the settings, and I was able to make my photos identical.

[D Fosse]

Actually it uses the embedded document profile, not the working space, which is just a default for missing profiles.

[D Fosse]

Do not change anything in Photoshop's Color Settings!

Photoshop is color managed and uses your monitor profile to display the image correctly. Assuming your monitor profile is accurate, which requires the use of a calibrator such as a Spyder, i1 Display, ColorMunki etc.

Windows Photos does not support color management at all. It ignores your monitor profile and just sends the original numbers straight through. It is never entirely correct. It can not be trusted and can not be used as a reference.

It is possible to temporarily disable color management in Photoshop with Proof > Monitor RGB. Then it will mimic the behavior of a non-color managed app like Photos.

Arbitrarily changing color settings, without knowing precisely what you're doing and why, will very quickly get you into real trouble and you risk permanently damaging your files. In particular, never set color management policies to "off", and never set working RGB to Monitor RGB.

[Trains1985]

Very good to know!

I use a color-critical monitor, made by NEC, and calibrate it every by-weekly. In respect to making the images more consistent, I found that manually changing individual file's "Assigned Profile" default setting from 'Working RGB: sRGB IEC61966-2.1' to just "Profile: 'Adobe RGB (1998)'" seemed to resolve the issue entirely, regardless on what non-Adobe app I compared each photo to.

In other words, I DID NOT change anything in the official "Color Settings" menue but the "Assign Profile" icon.

Sand Patch

[D Fosse]

No, don't do that! You're breaking the whole color management chain.

Why do you think Windows Photos is more accurate than Photoshop?

Are you using Spectraview? Just leave everything alone. Don't change anything. Don't do anything. Photoshop is right, the others are wrong.

Oh, and don't trust the camera LCD. Camera manufacturers boost saturation and contrast whenever they can get away with it. They sell more cameras that way.

[Trains1985]

Okay! And yes, I do use SpectraViewII.

[D Fosse]

OK, you're good to go. An NEC Spectraview is a splendid monitor with a splendid calibrator, and with that setup you can trust Photoshop absolutely and unconditionally.

This will work out of the box. There's nothing you need to do. Don't assign incorrect profiles.

Applications without color management, such as Windows Photos, will not display correctly. Stop trusting them.

[Trains1985]

So, do I need to completely dismiss what my camera is showing me, and abide what I anticipate Photoshop's version is going to look like, when I take the photos?

Sand Patch

[Per Berntsen]

Ignore what you see on the back of the camera, it's not an accurate representation of the image.

Trust what you see in Photoshop, and stop using Photos, it's not color managed, and will display wrong colors.

Instead, use a third party color managed image viewer, like FastStone – free for personal use.

Before you start using it, go to Settings > CMS, and make sure settings are like below. Then restart FastStone, and you're good to go.

[D Fosse]

Actually you don't need to anticipate anything. Shoot raw, and make the image exactly the way you want. There's no particular reason to take the camera manufacturer's version to be any more "truthful" than anything else. They have their own agenda, which is to sell cameras. So the more immediately appealing they can make it, the more color and contrast they can get, the better for them. But that doesn't make it correct. Just pretty.

There is no such thing as a correct photographic representation. That would be reality itself, not a photograph.