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Files too saturated when initially opened, but corrected when dragged to second display and back

Community Beginner ,
Mar 05, 2021 Mar 05, 2021

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I'm using two displays. Photoshop's (v 22.2) main window is on the right display- a Philips 4k. Adobe Bridge is on the left display- an LG ultrawide. When photos are initially opened PS from the finder or from Bridge, they appear overly saturated.

 

IF the image window tab is dragged from the PS app window frame so that it floats, the color is corrected.

 

IF the PS image window is dragged left to the LG display, the saturation is correct. IF the image window is then dragged right, returned to the Philips display, it remains corrected.

 

IF the PS app window is moved to the left LG monitor the file opens corrected.

 

If the same image is imported (or dragged into) Adobe Illustrator on the right/Philips display, the color is correct. This is also the same for XD and Premiere.I have sync'd the color for all Adobe apps via Bridge "Color Settings". Color appears to be consistent across all Adobe apps except for when the file is first opened in PS. 

 

Here's a video of the image tab being dragged and dropped out of the application window. Saturation decreases ~15%.

 

 

Thoughts?

Thanks, RobThanks

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Expert , Mar 06, 2021 Mar 06, 2021

This is an issue that seems to be specific to iMac/MacBook Pro + external display. We've seen quite a few cases lately. It appears that this is not an Adobe bug. It has been reported on the feedback forum (the official bug report channel) several times.

 

What happens is that the wrong monitor profile is used (not document profile). Don't try to change any color settings, that's not where the problem is.

 

It is most likely connected to how displays are assigned in the video pipeline, and specif

...

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 05, 2021 Mar 05, 2021

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Responding because I see no edit option. Cycling through the screen modes alters the saturation of the image. Going from "Standard Screen Mode" to "Full Screen Mode With Menu Bar" corrects the saturation. Going to "Full Screen Mode" decreases the saturation AGAIN so the image now looks washed out. BUT if I click on the image window with any tool the saturation corrects. Hitting ESC desaturates the image again. Clicking on it, corrects it. Returning to "Standard Screen Mode" by clicking/holding/selecting cause over saturation, but clicking on the image corrects it.

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 05, 2021 Mar 05, 2021

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Video of saturation changing with screen mode cycling.

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Community Expert ,
Mar 06, 2021 Mar 06, 2021

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This is an issue that seems to be specific to iMac/MacBook Pro + external display. We've seen quite a few cases lately. It appears that this is not an Adobe bug. It has been reported on the feedback forum (the official bug report channel) several times.

 

What happens is that the wrong monitor profile is used (not document profile). Don't try to change any color settings, that's not where the problem is.

 

It is most likely connected to how displays are assigned in the video pipeline, and specifically integrated display vs. external display. Several workarounds have been proposed, such as setting the external display as main/primary in the OS, but it doesn't work for everybody.

 

Previously this has occasionally been seen on Windows laptops too (not recently), but I think that confirms the suspicion that it's about system display assignment. It has never, ever, been reported from desktop machines with multiple displays.

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 06, 2021 Mar 06, 2021

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I have this problem too but only since v22.x

If I'm using 21.x the problem no longer exists. For some reason the issue was introduced with the most recent versions of Photoshop so I can't see any other explanation than it's a Photoshop bug...and a really serious one too for those doing color critical work.  If I change the size of the Photoshop workspace from one of the corners the colors are corrected. They remain corrected until I close the file/s. When I open a new file the colors are wrong again..until I change the size of the workspace window again. It's incredulous to me that Adobe would try to pass the buck and say it's not their bug when without changing any other variables (hardware etc) other than their software the problem has suddely appeared. It doesn't happen with Capture One. It doesn't happen with DaVinci Resolve. It doesn't happen with any of my other software products actually! And this problem has been dragging on for quite some time! I can't understand it. A really easy fix for Adobe would surely be by adding a maual monitor profile selection box to Photoshop preferences...or in the color settings. Problem solved! Pleeease, could we get this problem sorted for the thousands of Macbook pro users out there working on pro external color monitors...

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Community Expert ,
Mar 06, 2021 Mar 06, 2021

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The thing is, Photoshop display color management is called by Photoshop but performed in the GPU. That's where the conversion into the monitor profile is actually executed. This may not be true for other applications - and for applications that don't do color management at all, the whole question is moot.

 

There is one way to shift the display profile conversion back to the CPU: go into PS preferences and set the GPU to "basic" mode. That could be an interesting thing to try. I can't do it myself, because I've never seen this issue at all.

 

In any case, there is a glaringly conspicuous common factor to all these cases: laptop/iMac plus an external display. It's not "usually", it's 100% consistent. It has never, ever, been seen with desktop machines plus multiple external displays. It's the presence of an internal display that seems to muck this up. That's a significant piece in the puzzle.

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 06, 2021 Mar 06, 2021

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I crossed my fingers and tried changing the GPU modes but it made no difference unfortunately. I still don't understand though why the colors are "corrected" by changing the size of the workspace minutely. It's as though Photoshop gets a wakeup call that it needs to adopt the external monitor profile.... This really affects workflow efficiency when working on hundreds of images...

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Community Expert ,
Mar 06, 2021 Mar 06, 2021

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And btw, a new Photoshop version exposing latent GPU/driver bugs is something that happens a lot. Especially this time, when GPU requirements increased significantly from the previous version. New functions, new calls to the driver, new error-checking code, etc etc.

 

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 06, 2021 Mar 06, 2021

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I just noticed that by turning off the graphics processor completely the problem disappears. I really wish that what you suggested would work by having the GPU in basic mode. But it seems you have to sacrifice GPU completely in order for the colors to render correctly without any workarounds...

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Community Expert ,
Mar 06, 2021 Mar 06, 2021

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OK, that is very interesting and vital information to finally crack this nut, which has puzzled many of us for a long time. Not a solution as such, not yet, but something of a smoking gun.

 

Thanks for reporting back.

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 06, 2021 Mar 06, 2021

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No worries....hers's hoping!

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 08, 2021 Mar 08, 2021

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Setting my main/primary screen in Mac OS System Preferences: Displays to the same screen that PS was using as the main display appears to have remedied the issue. Yay!

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 08, 2021 Mar 08, 2021

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Oh boy, yes, I looked into that just now and you are correct! I didn't realise there was a way to do that on Mac OS by dragging the menu bar. It says you can but doesn't say what it does. That is a great tip! I do however think that Adobe should still pursue the reason why Photoshop on the external screen has the behaviour you originally highlighted as it seems to be handled by other software just fine. Thanks, that made my day!

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 08, 2021 Mar 08, 2021

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Oh no, now thumbnails in Bridge on my laptop screen are now incorrect... I really feel we need to something fixed in software still as fixing one problem just created another it would seem 😞

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Community Expert ,
Mar 08, 2021 Mar 08, 2021

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First of all, color managed applications need to be relaunched when the monitor profile changes on system level. The profile is loaded at startup and will be used for the entire session, until next launch.

 

Even so, Bridge is slightly different from Photoshop regarding color management. It's not necessarily updated live as you go. You have to do something, like refresh the thumbnails, resave the image, etc.

 

So it is probably fine, you just need to refresh the thumbnails and previews.

 

 

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New Here ,
Jun 30, 2021 Jun 30, 2021

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I tried this and think it's worked.

Using a Macbook Pro M1 and a Dell SE2419 as external monitor, through HDMI.

 

This way I can keep "use graphics processor" setting turned on both on Photoshop and Illustrator.

 

 

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