Lightroom & Photoshop Colour Profile Help

Shaun Palmer · 10 Mar 2017

Evening everyone

I've got a question that probably sounds way more complicated than the answer probably is, but here goes.

So, I normally do my main edits in Lightroom, then open in Photoshop from Lightroom to do the last little bits and to resize and put a border on. When I open it in PS a dialogue box comes up stating that the embedded profile doesn't match the current working space. The embedded is ProPhotRGB and the working space in PS is sRGB IEC61966-2.1, and I have the option to use the embedded profile or the sRGB profile. I always select to use the embedded as I save the file back into Lightroom.

Is this correct, As I export from Lightroom to sRGB? And why so many different profiles lol

I've been looking online for answers and have majorly confused myself

Thanks

Shaun

Craig_85 · 10 Mar 2017

This is fine, if you want to be working in pro photo rgb.

You can change the colour space settings in photoshop so that your working space in there is pro photo rgb, that way your exported pro photo rgb photos won't cause the mismatch dialogue box to pop up.

Brian G · 10 Mar 2017

You don't have any choice in Lightroom, it automatically uses ProPhoto color space and cannot be altered.
I can't find the article right now, but Adobe themselves recommend using ProPhoto colorspace and tiff format when transferring between Lightroom and Photoshop, and vice versa.
When I'm done with my Photoshop editing I save the tiff file back into the same folder that the original raw file was in.
That way, the edited version appears alongside the original in the Lightroom catalog.
If I want to print or view the final version elsewhere, I export it from Lightroom in the normal way, applying sRGB color profile and saving as a jpg.

Craig_85 · 10 Mar 2017

Brian G said:
You don't have any choice in Lightroom, it automatically uses ProPhoto color space and cannot be altered.

Yes it can. The warning he is getting in Photoshop is to do with the embedded profile, you can adjust what profile lightroom embeds when exporting or when editing in Photoshop.

He is not talking display space in lightroom which I think you refer to.

Brian G · 10 Mar 2017

Craig_85 said:
Yes it can. The warning he is getting in Photoshop is to do with the embedded profile, you can adjust what profile lightroom embeds when exporting or when editing in Photoshop.

He is not talking display space in lightroom which I think you refer to.

Yes, but Adobe recommend keeping ProPhoto color space and 16-bit TIFF when making the transfer.

Craig_85 · 10 Mar 2017

Brian G said:
Yes, but Adobe recommend keeping ProPhoto color space and 16-bit TIFF when making the transfer.

They may do, and I agree with your other points.

But in relation to the op's issue he does have a choice what profile is embedded for files being worked on outside of lightroom, or if he is happy with his current working profile of pro photo rgb he can change the working space of Photoshop to match so he doesn't get the mismatch warning.

Of course it's all fairly academic unless he is working on a calibrated wide gamut monitor...

Shaun Palmer · 11 Mar 2017

Thanks for the info guys. Craig unfortunately not fancy monitor just a laptop screen for now lol.

Just another quick question without making a new thread. When I transfer my photos to my iPhone, the colours look so oversaturated, even when viewed on the likes of Facebook etc from an iPhone. Is that just purely iPhones colour display?

Craig_85 · 11 Mar 2017

Shaun Palmer said:
Thanks for the info guys. Craig unfortunately not fancy monitor just a laptop screen for now lol.

Just another quick question without making a new thread. When I transfer my photos to my iPhone, the colours look so oversaturated, even when viewed on the likes of Facebook etc from an iPhone. Is that just purely iPhones colour display?

This seems slightly weird at first look, so a couple of possibilities.

A relatively common issue is people working in wider colour spaces (like Adobe RGB or Pro Photo RGB) on a monitor that supports the wider colour space. Then they view that picture with the embedded profile on a device that has a narrower colour space, the colours then look washed out.

It appears you are having the opposite issue here. Potentially your issue is mainly down to monitor/phone difference issues. Phones are designed to be bright and contrast and colourful. Your laptop monitor may be significantly under saturated in comparison. I also wonder if part of your issue is working in Pro Photo RGB as well. Seeing as you are working on a monitor that does not support the wider gamut space, why don't you simplify your workflow and shoot in sRGB (not that it matters in RAW) and export everything from LR in sRGB as well. Importantly as you seem to do the 'edit in PS' feature from LR too make sure you change the settings for that to TIFF and sRGB too.

I'm not on my computer at the moment but if you have any problems adjusting these settings come back and I'll do some screenshots of what I am referring to.

Brian G · 11 Mar 2017

Shaun Palmer said:
Thanks for the info guys. Craig unfortunately not fancy monitor just a laptop screen for now lol.

Just another quick question without making a new thread. When I transfer my photos to my iPhone, the colours look so oversaturated, even when viewed on the likes of Facebook etc from an iPhone. Is that just purely iPhones colour display?

What colour profile are you using for the transferred files?
It wold be safest to export as sRGB.

Shaun Palmer · 11 Mar 2017

I shoot in RAW, and always export as sRGB, to be honest I've always edited in Lightroom and ProPhotoRGB just because that's it's default and never changed it. And just export as sRGB

Can I change Lightrooms working colour space to sRGB?

Craig_85 · 11 Mar 2017

Shaun Palmer said:
I shoot in RAW, and always export as sRGB

That's fine to export as sRGB but to deal with the issue you mentioned in your opening post below is related to Lightrooms handling of external files, which is also a type of exporting but with its own settings.

Shaun Palmer said:
So, I normally do my main edits in Lightroom, then open in Photoshop from Lightroom to do the last little bits and to resize and put a border on. When I open it in PS a dialogue box comes up stating that the embedded profile doesn't match the current working space. The embedded is ProPhotRGB and the working space in PS is sRGB IEC61966-2.1

In LR open preferences, go to external editing, and where it shows a drop down menu for the colour space of what is used when editing in PS change that to sRGB as well.

This will deal with your first query in your opening post.

Shaun Palmer said:
Can I change Lightrooms working colour space to sRGB?

No you can't. But to be fair your graphics card even un calibrated should be converting what you are seeing to the monitor profile anyway so it doesn't matter.

Shaun Palmer · 12 Mar 2017

Craig_85 said:
That's fine to export as sRGB but to deal with the issue you mentioned in your opening post below is related to Lightrooms handling of external files, which is also a type of exporting but with its own settings.

In LR open preferences, go to external editing, and where it shows a drop down menu for the colour space of what is used when editing in PS change that to sRGB as well.

This will deal with your first query in your opening post.

No you can't. But to be fair your graphics card even un calibrated should be converting what you are seeing to the monitor profile anyway so it doesn't matter.

Brilliant thanks that clears a lot up