One question I often receive is, “Why do the colors in my images look so dull in Photoshop compared to Lightroom?” There are several possibilities, such as color profiles, but here’s one possibility that’s easy to check. Sometimes people accidentally trigger the color proofing feature in Photoshop without realizing it. Command-Y (PC: Ctrl-Y) will toggle this option on and off. Go to View>Proof Colors and make sure there’s no checkmark beside it. Proof Colors is useful if you’re working in RGB and you want to see what your image might look like once converted to CMYK. Working in RGB has the advantage of all the filters working in RGB; many Photoshop filters (including Camera Raw) don’t work on CMYK images. Once you’re done editing your image, you can then convert it to CMYK if needed.
This tip previously published in Colin Smith’s Photoshop Tips column, in the April, 2020 issue of Photoshop User magazine.
