Lightroom shows wrong colors

Operating System: Win 10 x64
PC / Graphics / Monitor: Core i7 / 32GB / Radeon 460 / BENQ BL3201PT (UHD)
Exact Lightroom Version (Help menu > System Info): Classic CC, 7.0 / Camera Raw 10.0

Hi!

I am just starting to edit my this year's photos for our year-book wjich we create every year. For at least 5 years I am editing in lightroom, yet now for the fors time, I have tho following problem:

My pictures are displayed in Lightroom darker an with less color, when compared to the same images opened directly in Windows or other external editor / viewer. The colors look a littlebit like Adobe-RGB displayed in sRGB (a problem I had when first having my camera several years ago).

The images are CANON CR2 files, taken with either a 7D Mark I oder a 5D Mark II, both set to sRGB.

Attached you will find a sample-Screen-Shot. The left side is from Lightroom (completely unedited und reset), the right side shows the CR2 File as diplayed in Windows 10 or (in this case) with Fast-Stone Image viewer. The latter seem to be correct in color, as I know from experience and from opening the files on a different PC.

Please help me!!!

Thanks,

Jan

Your monitor is an AdobeRGB monitor. If you view images on this monitor with a non-color managed application like Windows Viewer or FastStone, you will not see the correct colors. They will be too saturated. Lightroom is color managed, so it shows you the real colors.

Thanks.... But...

Thanks for your Explanation and please excuse my obvious ignorance of Color profiles. I understand what you write, but in the end this means that the pictures, taken in sRGB in the camera appear on every Monitor alike, except for in Lightroom with my Monitor, in which the yook too dark / less saturated. Even if that would be technically correct, it means that I have no way of editing my Pictures in Lighroom as the result (JPEG in sRGB) will look different from the editing result in LR. Exporting the JPGs in Adobe RGB does not help either, because as I found out, most comercial printing Services use sRGB and the Pictures come out extremely dark and ugly when exported in Adobe RGB (our wedding-altum came out like that and we were extremely disappointed, and had no idea why that was until I found out that I used Adobe RGB without knowing that it even existed at the time).

So, is there a way, to go around this Problem, to make Lightroom behave "normally" again, even if this might no be technically perfect, or do I have to throw away my Monitor and get a more studpid one, tha cannot Display Adobe RGB but instead shows the Pictures in LR as they will appear in JPG?

Thank you, but I am panicking at the moment...

Jan

(i googled the monitor and i think it is just over sRGB and about 70% adobe RGB .
- is your monitor calibrated (as in, measured with an x rite of spyder device)
- in which module is the strange colour experience (you could be softproofing by mistake)
(the srgb setting in the camera only applies to the jpg, it has no effect on the raw file)

I Googled it again, and apparently I read the review too quickly. The AdobeRGB part was about a competitor. Lightroom uses your monitor profile, the other apps don't. So in principle Lightroom shows you the correct colors and the other apps don't, except when your monitor profile is the problem. You can check this by temporarily setting the monitor profile selection to sRGB.

Are the image files in question JPG or raw?

-louie

Just from curiosity - do you really compare apples with apples?

If you display a raw file (here: CR2) eg with Faststone Image Viewer, then you get displayed the preview image (jpg) which is embedded in the raw file. This preview image is stored in the camera based on the picture settings you have selected for the shot.

You would still get this preview image displayed even after you have done modifications to the picture in Lightroom UNLESS you have updated the preview image in Lightroom afterwards.[Edit on] This update is only possible for raw files in DNG format, see below [Edit off]

So the question on the apple to apple comparion is: have you done this update?

tvi,
Lightroom will only update the embedded preview in DNG files, not CR2 or any other raw flavours.

Thank you for the hint/correction (yes, I am working with DNG files).

My conclusion now: the comparison of the pictures is not an apple to apple comparison.

Whow!
Thanks for all the answers. However, they don't get me any closer to the solution.
To answer a few questions on this one:
1. I am sure I am not in Soft-Proof (S) mode.
2. The strange colors are in all LR Modules
2. The Files are CR2 Raw Files from a Canon 7D and 5D Mark II
3. Yes, I am comparing the LR appearence with an embedded JPG from the RAW File in FastStone Image Viewer or Windows Photo Viewer.

