Lightroom color not consistant with PSCS4/Bridge. Help please.

Question

Hi All,
I started with a search, but didn't find an answer that covered what I'm seeing.
OK, first of all, let me set this.
I'm running a MacBook Pro 2.2, OSX 10.6, with a 23" Apple Cinema Display (non-glossy screen) attached as my main work monitor for my LR, PSCS and all my other photography and graphics work. Any reference here is referring to the 23' ACD as that is my calibrated color reference point. And for the record, both the ACD and the MBP are fully hardware calibrated on a regular bases.
What I'm seeing is gorgeous color and pop in LR, but more muted colors in PSCS4 and Bridge. I have noticed that if I open a single image in both PSCS4 and Apple's 'Preview' app, the PSCS4 rendering matches the Bridge preview dead-on. While the 'Preview' app's rendering looks more like the LR previews. So it would seem to me that LR is 'talking' to the systems color rendering, while PSCS4 and Bridge are more, 'on their own', yet talking to each other.
I work almost completely in Adobe 98 color space. I export out of LR into PCSC4 as Adobe 98 PSD files. I continue to work in Adobe 98, and even re-enter the PSD files back into my Lightroom catalogs with their attached color space. In LR, I get the same 'look'. Nicely saturated color with a little pop, but if I open up the files again in PSCS4 they again, look somewhat 'muted'. But, I have tried this using multiple file types (psd, jpeg, raw) as well as sRGB color space. The results are the same. It seems application specific, NOT file-type specific.
Now I can understand maybe a slight color difference between PSCS/Bridge and say maybe Corel 'Painter'. But I am not understanding this obvious color difference between supposed related Adobe apps such as LR and PSCS4, again, while working on the same calibrated monitor.
FYI, my Epson 2400, using Epson's custom profiles, looks fantastic printing out of LR's Print module. (I love the LR Print module!).
My problem here is, I need to send files out to certain print houses for album printing and such (usually in sRGB color space). I have confidence with what I'm seeing in the Lightroom previews of my files. But the PSCS4 files are just too 'dull' looking. Kind of nervous to let them go out the door.
Final note, my entire Adobe Creative Suite is set to 'North American Prepress 2'.
Thanks for any help you can send my way.
-Sol

Answer 1

One thing I would try is to run with only one monitor (close the MacBook's lid and unsleep it by hitting a key on an external keyboard or only use the built-in display) and see if the problem persists.
Lightroom and Photoshop use the exact same color management module with just a few small differences. In general, you should get identical rendering of colors but for a few exceptions. One is that Lightroom always uses perceptual intent rendering and Photoshop always uses relative. Some color calibrators generate v4 profiles with a built in perceptual profile. The colormunki is one of those. With profiles like that you will see very subtle differences between Lightroom and Photoshop. Generally not something as strong as what you describe. Another difference is that Lightroom in the Develop module does NOT apply the color noise reduction when zoomed out, only when zoomed in at 1:1 or higher. The result of this is that sometimes, if you have lots of saturated color fine detail, the Develop module shows you a falsely oversaturated image when zoomed out. A good example of this happens with flowers in a grass field, finely detailed fall color leaves, or neon lights. You can see the effect by switching back and forth between Develop and Library or simply by zooming in at 1:1. Library will appear far less saturated as will the 1:1 display. You can solve this issue by lowering the color noise reduction to zero. Lastly, you wouldn't be the first to be fooled by the relatively dark background in Lightroom. This can make everything appear more saturated than the equivalent display in Photoshop which usually has a lightish grey as background or simply your desktop. This is a small effect but I have found it to be surprisingly large a few times. You can change the color of the background in Lightroom to play with this by control (or right) clicking in the matte area.