flat layers

<p>When I use the move tool and bring in an image into another document in CS4 (jpeg on top of a PSD document with an empty white background) the resulting jpeg on top of the white background is under contrast each time. You can see it happen as you pull the image into the background. The (unmoved) looks better than the one dropped onto the white.<br>

I am careful to make sure that both modes are set to 8 bit, although I am usually working in 16 bit as long as I can. What gives? This little nuance is making me crazy! My lab can't help. Can you?</p>

 

<p>The first question might be whether both images have the same color space. I often bring images in over one another in PS and I have never seen a change in contrast level (open files aren't really jpeg or psd, they are just open files as far as I know with the "type" having more to do with how they are saved and thus reside as a closed file).</p>

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<p>open files aren't really jpeg or psd, they are just open files as far as I know with the "type" having more to do with how they are saved and thus reside as a closed file</p>

 

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<p>Correct. To further expand on that, when you open a JPEG, you will see that the file size (lower left corner of the image) is now an <em>uncompressed</em> file. Only to be compressed again if you save it again as a compressed file such as a JPEG.</p>

<p>Ok, I see a mismatch in the two documents. On the image's window it reads IMG_0123.jpg (RGB/8*) and on the bottom document (that I'm dragging into) reads (Background, RGB/8#)* .<br>

What does the # and * mean? Is this my contrast mismatch?</p>

 

<p>Getting closer to a solution... I had Adobe Camera Raw set to adobe RGB and cs5 set up in SRGB. I hope that this color mis match helps with a whole host of color issues that I get back from the lab!</p>

<p>I don't know if this will help you solve your mystery or not, but I had a quirk pop up from time to time that I recently solved. When I have an image open and I am healing an open sky of dust or whatever, sometimes I would run into what looked like a small bent hair, soft and unfocussed, that simply refused to be healed. I'd check to be sure I was on the correct layer, that I was healing all layers and all that. Brush set to 100% opacity and all. Well, what I found is that my background photo of a Southwest landscape had a small bent-hair shape of high contrast in it and that area was coming through to the front image. To avoid all that now I use a 50% gray background. Boring but safe. So maybe as this pertains to you, the white of the new document is 'shining' through and making the front image lighter and of lower contrast. Possible? Like putting a nicely made contact sheet on a lightbox. Maybe what you're perceiving as a color space shift is really the background file making its presence known. Maybe this helps.</p>