Again: I do not care about what is technically correct, I just want LR to show my pictures the wy the JPGs will look on any other PC including my own. It does not help me, that Lightrrom seems to show the technically perfect pictures as I intend to export them to JPGs, which will then look "normal" again. What is the use of LR, if you are unable to see the pictures the way they will be exported while editing them. Or theother way around: What is the point of editing a picture in LR, when the resulting JPG ist completely different from the picture I see in LR?

I just found a way to improve things a little, however, this seems to be a work-around rather than a solution: In the Develop Module, I have a section called "Kamerakalibrierung", which would translate to "Camera Calibration". In this module, i can change the profile to "Camera Standard", which makes the prictures look a little more like the JPGs. Yet, I am not sure, how this will effect on the export...

I added a Collection of 4 Screenshots. Formerly - menaing before the problem started, A,B,C used to be identical (at least to the human eye). Now, there are clear differences between all three. Image D comes closes to A but ist still visibly darker.

Please help a stupid user!

Thanks!

And now, its getting completely wild: I just realize, that the red color in the screenshot is totally dull in the uploaded image, while being bright in the editing tool (SNAGIT) as well is in Faststone or Windows. A second Screenshot here will show the differenec: The left picture is taken from this forum (Browser-Screenshot) with the orignal image open in Faststone is placed on the right.
I wonder what happens during the upload: Most probably, the left picture will become even duller, while the right one will just get one step duller as before...
HELP!!!!

You didn't answer the earlier question about calibration of your monitor....do you do that, and is the calibration up-to-date?

Assuming that you do calibrate the monitor (if you don't, most of the preceding discussion is pretty meaningless), then a couple of suggestions:

1. Ignore whatever you see if you attempt to view a CR2 in an external viewer, as that will almost certainly be the embedded preview which is created by the camera's own raw conversion algorithms, and also factors in any in-camera settings you may have used. Lightroom's raw conversion algorithms are almost certainly going to be different, producing a different initial appearance, and also do not factor in most of the in-camera settings. So in this instance, comparing the results of importing into Lightroom with the embedded preview will almost certainly be different. Ignore screen-shot apps as well, using a generally non-colour-managed app to take a screen shot of an image displayed in a non-colour-managed viewer is hopeless for judging colour accuracy.

2. Work on the basis that what you see in Lightroom is colour-correct, and then edit the CR2 to your preference. Then export the CR2 to Jpg (using sRGB colour space), and add the exported jpeg back into the catalog. Then compare the edited CR2 with the exported jpeg in the Library module, and they should look more or less identical.

3. Now, if you want to see what the exported file looks like outside LR, you have to use a colour-managed application to do that. The Windows 10 Photos viewer is NOT colour-managed, so you have to find something else. The Firefox browser is colour-managed, so you could simply drag the jpeg onto a new tab, and compare the Firefox display with the LR display. Again, they should be more or less identical.

And that's just about as far as you can go. You cannot guarantee that, when you share the images online or through email, the recipient will see the same image that you sent....because everything depends on the recipient having a correctly calibrated monitor, and uses a colour-managed app for viewing. And you generally have no control over that, you can only control your own environment....but getting your images developed on a colour-managed display using a colour-managed application such as Lightroom will at least give you the best chance of your viewers seeing something close to what you created.

jan089717 said:

Again: I do not care about what is technically correct, I just want LR to show my pictures the wy the JPGs will look on any other PC including my own. It does not help me, that Lightrrom seems to show the technically perfect pictures as I intend to export them to JPGs, which will then look "normal" again. What is the use of LR, if you are unable to see the pictures the way they will be exported while editing them. Or theother way around: What is the point of editing a picture in LR, when the resulting JPG ist completely different from the picture I see in LR?
Thanks!

Click to expand...

I am a bit confused: do you compare the images from Lightroom with the preview in the CR2, or do you compare the image as seen in Lightroom with the JPG result from the Lightroom export?

Anyway, the comparison between B/C/D and A makes no real sense, because the results from the camera’s development process and Lightroom’s development process of the raw image will almost always look different, as explained by Jim.

My few additional cents:

If you want to have your images processed by Lightroom with the identical look as generated by the camera, then why do you involve Lightroom? Apart from the additional function of LR (catalogue) it would probably be easier to generate both Raw and JPG by the camera and take the latter as the final and desired result.

