JPG images not displayed correctly in Bridge and Photoshop (Mac OS)

Question

(Note: I have copied the content of this query from the Creative Suites forum where I originally opened it.)
I am using CS4 under OSX 10.4.11 on a PowerMac G5 Quad with 23" Apple cinema display. Images which have been captured as JPG are displayed fine by Preview, but when opened in Bridge, Camera Raw or Photoshop. the colours are all "washed out". The attached screen capture should give an idea of the difference, with the upper being Camera Raw (image settings) and the lower being Preview. My monitor has been calibrated and I'm using sRGB IEC61966-2.1 colour space in Camera Raw and Photoshop. The colours displayed by Preview are pretty close to "real life". I find it virtually impossible to adjust the colours in Photoshop to get back to anything similar.
After opening the image in Photoshop without adjustment, and Save As JPEG with embedded color profile, Preview displays the new image the same as Photoshop. Save As JPEG without embedded color profile, and Preview displays this copy just like the original. It seems that Photoshop is making different (incorrect) assumptions about what color space to use when there is no embedded color profile. Shouldn't it assume sRGB like virtually everything else (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRGB)? Or is its interpretation of sRGB incorrect? How can I fix this?
Re: JPG images not displayed correctly in Bridge and Photoshop 

Answer 1

xxxxyyyyz wrote:
…If there is someone out there who has experience of obtaining decent colour management in CS4 on a Power PC, I would really like to know how you achieved it.
That would be yours truly, and I hasten to reply because I may have some insights that can help you too.
Just get it it out of the way, here's my setup:
Photoshop 11.0.2 ("CS4"); VersionCue disabled and uninstalled.—2.5 GHz Power Mac (PPC) G5-Quad; 16GB RAM; mutant, flashed 550MHz nVidia GeForce 7800GTX 1,700MHz 512MB VRAM; ATTO ExpressPCI UL5D LP SCSI card; Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11 and Leopard 10.5.8 boot drives; Spotblight, Dashboard and Time Machine permanently disabled; dual 22" CRT monitors; USB wireless 'n' available but connected to the Internet via wired Ethernet; 1 FW flatbed scanner; 2 SCSI scanners (one tabloid-size transparency scanner and a film scanner); various internal & external HDs; FW Epson 2200 and Ethernet Samsung ML-2850ND printers; 2 X Back-UPS RS 1500 XS units.
I can unambiguously and in good faith represent to you that my color management, from capture to print, is as spot-on as anyone with any kind of setup can hope to achieve.  Unequivocally and without qualifications.
Now, first things first:  Forget about trying to synchronize color management across the point applications lumped together only by Adobe marketing fiat into a variety of meaningless "creative suites".  Concentrate on Photoshop.  Do not try to use Bridge to synchronize anything.
The "suites" are a totally artificial construct created by Adobe bean counters and marketing types.  The point applications (i.e. the individual programs clumsily bundled together, e.g. Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc.) are developed independently by separate engineering teams that are not only not in the same building, but in different cities, different states of the American Union, and even in different countries.  They have very little communication among them, if any, as evidenced by repeated posts in these forums by Photoshop engineering staff urging us, the end users, to let the other teams know in their own forums that a given problem exists and is actually affecting our work.
Enough said about the cause of the problem.  The end result is that Color Management is at very, very different levels of progress and sophistication in each individual point application, with only Photoshop fully entitled to be considered state of the art.
Secondly, a disclaimer:  I have been hanging on to my CRT monitors and take care of them as Jascha Heifetz used to take care of his Stradivarius.  I don't know what I will do if I manage to outlive the usefulness and accuracy of my CRTs (unlikely at this point).  I have despaired in futile efforts to bring the luminosity of any LCD monitor down to where I would feel comfortable calibrating and profiling it.  I believe my monitors are the foundation of my color management efforts.
Especially if you have one of the extreme wide-gamut LCD or LED monitors, you'll face an uphill battle. 
Be careful to avoid any version 4 icc profiles, whether canned or generated by your calibration software.  Stick to version2 icc profiles.  Ask the manufacturer of your calibration software/hardware if in doubt.
Here are some not-too-recent, but thoroughly representative screen shots of the calibration results I obtain with my monitors, which I calibrate and profile often and regularly (I validate the calibration at least several times per month).
In a nutshell, my color management practices and settings mirror those described by Bruce Fraser, Jeff Schewe, Andrew Rodney and Gary Ballard's site.  I have learned from all of them.
My working color space is ProPhoto RGB.  I choose to work with PSD and PSB files.  As a long-time, rabid JPEG hater, I only rarely deal with JPEGs, using them sporadically to illustrate a point in this forum or elsewhere in the web.  My main output consists of prints.
I only deal with tagged image files (files with an embedded color profile) and often recommend beating up with a baseball bat any moron that hands you an untagged file—figuratively of course, but I find the expression gets my point across unambiguously.
Following is a screen shot of some of my pertinent settings:
Note that I have never bought into the "suite" concept myself.  I do have and routinely use Adobe Illustrator 10.x, InDesign 2.x and Acrobat Professional 8.x, but they are all older, independent versions of each point application, licensed at different times.
Be further advised, that the answer to many problems offered by Adobe engineers often is not to install VersionCue, or uninstall it, or at least disable it.
Also, as outlined at the beginning of this post, concentrate on Photoshop, not on synchronizing applications that can't really communicate with each other, despite the claims of Adobe marketing hacks to the contrary.
One big caveat, do not fall into this trap:
xxxxyyyyz wrote:
…I believe my problem has nothing to do with my monitor profile, for several reasons, but…
…It seems extremely unlikely to me that…
You either want to learn, or you don't.  You either want to solve your problems, or you don't.
When you start arguing instead of studying, questioning advice instead of following it and detecting where you went wrong, you're on the right track to nowhere.  That attitude will get you there fast.  Remember you are the one with the problem, and only you can acquire the discipline to learn how to solve it.
Go ahead and ask me anything that is not clear, just don't argue with me please, and don't tell me why you think Fraser, Rodney, Ballard and I are wrong.  You see, I am not experiencing any problem that needs fixing.  I have an interest in helping you, but not in hearing about your speculations, theories or conclusions.
Good luck.
Wo Tai Lao Le
我太老了