colours in Affinity Photo washed out

[dho]

I have a trial version of Affinity Photo installed and it looks very promising, but I am having an issue with color profiles. Photos in Affinity photo are washed out and have less contrast than in other editing software or when I view the photo in a browser.

I am using the Spyder5Pro to calibrate my screen and am using the profile created by it in each application. For example I have been using ACDSee Ultimate, it is set to use the Spyder5Pro profile and the colours are richer with better contrast. I installed a trial version of Photoshop CC , and there as well the colours are better. When I just use a browser to open a photo the colours are also better and match closely what I see in ACDSee and Photoshop.

I have in Affinity photo in Preferences/Colour set the RBG Colour Profile to the profile created by the Spyder5Pro . When I open a photo with Affinity Photo I get a message saying that it has been converted to this profile but the result does not match the other editing applications or browser.

Am I missing something? I like the features in Affinity Photo and would switch to it but if the colour management is off then it will not work for me.

Is there a solution to this?

thank you

[walt.farrell]

Affinity is designed to be aware of, and work with, the color profile assigned to your monitor.

So, once you have profiled the monitor you should use the Windows Color Management dialog to assign it to your monitor. Your photos would remain in sRGB, or Adobe RGB.

 

[dho]

Hello,

yes, the Spyder5Pro calibrator claims to set this system wide. I think Affinity is using the custom profile as I get message saying that it has been converted to this profile but the result does not match the other editing applications, ACDSee and Photoshop, or the browser.

thank you

[Dan C]

Hi dho,

Welcome to the forums  

I'd recommend reading the above thread, ensuring you have the default values set in Affinity!

[James Ritson]

13 hours ago, dho said:

I have a trial version of Affinity Photo installed and it looks very promising, but I am having an issue with color profiles. Photos in Affinity photo are washed out and have less contrast than in other editing software or when I view the photo in a browser.

I am using the Spyder5Pro to calibrate my screen and am using the profile created by it in each application. For example I have been using ACDSee Ultimate, it is set to use the Spyder5Pro profile and the colours are richer with better contrast. I installed a trial version of Photoshop CC , and there as well the colours are better. When I just use a browser to open a photo the colours are also better and match closely what I see in ACDSee and Photoshop.

I have in Affinity photo in Preferences/Colour set the RBG Colour Profile to the profile created by the Spyder5Pro . When I open a photo with Affinity Photo I get a message saying that it has been converted to this profile but the result does not match the other editing applications or browser.

Am I missing something? I like the features in Affinity Photo and would switch to it but if the colour management is off then it will not work for me.

Is there a solution to this?

thank you

Hi dho, you shouldn't be setting Affinity Photo's colour profile to your new display profile, that's not how you colour manage. The software will automatically colour manage based off the current monitor profile, which should be set to your custom profile created by the Spyder5Pro software (is it i1Profiler?).

The colour profile options in Affinity Photo's Preferences are for the document profile, not your display. Your document profile wants to be a standardised profile like sRGB (the default), Adobe RGB, ProPhoto etc. Photo will then colour manage by converting the colour values using your display profile so that what you're seeing is accurate.

What you're currently doing is converting from the image's original colour profile to your display profile, which may explain why the colours look washed out and incorrect. Try setting Affinity Photo's colour dropdown options back to their defaults (e.g. sRGB) and you should see an improvement.

In other words, you're overcomplicating things! All you need to do is make sure the OS (Windows or macOS) is using your display profile. In Windows, you'd right click the desktop and choose Display Settings, then make sure the Spyder profile is being used in the dropdown. On macOS, you'd go to System Preferences>Displays>Colour and set the display profile there. You shouldn't need to change anything in Affinity Photo, just leave the colour profile options on their default settings (e.g. sRGB).

Hope that helps!

[dho]

@Jame Ritson

When I change Affinity Photo's colour dropdown options back to sRGB the result is much worse, and and does not match what I see in ACDSee, Photoshop or the browser.

 

[walt.farrell]

5 hours ago, dho said:

@Jame Ritson

When I change Affinity Photo's colour dropdown options back to sRGB the result is much worse, and and does not match what I see in ACDSee, Photoshop or the browser.

 

But, do you have the monitor profile you developed assigned to the monitor in the Windows settings?

[GDPR-365024]

Hi dho, If you set your document colour profiles in APh and PS as James has pointed out you should obtain colour consistency between these apps. Perhaps you should uncheck 'convert open files to working space' (in PS as well) until this issue is sorted?

Ok — ACDSee Ultimate. I used Ultimate 10 for a while (it's one or two versions back from the current). On screen my images were more contrasty—overly so—compared to both APh and PS. They were also overly sharp (a bit like an unsharp mask on steroids). I was never able to obtain a document profile match even though it had the same colour profile loaded as both APh and PS. Needless to say it's no longer on my machine and won't be reinstalled.