Color of photo depends on how it get's opened

[Peter_Z]

If I open a .jpg file per right-click, it loads in affinity photo as colorful as in the default Windows Photo app. But if i drag and drop the .jpg file directly into an active affinity photo session, the picture has a greyish appearance.

Screenshot: two times the same .jpg file in affinity photo with different appearence. The background opened per right-click. The picture above dragged and dropped into the window. As you can see on the right side, the picture in the background is more colorful than the picture above.

I tried to solve this problem by experimenting with color profiles, but couldn't solve it.

 

[Callum]

Hi Peter_Z,

Welcome to the forums,

If possible could you provide one of the images in question? Please could you also try using File > Place and placing an image into your document to see if also looks different to normal?

Thanks
C

[Peter_Z]

Hello Callum, thanks for helping.

This is happening to all images, not only to some special ones.

I tried File -> Place, the image looks also different this way.

The only way to get a image with original colors into the document, is to open it in a new affinity photo document, and then copy it from the layers window, into the other affinity photo document.

[Peter_Z]

added an affinity photo file now with this problem

different colors - same images.afphoto

[Peter_Z]

Thanks Hens for this hint.

I tried that now in different ways, but the result is, that both of the images are less colorful, and not only one of them.

How can I make the less colorful (same) image normal colorful as the other?

What do I have to change in the settings, so that the problem doesn't appear anymore for further works?

[RichardMH]

If you rasterise the layers they are the same. (Check with Difference or Subtract blend mode) I note when I follow what you did I get one image as a pixel layer and the other as an image layer. But I can't see any difference in mine.

 

[Peter_Z]

1 hour ago, Hens said:

I'd use the live adjustments to have it look better to my taste.

Due to both images are from the same .jpg file, there shouldn't be the need of an adjustment to make them appear the same way.
Beside of that, of course I use live filters.

[Peter_Z]

2 hours ago, RichardMH said:

If you rasterise the layers they are the same. (Check with Difference or Subtract blend mode) I note when I follow what you did I get one image as a pixel layer and the other as an image layer. But I can't see any difference in mine.

 

I prefere to rasterise (if) at the end of the work, not at the beginning - because of possible loss of quality in each non-removable step.

[walt.farrell]

53 minutes ago, Peter_Z said:

Due to both images are from the same .jpg file, there shouldn't be the need of an adjustment to make them appear the same way.

Your document color space is Adobe RGB.

The color space for your JPG file is sRGB.

When you Open the JPG file, your Affinity Photo Color Preferences will determine the color space that is used for the working document, and whether the file you're opening will be converted to that color space or not:

When you Place the file, its color space will be maintained.

Thus, your background layer must have been Converted from sRGB to Adobe RGB by your Color Preferences (or manually, perhaps, via Document > Convert Format), but the Placed layer will still be sRGB.

Rasterizing the layer will convert it to the document's color space. Other than that, you could edit the file before Placing it, and convert it manually. Then Place it.

I'm puzzled, though, why the same sRGB file Opened into Adobe RGB would look different than when it is Placed using sRGB. The colors shouldn't magically change when a smaller gamut image is opened into a larger gamut color space. That shouldn't be able to create additional colors. Have you dont anything else to the background layer after you Opened it?

[Peter_Z]

23 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Have you dont anything else to the background layer after you Opened it?

Nothing more.

I opened the .jpg per rightclick (Windows 10) in Affinity Photo. Then placed the same .jpg into the open document, and moved it into this position for a good comparison. Then saved it. Thats all.

The .jpg itself has an Adobe RGB Color Profile.
It seems it's opened correct by Affinity Photo if I use right click to open, but incorrect if I drag and drop it into an open document.

[walt.farrell]

23 minutes ago, Peter_Z said:

The .jpg itself has an Adobe RGB Color Profile.

Can you zip that .jpg file, and provide the .zip file, please?

Also, please give us a screenshot of the Color panel in your Photo Preferences.

[Peter_Z]

For this problem, there is no difference if I use sRGB or Adobe RGB in the general color profile settings. I tried it. In both variants, the problem is the same.2021_12_04-16_18_16.zip

[walt.farrell]

10 hours ago, Peter_Z said:

For this problem, there is no difference if I use sRGB or Adobe RGB in the general color profile settings. I tried it. In both variants, the problem is the same.2021_12_04-16_18_16.zip

According to Exiftool, the .jpg file in that .zip does not specify a color mode, nor an ICC profile. That seems unusual, to me.

It does say that the "color space" is "uncalibrated".

When I Open it in Photo (1.10.5 beta) it shows as RGB/8 and Adobe RGB (1998). If I Place the jpg into another file, the Resource Manager shows it as sRGB, so there are clearly two different behaviors happening. However, as the file does not seem to provide information at all, it may somehow be that one part of Photo is making an assumption one way, and another part is making a different assumption. I would expect, if they have to assume anything, that they would make the same assumption. So that seems incorrect.

However, I am suspicious about your file.

[Peter_Z]

I copied this file from the SD card of my camera, and then batch renamed it with IrfanView.

If i open it with GIMP, GIMP asks me if i want to convert it from Adobe RGB to sRGB.

[RichardMH]

AFAIK "uncalibrated" just means not sRGB. Adobe Bridge says the colour profile of the image is Adobe RGB (1998). 3D LUT creator says it is sRGB.  So I suspect you have lost something somewhere. Problem might be with IrfanView's colour management. A quick web search suggests something odd is happening there. Do you have a copy of the file pre IrfanView?

[Peter_Z]

This is the .jpg file directily from the SD card of the camera (put in a .zip), before renaming it with IrfanView.

But it seems it produces the same problem.

_DSC0225.zip