I use this dev version of RT:
RawTherapee_dev_5.8-2945-g36f1300a6_20210523_win64
I recently upgraded my pc to a much faster no-name version. The opening of a file from RT into the open Photoshop 21 is very fast. Maybe for that reason the difference in colors immediately caught my attention.
My Output profile in RT is ProPhoto and PS opens it with ProPhoto RGB. So to my understanding there should be no color shift - even from the conversion of the ARW-file to a TIFF.
To isolate the problem I chose the Neutral preset for a test image and only changed the Output profile to ProPhoto. That’s why “Processing profiles” shows Custom. This is how the screen copies look:
NB: This is a less prominent example. If I edit the images to my satisfaction in RT - it will look absurdly over-saturated when opened in Photoshop.
Continuation:
If I open the ARW file with Adobe Camera Raw (ProPhoto RGB as color profile) - and without any editing forward it to Photoshop 21 - there’s no color-shift whatsoever.
I am no expert but is there a colorshift when you export both images? Maybe there are different color profiles used for the display.
Also maybe the demosaicing algorithm can be different? Can’t it influence colors?
And there also seems to be a slight exposition difference between the two images, does PS have a default basecurve? i believe it can induce colorshifting. Again i don’t have much experience with compared software…
Check the settings for black point compensation (under color management) in both RT and PS.
How do you calibrate/profile your screen and what kind of profile do you use?
the GPU has nothing to do with this.
Check your color management settings, in Windows, PS and RT (Settings → Color Management). Make sure that all apps use the same profile and check the black point compensation settings.
Btw, about 2 years ago I noticed that RT and PS behave very similarly as far as bpc is concerned, but maybe that has changed meanwhile.
Hi,
From your screenshot of RT it seems you are using prophoto as your display profile (look at the bottom of your screen). If so, that’s the culprit. Output profile and display profile are two different things
As I wrote above, the latest dev version of Skylake don’t have this problem.
Alberto: I have ProPhoto as the Working Profile and Output Profile - no Abstract Profile (please enlarge the image).
Paul matthijsse: Yes, I tried to use the default Output Profile and it made no difference.
Thank you all for your support.
Now, I just wonder what went gone wrong with the earlier version.
Can it happen as a result of “monkey-testing” the former version - I have been all over it, sliding this and that, especially in the color sections. Or is it a known issue which have been solved with the later version - 2951?
That’s likely what you’re seeing: ProPhoto is not a profile designed for rendering your image. It preserves most of the color gamut of your camera for editing.
For output to a file, sRGB is the safest choice. For display, you really should have a display profile calibrated to your display. Yep, there’s a bit to be learned and a device to be bought, but believe me, it makes a difference in how consistent your images look to you, and to others…
Frankly though, in the two screenshots you posted, I see less of a color difference and more of a tone difference. In recent versions of RT, there’s a tone curve mode called “auto-match”, it makes a tone curve that approximates what the camera did to make the embedded JPEG. I wonder if using that (it may be enabled by default in your more recent RT version) would make the screenshots more similar.
As @agriggio said, you chose the wrong display profile. Afaik there is no screen that can display ProPhoto. That’s a working color space, in some cases an output profile, but never a screen profile.
The new RT just chose sRGB/none as screen profile automatically.
I have a screen profile loaded created by a temporary app - until I can replace my broken Spyder-system. I think my screen is fairly well adjusted.
This, in my opinion, should make no difference when the ARW and the derived TIFF is compared at the same screen though.
Regarding color- vs. tone difference. If I - with the former version - edited the image to my taste in RT, it would look extremely over-saturated in PS and with the colors way off - e.g. a cobalt blue sky would look greenish lagoon blue.
I meant trying to export the same image but from the two different programs. To see if the exported images have the same color. If the colors exported are the same there may be a different color profile applied in the program for the display which is different from the “output” color profile you chose
sbij,
I did that from Adobe Camera Raw to Photoshop, both set to ProPhoto, and there was no difference in colors - everything looked as it should.
As mentioned - the problem went away when I installed the latest Skylake dev. version of RT. Now RT works as well exporting to PS as it went from ACR to PS.
Yes, Andy Astbury, suggested current monitor profile.
But it works fine with the new dev. version 2951 from Skylake.
With the new version I see only a slight difference between None and current monitor profile, and the difference is more or less invisible in PS.
That said, I have missed the importance of this setting.
Thank you for pointing at it.
This is fine tuning and the differences are far from the color-shift I experienced with the prior version. I honestly believe that I have managed to corrupt the prior version - but how???
