ICC Profile Changes when changing module

[pmr413]

Is this a confirmed bug in Lightroom, or do I have a tick box selected (or not selected) that is causing this behavior?

Let's say I have two images that I've made edits to during soft-proofing: Image 1 was proofed and edited with a printer/paper profile, an then Image 2 was proofed and edited with the sRGB profile.  If I go back to the Library module, select Image 1, and open it in the Develop module, the profile immediately switches to sRGB!  So - regardless of the profile previously used on that image - if I open an image to which I have applied a color profile, it will switch to whatever profile was used for the last image edited even if that profile differs from the one assigned to the current image being edited.  What's going on here?

I've got a bunch of images to which I've applied paper/printer profiles to, and now they've all become sRGB.  There's no "undo" action that I can apply either in the History panel or with ctl-z; once the new profile is applied, you have to manually re-apply the previous profile.  That actually is a bigger deal than it sounds like since - when the "new" profile is applied, Lightroom automatically changes the copy name of the virtual copy.  Unless you know the previous profile being used, you're out of luck.  Imagine now what I'm trying to fix with a few hundred images with half a dozen paper/printer profile combinations.

[JP Hess]

Not sure I'm completely following your soft proofing workflow. Whenever I soft proof I create a new virtual copy and choose the appropriate profile for each virtual copy, and it seems to hold for each one. I do all that in the develop module.

[pmr413]

Yep, that's what I'm doing, but I'll break it down (I should have done so above):

1. Open Image 1 in Develop Module
2. Choose a profile.  For simplicity, let's just call it "My Paper/Printer Combo" with an intent of "relative"
3. Make some edits.  This will automatically create a virtual copy named "Image 1 • My Paper/Printer Combo, Relative"  You could also have clicked the "Create Proof Copy" button in the soft-proofing pane before making edits.  Either way, the result is the same: a virtual copy of the image will be created.
4. Go back to the Library Module
5. Open Image 2 in the Develop Module.
6. The profile selected will automatically be whatever was chosen for Image 1.  No big deal if we haven't soft-proofed Image 2 before; Lightroom has got to start somewhere.  But let's say we now select sRGB for our profile, and make some edits.  Again, Lightroom will create a virtual copy as soon as we move a slider, and it will give the virtual copy the copy name of "Image 2 • sRGB, Relative"

Now here's where my issue comes in:

1. Go back to the Library module
2. Select Image 1 again, and open in the Develop module
3. The profile immediately switches to "sRGB," and the virtual copy copy name changes to "Image 1 • sRGB, Relative".  I lose all reference to whatever profile it was I was previously using.  If I just happen to know it was "My Paper/Printer Combo," I can select it from the dropdown, and it will be as I had left it.  But if I wasn't quick enough to see what it was previously, I'm doing some guesswork.  You can imagine if I have 4-5 different types of paper and 2 different printers, that that's a lot of permutations to try and figure out!

So, to summarize, when you open an image in soft proofing - any image - Lightroom seems to automatically apply whatever profile was last used for soft-proofing to the current image even if a previous profile was applied, and that profile differs from the last one Lightroom used on a different image. 

[pmr413]

Here's another observation:

If I do not exit soft-proofing before switching back to the Library module, then I get the behavior above.  If ​do​ ​exit soft-proofing before switching to the Library module, then when I re-open a particular image to which I've previously applied a profile, the image ​will not​ ​immediately switch to the last-used profile, and the copy name will not automatically change.

Here's another separate observation: I was also able to create a situation where the copy name in the Library module is different than the copy name displayed in the Develop Module (using info overlay). 

This behavior is what makes me believe I've discovered a bug. I can't imagine Adobe purposely designing in a "feature" where edits and file metadata are immediately changed without the ability to undo the action.

[JP Hess]

Not sure why you think you have to switch between modules so much. I just do it all from within the Develop module. I choose my master image and create one Soft proof, close it. Then I go back to the master image and create another one and choose a different profile. Doesn't seem to be that complicated.

[pmr413]

That’s not really relevant. I’m trying to figure out if I’ve found a bug with the software.

The steps I outlined above aren’t my typical workflow; they’re the steps I used to recreate the issue. I noticed this issue tonight when I opened an image from a smart collection - an image I edited months ago, and now want to proof for a different paper. When I opened the image, all the colors shifted drastically (because Lightroom instantly applied sRGB, the last color space I had used for a different set of images). When I went back to the Library module, the image disappeared from the smart collection because the search criteria was based on “copy name contains...” and the copy name was immediately change by Lightroom when I opened the image in the Develop module.

[johnrellis]

Adobe wants all product feedback (implementation bugs, design bugs, feature requests) posted in the official feedback forum: Lightroom Classic CC | Photoshop Family Customer Community . Adobe product developers read every post there, but are rarely seen in this forum.

[Todd Shaner]

pmr413  wrote

This behavior is what makes me believe I've discovered a bug. I can't imagine Adobe purposely designing in a "feature" where edits and file metadata are immediately changed without the ability to undo the action.

I can't duplicate your issue using LR 7.3.1 on Windows 7. It's very possible you have a corrupted LR Preferences file or LR installation. Try resetting your LR Preferences file at the below link. If that doesn't resolve the issue let me know what version of LR you're using and I'll provide instructions to reinstall LR.

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-do-i-reset-lightrooms-preferences/