Serious color management trouble in photoshop

[matheus leonardp65445408]

Hello everyone. This may come out a bit lenghy, but I have ran out of options to try. I really hope someone can help!

I have always worked with photoshop without ever worrying about embeded profiles or such things, as I only made art for web and personal use. Last year I had to change computers, and on this new one everything I made and posted turned out horrible on every device I had appart from my monitor.
The first thing I tried to do was calibrate my monitor. Had a friend made a .icc profile and it's running on the windows' color management configurations. It helped, butI still have a few problems:

- I can't save any new drawings I make correctly, even with the export function and converting to sRGB. Nothing works. What I see on the preview is not what it looks like after it's saved, that is different from what I thought I was working on.
- Nothing I paste into photoshop looks the same as I see on my monitor, unless the color profile I'm running in photoshop is the same as the one on windows, for my monitor. And If I do that, there is no way I cansave the file and open it anywhere else that looks at least slightly the same.

Basically I can't figure this out, which is making it impossible for me to work. And I didn't even start on printing settings, or making photoshop match illustrator for example (they don't, but I believe this to be another problem). I was tinking about working with Inprint and other market places, but I have no idea how my colorus are working right now.

I've seen a LOT of videos, read a BUNCH of forums here and in many places about screen calibration and color profiles. But the more I read the less I know! I really just wanted my old files to work and the new ones to look right. I know I sound confused, I'll post a video summarizing all this, I think it will help understanding my doubts... If someone can help me I'll be forever grateful.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

»I can't save any new drawings I make correctly, even with the export function and converting to sRGB.«

Please set the Status Bar to »Document Profile« and post meaningful screenshots of an image and the resulting exported version at View > 100%.

What are the Edit > Color Settings? 

[matheus leonardp65445408]

Thank you for taking your time here!
The exported image matches the original one when I open them on Photoshop, they just don't work when I try to post them online.
I have explained the issue better on D Fosse 's post if you'd like to check. I'm sorry for not writing it all over again, it's just that it's already there.
Thank you again, all the help is very appreciated!

[c.pfaffenbichler]

If the images are displayed correctly in Photoshop then the problem appears to be something other than Photoshop. 

Please post the requested screenshots. 

[matheus leonardp65445408]

Yes, I believe it is something else, as you said!

When I first created my files they didn't have a color embeded profile, so I tried to convert it afterwards, which caused a few troubles with their preview, with copy and pasting other files, screenshots and other things into photoshop. This started after I had someone calibrate my monitor.

To make them match at first I used the same profile as my monitor, but that's not the right approach. The only thing I have been changing in my color setting is the color profile.

I think something went wrong with my monitor's calibration, as the person who had done it for me had it uploaded to the window's color magamenent. I know what I have been doing isn't right, I'm just trying to find a fix to the already created files, and to figure out the right approach to the next ones I create.

Thank you again for taking your time and heping me out, I really appreciate it!

[D Fosse]

You need to embed the profile. Converting is only half the story. Export strips the profile by default. Check the box.

Why Export still has all color management disabled by default I don't know, in any case you need to enable it. Then it will match Photoshop.

The monitor profile that your calibrator makes is only used by color managed applications. Windows "Photos" is not color managed, just so you know. It will never display correctly, ever, under any circumstances. Disregard it.

A screenshot is a special case. It is no longer in the original document color space - it has already been converted into your monitor profile (if the screenshot comes from a color managed application). That means you need to assign your monitor profile first, then convert to a standard color space like sRGB. Then it will match the original image in Photoshop.

[matheus leonardp65445408]

Thank you for taking your time to answer! I am sorry the answer is long as well, but I hope you read it through. I am really needing help.

>>You need to embed the profile. Converting is only half the story. Export strips the profile by default. Check the box.
I know I need to embed the profile, I have been checking the box. I was doing the following:
1) Working on a file with my monitor's profile embeded
2) Exporting it, embeding the sRGB file
3) Importing the exported image with the embeded sRGB profile on photoshop, and they wouldn't match
That's what I'm showing in the video I posted before, which made no sense to me and was driving me mad. However, I tried following the same steps today and it turned out ok on photoshop for some reason. Doing exactly the same steps described above, and as shown in the video.