However, the JPG as generated by the camera, is often not up to your taste. It might be a bit under- or overexposed, lacks some structure in the darks or lights or does not match the "mood" you remember when you took the shot late in the afternoon.

And here comes the benefit of the Lightroom’s develop module: you can correct / adjust the image in many such areas to your liking, and for this task you need the Raw image as base.

I personally don’t care what the camera would generate as JPG. I take all my pictures solely in Raw.

P.S. if you are a bit struggling with Lightroom's capabilities, I want to recommend that you buy one of the books available about LR or follow some of the many videos in the web. I have learned a lot from both media.

Thank you all for your help. I guess I am wrong about my expectations and have so far just been lucky the in the past (with the screens I used so far) A, B and C looked so much alike that I never realized them to be different. Now it seems I have to cope with the situation as it is, still not really understanding the issue.
So, sorry for bothering all of you.
Thanks, Jan

PS: Just to answer the question of tvi: The reason I use LR ist just what you expected: I want to be able to adjust my pictures to what I believe the real situation was and to compensate for unwanted effects like under / over exposure, wrong white balance and so on. The pictures above were used only to illustrate the problem and were therefore nor adjusted.

Can someone advise a good source on colormanagement written for non-professionals?

jan089717 said:

Thank you all for your help. I guess I am wrong about my expectations and have so far just been lucky the in the past (with the screens I used so far) A, B and C looked so much alike that I never realized them to be different. Now it seems I have to cope with the situation as it is, still not really understanding the issue.

Click to expand...

Jan,

I suspect that what is happening is through the use of Lightroom you have started to train your brain to see finer distinctions of color. And you have also discovered how inconsistently color handled by different applications. Because you are already capturing raw images and are using Lightroom you already have the basic conditions to produce consistent color from your workflow.

You have been asked repeatedly what calibration device that you use and since you have not answered this question, I am guessing that you do not have one and therefore do not have an accurate profile set for your monitor. Without doing this you have essentially no possibility having any consistency, you see in Lightroom as you edit your images is unlikely to look the same as the same image exported as sRGB or printed on a photo inkjet printer. Very much like what you are describing.

The single step you can take to resolve your problem is to get a monitor calibration tool like X-Rite i1Display Pro and use it on a regular basis.

-louie

Roelof Moorlag said:

Can someone advise a good source on colormanagement written for non-professionals?

Click to expand...

Andrew Rodney, at digitaldog.net has an excellent collection video tutorials and written articles covering all aspects of color management and color theory. I keep coming back to this site to refresh my memory and to pickup new information. Perhaps a good overview of color spaces and why color management is important is Video tutorial (37 min) covering Gamuts of working spaces, images and output devices. He uses 3D plotting tools to compare gamuts and image colors to demonstrate why you should keep your image files in the widest gamut working space. Something that Lightroom does by default.

-louie

jan089717 said:

So, sorry for bothering all of you.

Click to expand...

Please don't worry about that. This is an all-volunteer forum. If any one person doesn't want to be bothered, then we wouldn't answer.

I agree with Louie.. You may not know that there are devices out there to calibrate monitors by displaying colors on your monitor with the calibrator device resting on the display to measure them.

Also important would be the resources he mentions for getting a better understanding of color spaces and calibration, etc. Don't worry about getting confused by all of it at first - that has happened to ALL of us at one point or another, even DigitalDog (I assume ). Just keep reviewing such sources as DigitalDog as your understanding grows - and things will start making more sense as you go.

I'll seco

LouieSherwin said:

Andrew Rodney, at digitaldog.net has an excellent collection video tutorials and written articles covering all aspects of color management and color theory. I keep coming back to this site to refresh my memory and to pickup new information. Perhaps a good overview of color spaces and why color management is important is Video tutorial (37 min) covering Gamuts of working spaces, images and output devices. He uses 3D plotting tools to compare gamuts and image colors to demonstrate why you should keep your image files in the widest gamut working space. Something that Lightroom does by default.

-louie

Click to expand...

I'll second that recommendation. Andrew's videos are detailed, but not hard to follow. He does a decent job of walking the viewer through the topic at hand. I believe that Gary Ballard(?) might also have some pages that are useful, but Andrew's work is still among the easiest, but still comprehensive, to follow.

Good luck,

--Ken