Photoshop CC 2018 B&W Gradient Error

[Little Owl Pictures]

Hey,

after updating to CC 2018 I see some errors with a B&W-Gradient. The transition just bevor the black area is completely hard. After exporting the image as jpg and viewing it, this transition is perfect. So this should be an indication error of Photoshop. Can somebody help me or have somebody the same issue?

The issue accurse as I made a vignette on an image and it looks just horrible.

Thanks and best Regards

Johannes

[JJMack]

You do realize you editing in 16Bit color depth comparing that to decoded Jpeg 8 bit color depth image and there will be loss in image quality decoding the saved jpeg image Jpeg looses some image quality.  Here we only see your capture in  8 bit color depth we do not see what you see.  We see a decoded Jpeg, your screen capture which you may have also scale down in size.  The UI looks small on my display. Additionally you looking at a scaled image in Photoshop you not looking at 100% zoom at the image actual pixels. Photoshop scaling is done for speed of performance not for best image quality. Your looking at Apples and oranges. They should look different.

[Little Owl Pictures]

Thanks for your answer.

But, same issue in 8 bit. The scale also doesn’t matter. May the following picture illustrates what I see?

Just in case: yes, my Monitor is calibrated.

Best Regards

Johannes

[D Fosse · Accepted solution]

That's a defective monitor profile. Windows "Photos" is not color managed and does not use the profile, and is therefore unaffected.

Rerun your calibrator, and make sure it's set to produce

• matrix-based profiles, not LUT-based (table-based)
• version 2, not version 4.

LUT and/or v4 profiles are more complex and not always written to spec in some calibration software. Still they are often set as default policies.

[Little Owl Pictures]

Hey,

I found a solution! I have to set the Working-Color-Space to Adobe RGB. Now it looks correct. Nevertheless it is confusion because my Monitor do not have AdobeRGB and my Laptop is set to sRGB and don't have this error?!

Best Regrads

Johannes

[D Fosse]

That's not a solution, the problem is still there. Working space should not have any effect on this. If it does, something's wrong.

Since you have policies set to "convert to working", I'm guessing your original files were ProPhoto. Right? There is a problem with ProPhoto files when you have GPU set to "Normal" or "Advanced" modes in Photoshop Preferences. This is an inherent inaccuracy/bug in the OpenGL engine, and it causes black clipping and shadow banding, sometimes color banding.

This banding/clipping happens in the conversion from ProPhoto to the monitor profile, and the effect varies with different monitor profiles. But it rarely goes away altogether.

The only way to avoid this bug entirely is to either not use ProPhoto, or set GPU to "Basic" mode (which shifts display color management back to the CPU).

------

Another issue is the "convert to working RGB" policy. I would not recommend this unless you are fully aware of the implications! This potentially means clipping/data loss every time you open a file, and that loss is permanent and non-recoverable.

The most sensible and safe setting is "preserve embedded profiles". This will leave all your files as they are, without unintentional damage.

[Little Owl Pictures]

Hey,

the pictures was taken in AdobeRGB.

I had the same issue with new files (file--create new), where I creating a gradient. If I set the Color Space to AdobeRGB everything is correct, with sRGB I have this clipping.

Thank for the tip with "preserve embedded profiles".

Just another qustion: 8bit or 16bit has no influence on this?

Resetting the calibration also has no influence on this.

Best Regards

Johannes

[D Fosse]

the pictures was taken in AdobeRGB.

If you're referring to the camera setting, it does not apply to raw files, only camera jpegs. The color space is set in Lightroom/ACR.

I had the same issue with new files (file--create new), where I creating a gradient. If I set the Color Space to AdobeRGB everything is correct, with sRGB I have this clipping.

That still suggests a monitor profile problem. Whatever the document color space, files should always display identically in a properly color managed environment. That's the whole point!

What calibrator are you using?

[Little Owl Pictures]

Hey,

I use the Spyder5Pro for calibration.

With following settings it also works.

I know, my monitor is not the very best. But it should not have that huge influence?!

While importing a RAW file I use following settings:

Best Regards

Johannes

[D Fosse]

Color management isn't difficult at all. It "just works" - until it is broken in some application that doesn't do it right, or doesn't do it at all.

Color management "off" is a disaster waiting to happen, and I wish Adobe would simply remove this option altogether. It'll quickly get you into a world of trouble with no way back out. This setting disables all display color management, and so you make the wrong decisions. When you bring this file into a color managed workflow again, it's all wrong. And you don't know where you went wrong, and end up having to do it all over again.

Yes, I see the clipping in the sRGB version - but the Adobe RGB version doesn't look entirely healthy, either. It's just slightly better.

I'm still convinced you have a bad monitor profile.

Make a new profile, and in the process make sure the Spyder software is set to produce v2, matrix-based profiles - not v4 or table-based (LUT). There's nothing wrong with the latter, it's just more complex and a lot of calibrators don't do it right.

[Little Owl Pictures]

Hey,

I see Color Management is a very very complex topic.

Just a question: Did anybody see a difference?

I see the right gradiant clipped.

Best Regars

Johannes