TechNote

Photos look different in Library and Develop modules in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.0

Issue

Your photos look different when you view them in the Library and Develop modules.

Reason

The Library and Develop modules use different methods of rendering previews and they use different color profiles to display photos.

Solution

To display photos with the least amount of noise or artifacts: In Preferences, choose High for Preview Quality.

To display the most accurate previews: In the Library module, choose 1:1 in the Navigator panel.

To see the most accurate image data: In the Develop module, zoom to 1:1 using the Navigator panel or the Zoom feature in the toolbar.

Additional Information

The Library and Develop modules display images using different processes and color spaces.

Artifacts, like those sometimes seen in JPEG images, may appear in previews in the Library when the preview cache is written to repeatedly. The Library displays image data that began at full resolution and was downsampled for the display. If you view the previews in a view that is less than 1:1, noise can display because of the way previews are downsampled.

The Develop module downsamples photos before processing their color and tonal data. Because this method differs from the method used by the Library module to process photos, your photos might look different when you open them in the Develop module, especially if you view them in a size other than 1:1.

Zooming to 1:1 should remove most of the differences in your images between the two modules. It is possible, but less likely, that differences are due to differing color spaces. The Library previews are stored in the AdobeRGB color space to save file size, whereas the Develop module stores photos using the ProPhotoRGB color space, which has a larger gamut of colors.