Camera Raw filter in PS has inaccurate preview

[dave.hallett]

Since the last Camera Raw update, I've noticed that when I open an image in the Camera Raw filter in Photoshop, the preview immediately looks different from the original picture - less contrast, more open shadows. It's just the preview that's off - if I make a minor change and press OK, the result is what you would expect, not what the preview shows. Is anyone else seeing this? I can do a screen shot if it's useful.

Googling has found one possible person with the same issue: https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2377883 but that's all. Everything is up to date so I don't think it's about different versions of ACR vs PS or whatever.

Mainly, I'd like to know whether this is a general problem (and therefore something Adobe will probably fix) or unique to me (in which case I'll investigate further). It makes the filter rather difficult to use, so I'd like to solve it...

 

[john.margetts]

Preview will be probably be using the colour space your camera has set while ACR will use the colour space set in ACR. This will happen even in Raw where the image does not actually have a colour space because the embedded preview does have one.

 

[dave.hallett]

Sorry if I'm being dense, but I don't understand your explanation. I have a picture open in PS. I click Filter, and then Camera Raw Filter, and the filter opens. In the filter dialogue there is a preview of the result of using the filter, which is immediately different from the one in PS, even though no changes have been made and if I hit OK, no changes are made to the base image. Why would this filter preview be using a different colour space from the rest of PS? Why would that be useful or sensible?

 

[john.margetts]

OK. I am not sure what "Camera Raw Filter" is. I assumed you were opening the image in ACR which is not a filter.

 

[dave.hallett]

Open Photoshop and go to the Filter menu it has most of the ACR interface but some is missing, e.g. Crop, and obviously it lacks the full WB abilities of ACR when it's not dealing with a RAW file.

 

[dave.hallett]

A small update: if I open a raw file in PS using "Edit as Smart Object" from Lightroom and then double click it in PS to open ACR, I get the same issue. So it's definitely an ACR thing.

I've tried turning off graphics processor support in ACR, makes no difference. I don't see anywhere in ACR setting to specify colour space.

It would be nice if even one person could try this for themselves and report back on whether this is the same for them, or whether everything is fine...Anyone?

 

[john.margetts]

If it is definitely an ACR thing, then my original explanation stands: - ACR and PS are using two different colour spaces. I use Lightroom for raw processing and not PS so I cannot help you with settings.

You might check on your camera as to what colour space the camera is set to and make sure that PS is set to the same colour space.

 

[PhilH04]

If it is definitely an ACR thing, then my original explanation stands: - ACR and PS are using two different colour spaces. I use Lightroom for raw processing and not PS so I cannot help you with settings.

You might check on your camera as to what colour space the camera is set to and make sure that PS is set to the same colour space.

Won't make any difference in this case.....

Have tried it in CC which is fully up to date and my Camera Raw preview image is exactly the same as the original image in PS, haven't been through them yet but is there any chance of it being a setting in camera Raw preferences?

 

[dave.hallett]

Won't make any difference in this case.....

Have tried it in CC which is fully up to date and my Camera Raw preview image is exactly the same as the original image in PS, haven't been through them yet but is there any chance of it being a setting in camera Raw preferences?

Thanks Phil, much appreciated! I'll have a poke around in settings, but I'm pretty sure this has changed with the latest update, as this is a key part of my workflow and I can't imagine not noticing it. Maybe something has got reset to a default on the update.

However I also read somewhere about someone who had a similar issue that was never explained, but which resolved when he reinstalled everything Adobe, so maybe that's what I'll have to try next. Thanks again.

 

[caissad]

I had a problem with the preview after the recent update. It wasn't quite the same as yours. My problem was that the preview window was showing too much blue. I solved it by turning off the use graphic processor option. Go to Edit/Preferences/Camera Raw and then untick the use graphics processor box. It worked for me anyway so might be worth a try.

 

[dave.hallett]

I had a problem with the preview after the recent update. It wasn't quite the same as yours. My problem was that the preview window was showing too much blue. I solved it by turning off the use graphic processor option. Go to Edit/Preferences/Camera Raw and then untick the use graphics processor box. It worked for me anyway so might be worth a try.

Yeah, I had heard this caused problems for some people. Alas, it makes no difference for me, but thanks for the thought!

 

[dave.hallett]

Update for anyone who finds this thread in future. The problem has been tracked to my monitor calibration profile (Spyder 4, which doesn't seem to work very well with Windows 10), which wasn't getting used in the same way by both components.

Photoshop was using my monitor's default profile, and ACR was using...something else. not sure what exactly.

So I went into my monitor's setup in the W10 Color Management panel, and forced it to use a fresh Spyder 4 profile rather than the default. Now ACR and PS look much closer if not identical.

Thanks to everyone who tried to help!

 

[gramps]

Update for anyone who finds this thread in future. The problem has been tracked to my monitor calibration profile (Spyder 4, which doesn't seem to work very well with Windows 10), which wasn't getting used in the same way by both components.

Photoshop was using my monitor's default profile, and ACR was using...something else. not sure what exactly.

So I went into my monitor's setup in the W10 Color Management panel, and forced it to use a fresh Spyder 4 profile rather than the default. Now ACR and PS look much closer if not identical.

Thanks to everyone who tried to help!

Strangely enough I had this exact same problem today after reverting to CS6 from CC ... couldn't make it out at all.
After a Google I did a fresh Spyder 5 Calibration and set as default, CS6 picked it up next time I fired it up and all is well ... no other software was affected.
As a point of interest there was a suggested get-around of going to View > Proof Setup and checking Monitor RGB and whilst this appeared to fix the problem it was only a get-around, the only way to do it properly is by using Windows Color Management as you describe.

 

[dave.hallett]

Strangely enough I had this exact same problem today after reverting to CS6 from CC ... couldn't make it out at all.
After a Google I did a fresh Spyder 5 Calibration and set as default, CS6 picked it up next time I fired it up and all is well ... no other software was affected.
As a point of interest there was a suggested get-around of going to View > Proof Setup and checking Monitor RGB and whilst this appeared to fix the problem it was only a get-around, the only way to do it properly is by using Windows Color Management as you describe.

Yeah, I have the feeling that it probably wasn't the ACR/PS update, but the Win10 Creator's Update that arrived on my machine at about the same time, probably reset my Color Management settings.

From what I've heard, Spyder 5 works a bit better with Win10 than Spyder 4. No need to force set the profile in the same way.

 

[gramps]

From what I've heard, Spyder 5 works a bit better with Win10 than Spyder 4. No need to force set the profile in the same way.

No it automatically sets the profile as default and allows you to name it what you like for future reference.