Photos changing when saving

[simonn89868918]

Hi

I recently installed LR CC and so far so good, however when saving my photos after editing, the photos always turn out far lighter after saving than shown in LR's album. I've been advised it's some kind of profile error but I can't find anything that is either looking wrong or anything that can actually be changed along those lines. Anyone having any ideas? Re-install perhaps?

Thanks in advance.

[Neox99]

Are you using the Save To: from either Rt-clicking on image or from the Icon upper right?

Just being sure what 'save' means to you.

[simonn89868918]

Yes I'm using the "save to" option. I haven't been able to find any other alternative. I've tried saving both as original format, jpeg, different image sizes etc but nothing makes a difference.

[Jim Wilde]

A couple of questions:

1. Is your monitor calibrated? If it's not, then it will likely be difficult to nail down any differences between the image in LRCC and it's exported version. 

2. What application are you using to view the exported file? Even if the monitor is correctly calibrated, the viewing application also needs to be fully colour-managed.

[simonn89868918]

1. It's "calibrated" with the built in software calibration. When viewing the photos in LRCC versus any other outside application, there's a very clear lack of contrast in the exported version compared to how it's been edited in LRCC. I have LR6 and PS as well and have never had this problem with neither of those.

2. I've viewed them both in win10's preview application as well as uploaded them onto facebook and both display this sudden lack of contrast compared to the original photo in LRCC. They also show up this way when viewed on external devices such as my iphone.

[Jim Wilde]

I'm not sure that "built-in Software calibration" is as effective as using a hardware calibration device, but no matter for now. Have you tried importing the exported file back into both LRCC and LR6 to see how they compare with the edited image in LRCC? I'd have more confidence using those comparisons than I would Facebook or the Win10 preview app.

[simonn89868918]

It's not as effective, but it's worked well enough so far. When importing the exported file back into LR, the defects persist and the photo differs significantly from the original when compared side to side in LR.

[Jim Wilde]

What's the file format of the original file? I'm curious about an earlier comment you made that you tried exporting using the "Original + Settings" option, and that it still showed the issue.

Can you post a screenshot showing original and exported file side by side so that we can see the extent of the problem? It might help us to see what you're seeing.

[simonn89868918]

The original file is RAW and the options are to export it either as original format, aka RAW or jpeg, I've tried both and it doesn't make a difference. Here's a screenshot of the difference. In the back is the original edit in LRCC and in the front is the export which is the way it looks no matter where you view it or in what format you export it. This is also the way it looks when imported back into LR and I've also tried opening it in PS with the same result.

[Jim Wilde]

Thanks for the screenshots. One more question....when you export a Raw file using the "Original + Settings" option, that should produce a copy of the Raw with the settings in an XMP sidecar file. If you import that copy of the Raw file into LR6 (with the XMP sidecar still adjacent to it in the same folder), that should result in the same quality image (when viewed at 100% in Develop) that you see in LRCC. Is that the case? If not, would you be happy to upload the exported Raw + XMP sidecar, together with one of the Jpeg exports, to something like Dropbox so that we can try to reproduce the issue.

[simonn89868918]

I'm away for new year atm so I don't have access to the PC with LR6 but when I get home tomorrow I will upload the RAW file to LR6 and see what happens.

[simonn89868918]

Right, I've imported the original file incl the sidecar into LR6 and the defects of the export is showing even in the original file in LR6.

Dropbox - DSC_0926-2.NEF

Dropbox - DSC_0926-2.xmp​

Dropbox - DSC_0926-2.jpg

Here's the original with the sidecar and a jpeg export.

[Jim Wilde]

I've had a quick look (using LR Classic) and can see that there is a difference in the appearance of the exported jpeg vs the developed NEF, so I think we can rule out calibration issues. My guess, and I stress the word "guess", is that you are seeing the effect of jpeg compression on what is essentially a very noisy image, with the noise made worse by the significant sharpening that you've applied. If I drop the sharpening back to the default level, then export, the resulting Jpeg is much closer in appearance to the NEF....still a slight difference, but much less pronounced. Or try using the masking slider at a high level (80+) to prevent sharpening much of the noise, again that produces a closer match on export.

I'd hesitate to call this a bug, at ISO 40,000 you have to be really careful with the Sharpening and NR sliders, and maybe you haven't got the balance right. But I'm not an expert in this area. Are you seeing this problem with all exports, or just this one image? Your original post suggested you see this difference all the time, in which case there may be a different explanation.

[simonn89868918]

It is a possible explanation. However what I'm curious about is that if it indeed is an issue with high ISO in combination with a lot of sharpening and jpeg compression, there shouldn't be a difference when exporting the NEF and sidecar and opening them in LR6. When I open the NEF file in LR6 the photo is just as "bad" as the jpeg, despite no jpeg compression being present in the process.

For the sake of science I did a small experiment in LR6 and tried to recreate the same contrast in the photo in LR6 as it shows in LRCC, then compress it to a jpeg. The result was that there is a slight change when compressing it in LR6 as well, but it's not nearly as bad as in LRCC which is interesting, you'd think the quality of the compression should be the same, considering there's no option in LRCC to choose the quality when saving.