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Question

Photoshop Displaying Washed Out Image

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
August 21, 2021
2 replies
8123 views

Photoshop is displaying all of my images washed out with lifted blacks, almost as if they have a really low-opacity haze filter on them. Lightroom isn't. No other software is doing this. I am using a calibrated profile created with my i1 and Displaycal, but it's doing it with pretty much every ICC, including the default ones the iMac came with, so the profile I created isn't damaged. When I load up the ICC, Photoshop will display the image correctly for a second, then flash to the lighter screen with the washed out image. I am on a 2019 5k retina 27" iMac, Big Sur 11.5.2, newest updates for Photoshop installed.

I have already tried:

- Restarting Photoshop
- Restarting the iMac

- Disabling the graphics processor
- Simulating the monitor profile in soft-proofing (still looks off)

- Messing with the rendering intent

- Resetting Photoshop preferences

- Uninstalling and reinstalling Photoshop

- Troubleshooting with x-rite tech support *just* in case it was an issue there (it wasn't)

I tried working with Adobe support on this and was told that the "fix" is to keep my display in sRGB because that's how Photoshop works (duh). I don't think this is acceptable? Any ideas?

The image I'm including is how an image looks in Photoshop (left) versus loaded in Safari (right). I chose one with rich blacks as a good example of how milky they get. I couldn't take a screenshot of it, because even the iMac's screenshot software captures the two images as identical, despite the visual disparity. So, I took this with my phone. Apologies for the potato quality.

macOS

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TheDigitalDog

Inspiring

@lexihaswings wrote:
The image I'm including is how an image looks in Photoshop (left) versus loaded in Safari (right). I chose one with rich blacks as a good example of how milky they get. I couldn't take a screenshot of it, because even the iMac's screenshot software captures the two images as identical, despite the visual disparity. So, I took this with my phone. Apologies for the potato quality.

Please produce a screen capture in Photoshop vs. Safari (or Preview) using the identical zoom ratio and at 1:1 (100%).

When I view the two you show, though there is a size mismatch, they look very, ver close to my eye (on a Mac, fully color managed etc).

Do make a screen capture if possible (easy on the Mac), tag that with your display profile and convert to sRGB to upload.

The issue *may* be due to the type of display profile built or a bug in the software (?): make the profile a simple Matrix not LUT profile and try again, but honestly, if the two images you've posted above are supposed to appear very differently, they look very close on this end.

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

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lexihaswingsAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thank you for your advice. Attaching two comparisons here. Recent stuff I was trying to work on but finding impossible with not being able to see what I'm doing. Left is Photoshop, right is Safari. (I do want to note that these screen captures are also not an accurate representation of what I'm seeing. The images are much lighter than what is in the screen shot, which is why I've resorted to taking photos of my screen with my phone, but in these you can at least see how severe the difference is between the two.) I wasn't even getting vaguely close to preserving shadow detail because they are SO lifted in Photoshop.

I had read that the Matrix vs. LUT could be an issue. So, I did also make a Matrix ICC profile and tried that and it yielded the same results. It's happening with every display ICC on the computer, not just the ones I'm making, with the exception of sRGB. This includes the default ones the iMac came with and the rest of the Adobe profiles. It all loads up nicely for a second, then flashes to the haze. I also tried making ICCs with both CCProfiler and Displaycal software. Both held up to their internal quality checks. I was dealing with this before I even purchased the i1. What I was seeing with the iMac's default profile wasn't matching the output I was getting, so I bought the i1, which exposed just how bad the issue actually seems to be.

D Fosse

Community Expert

What I see here is severe black clipping on the examples to the right. In other words, one could suspect that the Photoshop version is actually the correct one. It looks much healthier. Black clipping is a typical symptom of a bad profile, or a problem in the conversion (the latter would be a GPU issue).

Trying to diagnose this, there might be a smoking gun in the fact that sRGB doesn't do this (but of course that will oversaturate the screen). What happens if you try the generic DCI-P3 profile as monitor profile?

