Differences in rendering due to ACR?

[kaelaria]

I just noticed a slight difference in saturation rendering between creating a TIFF for editing before or after hitting PS CS4.

I'm using LR 3.4 and PS CS4.  Normally I do my basic edits in LR then use the default export to PS for final actions such as NIK, then save and return to LR for export.

I have noticed the lens corrections don't carry over and attributed it to the lack of support in ACR 6.0, but it's not critical to my work.  Sometimes I would notice the LR noise reduction not pulling over correctly either, but only under certain circumstances like with fairly substantial exposure control adjustments done to the particular file.  It was rare and Noise Ninja would take care of it well enough in PS when it popped up.  Now, I notice color differences and wonder if this is also due to the difference in ACR version to LR version, or if there is something else wrong.

Below is #1, an export of the raw (these are just for example and crappy shots but you will see what I'm talking about for effect).  Notice the saturated reds and yellows of the building lights.

Now #2 is a TIFF created through the default Edit in PS and saved with nothing done.  Notice the desaturation of said lights.

And finally #3 is where I setup in External Editing, to launch PS so it created a TIFF with LR adjustments before going to PS, then saving with no changes.  It kept the colors.

[Schewe]

I'm using LR 3.4 and PS CS4.

And that is the problem...(aside from the fact you should be using LR 3.4.1).

LR 3.4.1 is not compatible with ACR 5.x. You'll need to render the file via export and have Lightroom do the final processing pipeline. That's the only accurate method...

Id you are using Process Version 2010 noise reduction (and processing) ACR 5.x can't duplicate it...

So, either update to PS CS5 or export the images from LR 3.4.1 and process the resulting TIFF or PSD file in Photoshop CS4.

Best bet?

Keep Lightroom and Photoshop in version sync otherwise you'll have "issues".

[kaelaria]

Thanks Jeff, that's what I thought.  I gave CS5 a try last year but ran in to problems with some actions and most importantly my Z3100 print driver.  I'll give it another look and see how everything does now.  And yes it's 3.4.1, I forgot about the patch last week.

[kaelaria]

OK I uninstalled CS4, reinstalled CS5, updated to 12.0.4 and it's now doing the colors and noise reduction correctly, but not pulling over the lens corrections - is that normal?

I'm not sure if the install is dorked up or not.  I have had at various times, PS CS4, CS5, Illustrator CS5 and LR all installed.  When I open a raw from PS it displays ACR 6.0.  When I try the 6.3 update file it errors with update not applicable.  I updated everything from inside PS ok. 

I already tried uninstalling both PS CS4 and CS5 and making sure no remnants were left, then just installing PS CS5. 

[Schewe]

You'll want to get the ACR 6.4.1 to be consistent with LR 3.4.1. As for the update installer, what OS?

[kaelaria]

Tried 6.4.1 also.  Vista 64 bit

[kaelaria]

Problem solved.  I found a thread on DPR where someone mentioned the Auto Update not including ACR by default and sure enough mine was unchecked.  I never noticed it before because I have always updated mine through the separate download files.  Anyway, checking that and running the internal updater worked.