Inspiring

Answered

Is it normal for exported photos from Photoshop to look slightly different?

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
June 23, 2022
6 replies
7126 views

I tried to upscale and adjust the brightness, contrast, and sharpness of an illustration in Ps, using layers.

Everything looks good in Ps, but when exporting the file and viewing the final product with my Macbook's default image browser ('Preview'), it seems like the contrast and other adjustments are gone.

Any ideas?

macOS

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Correct answer ExxoStack

Update:

Thank you for all the suggestions.

Finally fixed the issue.

I followed some of your advices as well as some Youtube tutorials.

My fixes:

1. RGB Color Space

2. Assign profile to RGB

3. Before exporting, 'Merge Visible' (on top of topmost layer) to add a flattened layer on top of all of my layers, to avoid Ps from miscalculating layer adjustments during export.

4. Export with both sGRB and Embed boxes

E

ExxoStackAuthorCorrect answer

Inspiring

Update:

Thank you for all the suggestions.

Finally fixed the issue.

I followed some of your advices as well as some Youtube tutorials.

My fixes:

1. RGB Color Space

2. Assign profile to RGB

3. Before exporting, 'Merge Visible' (on top of topmost layer) to add a flattened layer on top of all of my layers, to avoid Ps from miscalculating layer adjustments during export.

4. Export with both sGRB and Embed boxes

D Fosse

Community Expert

It sounds like the "merge visible" layer is what actually fixed it, and that means it's a layer compositing issue, not a color space issue.

That can have two explanations: one, you're not viewing at 100% so what you see are screen resampling artifacts. 100% maps one image pixel to one physical screen pixel, and is the only way to see the actual pixel structure correctly.

The other explanation is that Export and/or Photoshop isn't handling the layer compositing correctly. What version are you on? There was a problem with GPU compositing for a while, and GPU compositing has now been removed entirely (presumably for a rewrite).

E

ExxoStackAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks. I am currently updated with the most recent version. I am on a Mac Catalina

NB, colourmanagement

Community Expert

Wen saving the file "Save As" [rather than export], be sure that the profile is embedded. This tells other applications how to interpret the colour in your image

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

Jumpenjax

Community Expert

What are your exporting setting?

Lee- Graphic Designer, Print Specialist, Photographer

E

ExxoStackAuthor

Inspiring

I clicked on bot sRGB and Embed boxes during export.

didiermazier

Community Expert

There are several factors. It depends on the export file format. For instance if exporting under PNG, and you choose smaller file size the colors may be affected. And forget JPEG…

Also it depends how your color space is managed. If working in CMYK and exporting for the web under RGB some colors are not the same. just beacause Photoshop emulate on screen the final look of your pic on paper.

The opposite as well.

Then it also depends on you screen calibration. With a standard Mac screen you may evaluate the pictures distinctly. Check the screen brightness… You may find a pic too bright or too dark or redish or anything just because your screen is not properly set up.

And the file preview function on mac is not the best judge…

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ExxoStackAuthor

Inspiring

Yes I am working in sRGB. And the brightness is at the middle setting of my macbook.

I export with JPG and simply use 'Export As' JPG.

Is Macbook's 'Preview' image viewer known to have false display?

If so, what is a better alternative to view exported Photoshop images correctly?

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

Here's a simple but important test: take the exported file (not the original file) and open it in Photoshop. How does it look? Like the original? Or like the corrected file?