One thing to note here: When you're changing monitor profile in the system, you need to relaunch Photoshop. The monitor profile is loaded at application startup, and that profile will then be used for the remainder of the session, regardless of any system change. That change will only be picked up at next relaunch.

Generally, it still sounds like the wrong profile is loaded.

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

»- Simulating the monitor profile in soft-proofing (still looks off)«

That would circumvent Color Management so it would not be sensible anyway.

»I tried working with Adobe support on this and was told that the "fix" is to keep my display in sRGB because that's how Photoshop works (duh).«

I hope there was a misunderstanding because that statement would shed a bad light on customer support.

But was the display identical between PS and LR under that setting?

What are the Edit > Color Settings?

Does the computer have more than one GPU?

L

lexihaswingsAuthor

Participating Frequently

»- Simulating the monitor profile in soft-proofing (still looks off)«
That would circumvent Color Management so it would not be sensible anyway.

»I tried working with Adobe support on this and was told that the "fix" is to keep my display in sRGB because that's how Photoshop works (duh).«
I hope there was a misunderstanding because that statement would shed a bad light on customer support.
But was the display identical between PS and LR under that setting?

What are the Edit > Color Settings?
Does the computer have more than one GPU?

I know, but I'm desperate and was throwing everything at the wall. *cry laughing face*

But was the display identical between PS and LR under that setting?

It did make Photoshop and Lightroom match, but the difference between the images in sRGB and my calibrated profile is SO drastic that retouching and color correcting/grading in sRGB is definitely not a sustainable option. Every profile with the exception of sRGB does this weird buggy thing. I am also including a video of it in real time. I click on the calibrated profile, the screen looks perfect for a second, then "flashes" to the washed out, hazy mess. Even the workspace color changes. But, no other programs do it.

What are the Edit > Color Settings?

Including a screen shot of that in this reply.

Does the computer have more than one GPU?

Computer only has one GPU: Radeon Pro 580X 8 GB

As an update, I have been troubleshooting further and determined that this issue occurs in Photoshop, Bridge, and ACR. Also, I did a Zoom screen share with someone and you could see the messed up colors on their screen, too. So, this is a software issue and not a hardware issue.

Cut and paste of my chat transcript with Adobe Support:

Support: Set your computer's profile to sRGB IEC1966 2.1
Support: Once done, let me know.
Me: Done
Support: Okay. Calibrate it.
Me: What do you mean by that? Re-run my Displaycal calibration software or just reload the profile?
Support: Calibrate your monitor display to the profile mentioned above
Me: I don't use the mac's internal calibrator. It's garbage.
Support: We do not troubleshoot external calibration
Me: Okay, but the software isn't broken, just photoshop. Why am I calibrating to SRGB?
Support: That is the standard profile.
Me: But it's a very limited color range compared to ProPhoto (which I normally edit in) and Adobe RGB 1998
Support: Lexi, could you please do as suggested?
Me: So you want me to calibrate the sRGB profile using the mac's internal calibrator?
Support: Yes, please do.

Support then walks me through switching my display into sRGB. Later...

Support: Does the color look same now?
Me: Yes, but now when I convert it to sRGB there is no change because I'm already not seeing all of the full range of color available.
Me: As an imaging professional, I'm not sure if this is really an acceptable fix.
Support: When your profile is already SRGB then how would converting it to srgb show changes. It has already been set to srgb
Me: I'm looking at a ProPhoto file
Support: Well, this is the fix for it. Your colors will appear correctly.
Me: Is the inability to display a beautiful, properly calibrated ICC profile in lieu of sRGB a bug that Adobe plans on fixing?
Support: It is not a bug. Both Lightroom and Photoshop work differently with the profile. Lightroom displays the color the monitor where as Photoshop works with SRGB. So there are bound to different in color.
Support: That is why we calibrated display so that both application show the same.

IMG_5721.zip

L

lexihaswingsAuthor

Participating Frequently

As an aside about the color settings.... it currently says sRGB from troublshooting. But, I have also had it in Adobe RGB and ProPhoto and it still does the same thing.

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