BW conversion/color space - photos too dark

[jarle]

Not directly PM related, perhaps, but please bear with me: after converting to Black and White (Grayscale) in Photoshop, the images appear fine within Photoshop, but in other programs, including PM, the photos are too dark. Under Edit > Color Settings in PS, the working space for Grayscale images is set to Dot Gain 20%, which I believe is the default setting.

When printing the photos at a commercial lab, the resulting copies are also too dark.

Should I use a different grayscale setting in Photoshop?

Thank you.

Jarle

[Hayo Baan]

Sounds like you have a problem with your colour management settings in Photoshop. Have a very thorough look through the colour settings. It is likely you inadvertently have photoshop render your images brighter than they are. Also make sure you have not turned on soft proofing.

[jarle]

Thanks. Asking in the Adobe forum, I got the following reply:

"Yes. Use gamma 2.2.
 
The issue is again how a file will look in the absence of color management, and as always you need to pick a profile that is close to the native behavior of a standard monitor. That's gamma 2.2.
 
With color management, as in Photoshop, it displays correctly regardless, and in a fully color managed print process it should also print correctly. Your commercial lab is probably one of those who expect sRGB and print without further color management."

I've changed to gamma 2.2 in PS and the grayscale images are now correctly shown in PM. But: being a colour managed program, PM should display the photos correctly regardless of colour profile, i.e. photos should look the same as in Photoshop?

[Kirk Baker]

Thanks. Asking in the Adobe forum, I got the following reply:

"Yes. Use gamma 2.2.
 
The issue is again how a file will look in the absence of color management, and as always you need to pick a profile that is close to the native behavior of a standard monitor. That's gamma 2.2.
 
With color management, as in Photoshop, it displays correctly regardless, and in a fully color managed print process it should also print correctly. Your commercial lab is probably one of those who expect sRGB and print without further color management."

I've changed to gamma 2.2 in PS and the grayscale images are now correctly shown in PM. But: being a colour managed program, PM should display the photos correctly regardless of colour profile, i.e. photos should look the same as in Photoshop?

PM uses the color management systems provided by the OS.  Does your image look correctly when viewed with the image viewing software provided by the OS you're using?

-Kirk

[jarle]

PM uses the color management systems provided by the OS.  Does your image look correctly when viewed with the image viewing software provided by the OS you're using?

Thanks. I didn't know this. For some reason I thought colour management was handled by PM itself. No, they do not look correct using Preview on Mac either. Explains a lot. I've now switched to Gray Gamma 2.2 in PS, which seems like the best general purpose solution.