Photoshop adds contrast to photos from lightroom

[brankok97467234]

Hi everyone,

I have searched for a solution, but I didn't find one.

Basically, when I go "edit in photoshop" from lightroom, photoshop adds contrast in the photo that was not in lightroom. I work with cr2 raw files and the problem does not appear if i convert to dng. Here are some screenshots.

Also, until recently, when I used "edit in photoshop" command, lightroom converted the raw files into tiffs and that is the way i used to edi them in photoshop. Now photoshop opens them like cr2 files. My settings in lightroom for external editing are that it should be tiffs, not cr2s.

Thanks in advance,
Branko

[thepatje]

Hello, I think you may find the solution in your Color settings first. Then open the image again. Because Lr is using another ICC profile than your PSD. Certainly if you're use Tiff to edit your file.

Shortly: Check your color settings in PSD; they may not ignore icc profiles.

[richardplondon]

Don't believe the document window title: while Photoshop might appear to have opened your images as Raw files, it hasn't really.

You can think of this open image as a "potential TIFF" - it has not been saved yet under ANY particular filename. So PS has no other way to identify it, than by displaying the filename of the Raw it's been converted FROM.

When your LR version is newer than your PS / ACR version, or when using an image editor other than Photoshop, things work differently. And that may be the workflow that you are more familiar with.

In that situation LR renders an image, saves it to TIFF immmediately, THEN tells the image editor to open that for any further changes. This is already a TIFF file, with a known filename, so your document window title displays that.

In this situation, OTOH, LR will not offer the added option of opening a single image into PS "as Smart Object", nor the added options of opening multiple images in PS As Layers, or into PS HDR, or into PS stitching. 

[brankok97467234 · Accepted solution]

thanks guys,

the cr2/tiff issue was me seing the cr2 extension and immediately thinking that something's wrong, but like Richard said, it was tiff file after all.

the bigger issue is the added contrast when i'm sending the raw file from lightroom to photoshop with "edit in photoshop" command. and the weird thing is (i just discovered this) that it does that only with raw files from my canon 5d mark ii, but not with the files from my 5d mark iv or sony a7. my workflow hasn't changed in years, and this has been happening in the pas couple of days.

i found a workaround - export in lightroom as tiff, check the "add to this catalog" option and then send it to photoshop with "edit in photoshop". this doesn't change the contrast, but it is a little bit of a pain.

btw, my working color space is prophoto both in lr and ps, so there is no mismatch there.

[richardplondon]

just to check - your image is opening directly into PS from LR - not via an ACR window?

ACR should be ignoring its own processing defaults, in this instance where LR is invoking an external edit - (it's ACR which has rendered an unsaved image, LR which has rendered a pre-saved image) - and ACR just employs LR's processing metadata as-is using whatever Process Version that requires.

Besides the main "Edit in PS" option you can also set up an additional editor program in the lower part of the LR external editing settings dialog. You can point to the Photoshop program executable within your system, select a preferred combination of colourspace, bit depth, file type, save it as a suitably named external editing preset. Make and save as many of these as you want, within this same dialog area. Then this preset can be invoked (from the context menu in Develop) to Edit In PS to those specifications.

So: this option forces the method which LR would otherwise only fall back on, if it had failed to send to a version-compatible ACR.

but this is a quick way to choose on the fly whether you'll be externally editing in 8-bit or 16-bit, ProPhoto or whatever, as best suits each instance. Also you can then easily compare the one method with the other, and as to different colourspaces, so far as what then happens at the Photoshop end. Maybe it's the profile policy there, in PS Color Settings for example.

Of course, the visually exact same thing should be happening at the PS end either way - but this may depend on some PS settings including those relating to ACR.

[mariar73406840]

Do you still have the same problem? I have been exporting my RAW files from LR to PS to edit for years and today, it's adding the additional contrast by itself. I use Nikon. Not sure if that matters. So now, every time I want to edit, I will have to add additional step of exporting is as tiff? Your help is appreciated.

[Rob_Cullen]

Before you go the "additional step of exporting it as tiff"- I suggest you re-calibrate your monitor with a calibration device. Often when color changes between Color managed software the cause is monitor calibration.

You could follow this link the check if calibration is the problem-

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-do-i-change-my-monitor-profile-to-check-whether-its-corrupted/

[D Fosse]

Yes, it could be that.

It could also be that your Lightroom and ACR versions are out of step, and one of them hasn't been correctly updated to the current version. A major overhaul to camera profiles was made between the X.2 and X.3 versions, with a totally new default profile. If there is a mismatch here, ACR could be opening into Photoshop using a different camera profile than the one set in Lightroom.