Inaccurate color in Photoshop

[joanp97577940]

Wondering if any Photoshop experts might be able to help me solve this. I am attempting to edit jpg photos that make up a panorama. When I open the file in Photoshop, it seems to change color. In the attached screenshot you can see the original panorama on the right and the individual photo as it looks when I open it in Photoshop. I'm on a Mac and the Photoshop color profile is ProPhoto RGB. Photoshop CC version 19.0 -- I haven't changed any settings and have not experienced this until yesterday. Thanks for any recommendations.

[D Fosse]

It would have helped to compare the same section of the image.

This is how a ProPhoto file looks without color management on a standard gamut display. The correctly color managed version on the right:

So the question is - what application are you using to view the file outside Photoshop? Is it color managed?

[joanp97577940]

The jpgs come from a panoramic stitching program that is proprietary to Planetar, a real estate tour company.  I download the jpg files to my hard drive first, then open them in Photoshop.   If I open the files in Lightroom first, then from Lightroom click on edit in Photoshop -- the jpgs display with proper colors.  But when I open from my hard drive, I get the funky colors.  This only started happening yesterday and I haven't changed anything.

[D Fosse]

There is a gotcha here: Lightroom by default exports to Photoshop as ProPhoto. Photoshop will then preserve this profile and that's how the file saves out from Photoshop.

The problem with ProPhoto is that it absolutely requires full color management to reproduce correctly. But lots of software doesn't do that.

What you need to do is either change the Lightroom preference to sRGB instead of ProPhoto - or convert to sRGB in Photoshop. An sRGB file will display roughly right even without color management on most standard displays.

I have said many times here that I think the Lightroom default of ProPhoto is a monumentally bad idea. Beginners can't be expected to understand this. The people who do need or want to use ProPhoto are advanced users who can figure this out by themselves, and they don't need to be spoonfed.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

What are Photoshop’s Edit > Color Settings?

[joanp97577940]

Here are the settings.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

It seems peculiar how some people sometimes seem to assume that whatever application/s they use beside Photoshop show/s an image »correctly« while Photoshop show/s it »incorrectly«.

Does the image have an embedded Colour Profile?

What happens when you assign sRGB (Image > Assign Profile)?

Please set the Status Bar to »Document Profile« and post another screenshot.

[joanp97577940]

The image doesn't have an embedded color profile.  When I change the profile to sRGB nothing happens.  Sorry, but I don't know what you are referring to when you say set the Status bar to Document Profile.

[teachbit]

Here a screenshot of the status bar:

[joanp97577940]

Thank you.  Here is a screensho -- this image is from the same series of jpgs and in reality the walls are beige:

[Trevor.Dennis]

teachbit  wrote

Here a screenshot of the status bar:

If you have the screen space, I like to use the Info panel with most/all of the options turned on.

[D Fosse]

My own favorite is the status bar - it tells me all I need to know, at a single quick glance.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

It is convenient indeed but it took me a while to memorise its name … several times when trying to ask people on this Forum to change it to »Document Proflle« for screenshots I had to look up what it’s called.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

When I change the profile to sRGB nothing happens.

Just to make sure »Assign«, not »Convert«?

I don't know what you are referring to when you say set the Status bar to Document Profile.

The field in the lower left corner of the image window.

[D Fosse · Accepted solution]

c.pfaffenbichler  wrote

When I change the profile to sRGB nothing happens.

Just to make sure »Assign«, not »Convert«?

Er...this is a ProPhoto file, with ProPhoto numbers - so obviously joanp needs to convert and not assign.

There is nothing wrong with the color settings (and I didn't think there would be). The problem is that it's a ProPhoto file, viewed in an application without color management. If the OP wants to use non color managed software, there is only one thing to do: use sRGB.

So Joan:

• Go into Lightroom Preferences > External Editing, and change the color space rolldown there from ProPhoto to sRGB.
• The working space in Photoshop doesn't matter. The embedded document profile coming from Lightroom or anywhere else will always override it. If it's sRGB from Lightroom, that's  how it will be saved from Photoshop.
• For existing files, Edit > Convert to Profile > sRGB IEC61966-2.1. This will take care of the immediate problem.
• Stay away from ProPhoto and Adobe RGB until you understand the implications.
• While there is no immediate harm in having ProPhoto as working RGB, it serves no sensible purpose either. Change that too, into sRGB.

[joanp97577940]

Thanks very much for all of your help.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Er...this is a ProPhoto file, with ProPhoto numbers - so obviously joanp needs to convert and not assign.

But the OP does not appear to like how to looks when displayed correctly and if another application that lacks Color Management displays the image more to their liking assigning the profile might result in an appearance similar to what they saw in the other application.

[D Fosse]

Yes, I see what you mean. There's some interesting psychology going on here. The file browser shows the original image! Photoshop must be messing it up!...that sort of thing.

In these cases I often wish I had a big red "stop-button". Stop and reset. Unthink what you're thinking, your assumptions are wrong. Let's all stop this right here and go back to scratch.

In addition the whole issue was totally confused by the OP opening unmanaged screenshots in Photoshop, and then posting that as an example of "how Photoshop displays the image". It's not easy to know which way is up then.

And again, as I've pointed out many times before: color management doesn't cause these problems. Color management solves these problems. When color management stops, when the chain breaks, in applications that don't do it - that's when it gets difficult.

[joanp97577940]

The jpg displays correctly when imported into Photoshop from Lightroom.

It displays incorrectly when opened from my hard drive with no involvement with Lightroom.  The images I am attempting to open/edit in Photoshop have no color profile.

[D Fosse]

Even if it has no profile it is still a ProPhoto file. The numbers are recalculated according to the document profile in effect when the file is created.

Stripping the profile just makes it worse, because then you no longer have a reference to what the numbers mean.

Yes, it will open incorrectly when opened from your hard drive if there is no color management on the file.

Don't use ProPhoto until you understand these things. Use sRGB, that will minimize any damage.