How can I recreate Photoshop’s oversaturated look caused by assigning the wrong ICC profile?
Asked 5/21/2018
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2 answers
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In Photoshop, I noticed a strong saturation increase when I export a JPEG without embedding an ICC profile and then reopen it while assigning a wide-gamut profile. I can also see the preview shift in Export As when the profile is not embedded. I’m using a wide-gamut Adobe RGB monitor.
I’d like to reproduce that same look directly in editing, ideally as an adjustment or LUT on a layer, without having to export and reopen the file. Is there a way to mimic this effect more directly in Photoshop?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
8y ago
2 Answers
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The simple way to get the same effect is to simply assign, from the edit menu, the ProPhoto RGB profile to the image. This is the same as exporting and saving the file w/o a profile then attaching ProPhoto RGB to it when opening. One further advantage is that saving as a jpeg invokes lossy compression and simply assigning ProPhoto doesn't lose info. It just causes it to be re-interpreted. It will change the tone curve to a gamma of 1.8 so you will see a general lightening as well as the substantially increased saturation.
You can then convert the image to any other colorspace if desired. For instance you might want to have the image in Adobe RGB which is a good match for most wide gamut monitors. Or just convert back to your original working space. This will retain the changes seen in assigning the ProPhoto profile but will remap the RGB values to the smaller colorspace. You can then place this image in another second layer. I don't think custom luts in a filter layer would provide as accurate a result.
Originally by user58107. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user58107
8y ago
0
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What you’re seeing is mainly a color-management mismatch, not a normal “saturation” adjustment. The image data is being reinterpreted in a larger color space, which makes colors appear more saturated and can also shift brightness.
A simple way to recreate it in Photoshop is to use Assign Profile rather than export/reopen. Assigning a wide-gamut profile such as ProPhoto RGB will produce essentially the same kind of oversaturated look as saving without a profile and reopening with that profile assigned. This avoids JPEG compression and keeps all the original image data.
After assigning the profile, you can Convert to Profile if you want to bring the image into another working space while keeping the appearance.
So: if your goal is to mimic that exact effect, use profile assignment, not a LUT. A LUT is not the most direct tool here because the look comes from incorrect profile interpretation rather than a fixed tonal/color transform.
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