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Jpg's saving darker than Raw file


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Hey Damien!

I'm having issues with my files in ACR. I looked back through my sessions and it appears this has been going on for about 6 weeks now. It seems to be happening about every other session, and randomly throughout the sessions. If I do my raw editing in ACR and then save as a jpg, the jpg is noticeably darker than my raw file and I can't get them to match. 

I've checked more times than I count. ACR is set to srgb. PS is set to srgb. I checked when I save and it's embedding the srbg color profile and if I check the metadata, it's showing srgb color profile. 

Any ideas on what could be causing this? Adobe customer support was no help and told me to switch to Adobe RBG. Google just keeps saying it's a color profile issue. 

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@Damien Symonds yes. Sorry I had to run out for a session. I have tried saving the raw file directly in ACR as well as opening it up in PS and saving there. Both times were the same result. The jpg was darker than the raw file. 

Also I answered the questions:

I have a PC desktop running Windows 10 and Photoshop CC. It is over 2 years old, and has 16GB of RAM. Its hard drive has 31.5GB free out of 118GB. The last time I shut down was last night. I have never run a cleanup program.

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6 minutes ago, Stephanie Simmons said:

I have tried saving the raw file directly in ACR as well as opening it up in PS and saving there. Both times were the same result. The jpg was darker than the raw file.

Gosh, that's interesting.

So even though you said this is happening to apparently random files, it's happening repeatedly to those files when you try the saves multiple times?

8 minutes ago, Stephanie Simmons said:

Its hard drive has 31.5GB free out of 118GB. The last time I shut down was last night. I have never run a cleanup program.

Gosh, my friend, these specs are a real worry, and could go a long way to explaining the problem.  That's such a small hard drive to begin with, and not much free space to allow your software enough working room.  I urge you to run Glary Utilities right away.

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2 minutes ago, Damien Symonds said:

Gosh, that's interesting.

So even though you said this is happening to apparently random files, it's happening repeatedly to those files when you try the saves multiple times?

Gosh, my friend, these specs are a real worry, and could go a long way to explaining the problem.  That's such a small hard drive to begin with, and not much free space to allow your software enough working room.  I urge you to run Glary Utilities right away.

Yes I've tried working with the affected files repeatedly and same result, no matter what I do where the others are completely fine. I've even tried raising the exposure and saving again to see if it would match, but still darker. 

I have multiple hard drives on my computer, including a separate one where I store all my files and pictures, and 2 solid state drives as well. The question asked for the main hard drive so I only listed that one. Is that still an issue? I've got to get my kids to bed but give me about 30 hour or so and I'll run the program you recommended. 

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1 minute ago, Stephanie Simmons said:

Yes I've tried working with the affected files repeatedly and same result, no matter what I do where the others are completely fine. I've even tried raising the exposure and saving again to see if it would match, but still darker.

Ok, it's time for me to see some screenshots of this.  Can you select both files in Bridge so they appear side-by-side in your Preview Panel (make sure you're in "Filmstrip" workspace or similar) then show me a screenshot?

2 minutes ago, Stephanie Simmons said:

I have multiple hard drives on my computer, including a separate one where I store all my files and pictures, and 2 solid state drives as well. The question asked for the main hard drive so I only listed that one. Is that still an issue?

Yes, still an issue unless you've taken specific steps to mitigate.  In Photoshop, have you gone to Edit>Preferences>Performance, and set additional Scratch Disks?  If yours is only set to C drive (by default) that won't be enough.  Add another drive as well (one with plenty of space).

Also, in Bridge's preferences, I strongly suggest setting up your Cache folder on another drive, not C.

And even when you've done all of that, I STRONGLY recommend not having too many other programs open while you're running Photoshop.

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Okay @Damien Symonds kids are to bed. Ran the Glary Utilities and cleared up quite a few errors. Checked scratch disks for Photoshop and Bridge cache folder. Both are on the C driver. Apparently I have an empty solid state drive so I'll get those things moved. 

I took a screenshot, but saw something interesting in ACR and it was the first time I caught it. About 10 seconds after the Raw file opens in ACR, the histogram changes and the picture darkens but none of the settings change. When I close it and go back out, the image in Bridge looks like the original image that opened before it darkens. I opened a couple of the different affected files and they all did this. 5-10 seconds after opening, histogram shifts towards the black end and image darkens. 

Can you see the difference in these two? When you click back and forth it's obvious but I'm not sure how much you can see here. Her skin is darker, the greens are darker, and the sky is slightly grayish in the jpg. 

Screenshot.jpg

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5 minutes ago, Stephanie Simmons said:

About 10 seconds after the Raw file opens in ACR, the histogram changes and the picture darkens but none of the settings change. When I close it and go back out, the image in Bridge looks like the original image that opened before it darkens. I opened a couple of the different affected files and they all did this. 5-10 seconds after opening, histogram shifts towards the black end and image darkens.

Gee, now I'm really worried about your computer.  That should take one second, not ten.

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1 minute ago, Damien Symonds said:

Gee, now I'm really worried about your computer.  That should take one second, not ten.

Well poop. I just checked one of the ones where the Raw file + Jpg match and it doesn't do this. The histogram doesn't change at all and nothing darkens. For the ones that are affected, the Bridge image looks like when it first opens but the jpg is saving like what I see after 10 seconds. I literally have no issues running Photoshop at all. It never lags or is slow. Is that really what seems to be causing this? And if so, will just moving the scratch disks and Bridge cache fix it or am I looking at something else?

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2 minutes ago, Damien Symonds said:

This "changing after ten seconds" problem ... is it happening with raw files you've edited, or not edited, or both?

Good question. The ones I'm referring to are edited. Like I mentioned above, I checked some of the other edited raw files that the jpgs are matching, and they aren't doing this. I opened up one of tonight's session since those haven't even been looked at yet, let alone edited. I see the histogram shift after about a second or two, but nothing darkening. 

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2 minutes ago, Damien Symonds said:

So, can you identify anything you did differently during editing of those ones?  A particular preset or anything like that?

I am using a preset (Sorry! I know you're not a fan), however I use the exact same preset on every image, every session. I have wondered if that's the culprit but then shouldn't it be that way across every image? The one thing I am noticing though is I tend to open up my session in groups of maybe 5-10 images that were taken close together, same setting, same light, etc. and batch edit them. If the image is one of the affected one, that entire group is affected. If it's not, that entire group is fine. So it has to be SOMETHING I'm doing. There has to be something I'm clicking, right?

2 minutes ago, Damien Symonds said:

I have to go out for a bit.  Back as soon as I can.

I understand. It's getting late here so I actually need to head to bed but with the time difference I wanted to make the most of it while you were here. If you have any other questions or ideas, I'll answer tomorrow. Thanks. 

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10 hours ago, Damien Symonds said:

I know you want it to be something you're clicking. But it's not, sorry. This is simply a matter of not enough computer  power. Have you made those changes I suggested yet?

I needed my husband to connect the other solid state drive, which is why I didn't just do it last night. I have it connected now, moved the PS Scratch Disks to the empty SSD so it now has an extra 60GB, moved the Bridge Cache off the C drive to a different hard drive. Closed everything and reopened Bridge but Raw files are still not matching the Jpg. Should I purge my Bridge cache and then the Raw files will load correctly since it seems what I'm seeing in Bridge is not correct? I do see things are loading faster. 

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1 minute ago, Stephanie Simmons said:

I'm not sure I find it as fascinating but I'm glad it may help you! Thanks! 

*giggling* I can agree that "fascinating" is not the proper adjective given the frustration involved on your part. I hope that we both find solutions for our respective challenges. Good luck!

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