Photo Colors Change When Opening Images in Photoshop from Lightroom (Color Spaces are the Same)

[Britt35883721sz0n]

For some reason, when I open a specific set of images in Photoshop from Lightroom tonight, the colors change to be slightly more muted than they were in Lightroom/the image looses detail. Not every image is doing this, just 5 of them. All of the images that are changing colors were taken sequentially from a photoshoot tonight - the rest of the images from the photoshoot open as normal.

The images in lightroom match the original images on my camera, and when I open the images using the Camera RAW filter in Photoshop it shows the acurate colors of the image so this is only an issue in the basic Photoshop display. I have both Photoshop and Lightroom set to the ProPhoto RGB color space. I've attached a few images where you can see my color space settings in both apps. I also attached in image showing the comparison between LR (left) and PS (right). 

I've now worked with two Adobe agents who were remotely controling my computer to try to solve this issue but neither of them could find a solution - everything they tried either did nothing or made the colors even more innacurate. The only thing that made the colors between LR and PS match was changing my monitor display color profile in my system settings, but this isn't a great solution given that the colors of my monitor would now be inaccurate compared to any other screen or physical print...

I also tried recalibrating my computer using my SpyderXPro, but this didn't solve the issue either.

Can any please help me find a real solution?

[Britt35883721sz0n]

*Now I'm going to add that when I look at that screen shot I attached of the woman's hair from this discussion, the side-by-side comparison looks the same. When I open this screenshot from my desktop the two sides look completely different. I also texted this screenshot to myself and the texted image on my phone has the hair looking the same on both sides as well. I'm completely baffled??

[Britt35883721sz0n]

I took a picture of my computer screen using my phone to show that I'm not totally nuts. The side-by-side comparison does look very different when I open the screenshot from my desktop and when I look at the two images between Lightroom and Photoshop... I just don't know y'all...

[D Fosse]

This is either a monitor profile problem, or a bug in Apple's GPU code, or both combined. They are two sides to the same coin nowadays, since the actual conversion into the monitor profile is executed in the GPU.

One thing that has surfaced a few times lately, is that MacOS doesn't like LUT (table)-based monitor profiles. The common symptom is inaccurate black clipping, which is what seems to happen here. Matrix profiles are safer and usually work well. Tha same goes for version 4 profiles vs version 2.

If this is it, a workaround seems to be to switch from Adobe color engine to Apple color engine. This doesn't fix anything - it should work regardless - but at least it lets you get back in business.

[Britt35883721sz0n]

Thank you! Switching to the Apple color emgine didn't seem to make a difference, so I will try to switch to a Matrix profile and see what happens!

[NB, colourmanagement net]

@Britt35883721sz0n @D Fosse is right about Apple software and LUT display profiles. 

See the explanation below from my friends at basICColor who make really good display calibration & profiling software:

it pops up when loading the software

CAUTION: Monitor profiles in Mac OS 10.12 and higher

A perfect monitor profile is essential for a color correct visualisation of your pictures!

Especially in a multi-monitor environment under MacOS Sierra and higher the user will often be logged out if you use LUT-based monitor profiles. In any case your Icons and other elements on the desktop will look whacked and your images in Apple´s programs (e.g. Preview) will not be color correct. Wide-gamut displays will show totally oversaturated colors.

By all means, set your profiling application in MacOS Sierra and higher to „Matrix based“, if your software offers this option – e.g. basICColor display. Many less professional programs make matrix-based profiles only, anyway.

With a high-end hardware-calibrateable monitor you will see no difference in quality between LUT-based and matrix-based profiles.

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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