Now, this is the funny part. Even if I send me the converted sRGB file via Whatsapp for example, it matches my Photoshop image, matching on other devices (my phone for example) as well as it can. However, if I upload the converted file anywhere (for example on Google Drive) or send the converted sRGB file via e-mail, the colours turn out muted, it doesn't matter from what device I'm seeing it (sent a print). They look as if I have taken the sRGB file and assigned it to my monitor's profile (not converted it). It is as if:
- When I send me via whatsapp, the file is converted to my monitor's profile
- When I upload it to Google's Drive it's assigned to my monitor's profile

Which is true, because when I open my phone's print with both whatsapp and google drive's imagens on Photoshop, whatsapp's (converted) shows too saturates, and google's (assigned) is ok.

What I think is weird it that the sRGB file turns out muted no matter what device I'm seing the file from (for example, on my phone). If I were to upload this file to instagram, they turn out muted, not like the sRGB file in Photoshop.

>>A screenshot is a special case. It is no longer in the original document color space - it has already been converted into your monitor profile (if the screenshot comes from a color managed application). That means you need to assign your monitor profile first, then convert to a standard color space like sRGB. Then it will match the original image in Photoshop.

Here, the weird thing is that if I print screen this muted image on Google Drive for example and paste it over the sRGB file, they match. I don't need to convert it, because it's already reading it as sRGB in Photoshop. So the file is keeping the sRGB range, I just don't get it why it shows as my monitor's profile on other devices or online.

I'm guessing that my window's calibration is somehow messing up the files, I just don't know how and why. I'm sorry if I'm over complicating this...

[Test Screen Name]

"Working on a file with my monitor's profile embeded"

Never, never, never do this. Just stop that and start again. It is not even worth reading your description because we all know it will go horribly wrong.

[D Fosse]

Indeed.

The very first screenshot shows a BenQ monitor profile as working RGB. I have absolutely no idea why so many people keep doing this, which immediately wrecks all color management and leaves it a smoking ruin.

Look, this isn't difficult at all. In fact it's extremely simple:

*  the file needs to have an embedded profile, and it needs to be a standard color space like sRGB, Adobe RGB or ProPhoto.

*  you need to have an accurate monitor profile set up at system level. A calibrator makes this for you, and automatically installs it in the right place. No user intervention required.

*  you need to use a color managed application, which reads both profiles and converts from one into the other. This conversion happens on the fly, as you work, again without any user intervention. The application gets the monitor profile from the operating system.

That's it. Don't do anything! Just make sure the above conditions are in place. Then it has to display correctly, by definition.

Reset all Photoshop color settings to defaults, and don't touch them again until you know what you're doing.

[matheus leonardp65445408]

Thank you for your clarification.

As I said, when I first created my files they didn't have a color embeded profile, so I tried to convert it afterwards, which caused a few troubles with their preview, with copy and pasting other files, screenshots and other things into photoshop.

At the beginning, to make them match I used the same profile as my monitor, but that's not the right approach and that's why I came to the forum. The only thing I have been changing in my color setting in Photoshop is the color profile.

I think something went wrong with my monitor's calibration, as the person who had done it for me uploaded it to the window's color magamenent panel. I know what I have been doing isn't right, I'm just trying to find a fix to the already created files, and to figure out the right approach to the next ones I create.

Thank you again for taking your time and heping me out, I really appreciate it.

[D Fosse]

Right, that screenshot shows the monitor profile in its correct place. That's where it should be.

If the file has an embedded profile, but it's the wrong one, you need to assign the correct profile. Don't convert in this case, because that will maintain the appearance (which is now wrong).

If you know/remember what the original profile was, assigning it should put everything right. If you don't remember, you just have to try and see which one looks plausible, and work from there.