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I have been having issues with how the colors of my photos render differently in photoshop and when I open the jpg somewhere else. I usually start by editing the raw file in lightroom and continue in photoshop to to do more edits. I save it in jpg afterwards using my default color profile (prophoto rgb) and an srgb version. But when I open the 2 jpegs outside photoshop they end up with so much contrast. I also tried opening it on my iphone and the picture still has too much contrast. I don't know if the issue is with Photoshop or something else. Can someone please explain to me what's going on because I don't know how to correct it. I have attached a sample of what I'm experiencing. It shows the same photo opened in photoshop and in other photo apps.
Some applications are colour managed and use information embedded in the document color profile* and the monitor colour profile* to translate the pixels values into correctly displayed colours. Photoshop is one of those applications.
Some applications however are not color managed and just send the pixel values to the monitor, ignoring the document and monitor profiles.
That is why you will see a difference.
*The document profile describes what colours are represented by the pixel values in
...In general yes, Photoshop is going to use the document profiles correctly along with the monitor profile, whereas non colour managed software will ignore both.
If you want to add a further layer of accuracy, then it is important that your monitor profile describes your monitor with its current settings. That is why many of us use hardware calibration devices along with their associated profiling software (e.g i1Display) to ensure that the profile does describe the monitor accurately.
The advic
...The simple explanation below might help you:
Colour Management simple explanation
Digital images are made up of numbers. In RGB mode, each pixel has a number representing Red, a number representing Green and a Number representing Blue. The problem comes in that different devices can be sent those same numbers but will show different colours. To see a demonstration of this, walk into your local T.V. shop and look at the different coloured pictures – all from the same material.
To ensure the outpu
First, this image is using ProPhoto RGB so unless your printing it on a wide gamut printer and complaining what you most likely have is two devices that have different size color gamuts. If you saved in sRGB the results should be much better if the devices cover that gamut.
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Have you tried to save it in another format, maybe PNG?
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Some applications are colour managed and use information embedded in the document color profile* and the monitor colour profile* to translate the pixels values into correctly displayed colours. Photoshop is one of those applications.
Some applications however are not color managed and just send the pixel values to the monitor, ignoring the document and monitor profiles.
That is why you will see a difference.
*The document profile describes what colours are represented by the pixel values in a document. So the same values represent different colours in an sRGB document and a Prophoto document.
** The monitor profile describes the behaviour of the monitor so that the colour management system can ensure that the document values are translated and sent to the screen as values that will display the correct colour.
Dave
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Thank you for your reply, Dave. So would you say that I can trust the colours that photoshop displays more than what other application displays? Would the same explain why when I open the picture on another device it still appears to have more contrast than what I see on photoshop?
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I would suggest that you check what color space you use when you are editing. You can change the color space of your file by going to Edit > Convert to Profile.
Also if you are using Lightroom, you need to check how it exports your images to Photoshop. You can do that in the Preferences/Properties window. In the External Editing Tab you will have to choose FIle Format, Color Space, Bit Depth, and Resolution.
I would suggest that you save all your files intended for web or other applications in sRGB IEC61966-2.1, because this is the color space most apps and the internet as a whole live in 🙂
Boris
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"would you say that I can trust the colours that photoshop displays more than what other application displays? Would the same explain why when I open the picture on another device it still appears to have more contrast than what I see on photoshop?"
1: yes, you can trust Photohop [IF the display is calibrated and profiled accurately]- you can test this with a reference test image - please go here and download the Adobe RGB testimage: https://www.colourmanagement.net/index.php/downloads_listing/
2: yes, the inability of other programs to sue ICC profiles will result in many inaccuracies, contrast could be one such issue.
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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In general yes, Photoshop is going to use the document profiles correctly along with the monitor profile, whereas non colour managed software will ignore both.
If you want to add a further layer of accuracy, then it is important that your monitor profile describes your monitor with its current settings. That is why many of us use hardware calibration devices along with their associated profiling software (e.g i1Display) to ensure that the profile does describe the monitor accurately.
The advice above to export images to the web in sRGB format is a sensible compromise and images will display correctly in colour managed applications and close to intended on non colour managed systems with sRGB displays. Folk using wide gamut displays and non colour managed applications will see the wrong colour - but there is nothing you can do about that.
Dave
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The simple explanation below might help you:
Colour Management simple explanation
Digital images are made up of numbers. In RGB mode, each pixel has a number representing Red, a number representing Green and a Number representing Blue. The problem comes in that different devices can be sent those same numbers but will show different colours. To see a demonstration of this, walk into your local T.V. shop and look at the different coloured pictures – all from the same material.
To ensure the output device is showing the intended colours then a colour management system needs to know two things.
1. What colours do the numbers in the document represent?
This is the job of the document profile which describes the exact colour to be shown when Red=255 and what colour of white is meant when Red=255, Green = 255 and Blue =255. It also describes how the intermediate values move from 0 through to 255 – known as the tone response curve (or sometimes “gamma”).
Examples of colour spaces are (Adobe RGB1998, sRGB IEC61966-2.1)
With the information from the document profile, the colour management system knows what colour is actually represented by the pixel values in the document.
So what can go wrong :
Colour management is simple to use provided the document profile is correct, always save or export with an embedded profile, and the monitor/printer profile is correct. All the math is done in the background.
I hope that helps
Dave
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You should specify that you want photoshop to emulate srgb… so you could see in photoshop the image the way it will be once exported
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First, this image is using ProPhoto RGB so unless your printing it on a wide gamut printer and complaining what you most likely have is two devices that have different size color gamuts. If you saved in sRGB the results should be much better if the devices cover that gamut.