Easy Photoshop OCIO Workflow (Patreon)

EDIT: As of October 2024, Photoshop includes native OCIO support. Check out the details here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/quick-tip-native-119295085

Photoshop doesn't have built-in support for OpenColorIO, but many of us would still like to use PS while working within a color-managed CG workflow. Fortunately it's easy to set up OCIO support with just a few simple steps. Here's how!

Plugins

First, download the fnord OpenColorIO for Photohop plugin here. Installing it will add an OpenColorIO entry to the Filter menu.

An optional step, but still recommended, is to install Exr-IO. This adds full support for importing and exporting all types of EXR files, which is probably the most common image file format in CG workflows.

There are a few ways to make the OpenColorIO plugin work for you. Let's look at two.

Smart Object

To get started, import your image, right click on the layer and convert it to a Smart Object.

This isn't absolutely required, but it's nice to be able to take advantage of the non-destructive workflow allowed by Smart Objects.

Next, add the OpenColorIO filter to the layer. This will bring up the following window. There are a number of ways to get the same result, but probably the simplest is to use the Display radio button and set the image color space and your display/view color space. In this case my render is ACEScg and my display is sRGB. Note that you'll see different options depending on which OCIO config you're using.

Click OK. Things won't quite look right yet though! The final step is to enable Proof Colors in the View menu.

You may also need to set an appropriate color space in the Proof Setup menu, for example, Monitor RGB or Internet Standard RGB (sRGB).

Here's before and after. The raw file on the left and the color-managed ACES version on the right.

You can now go about all your normal Photoshop editing and color correcting tasks and export your final image to any format you want, including JPG or PNG. Note that when exporting the latter, make sure to disable Convert to sRGB and Embed Color Profile in the Export As window.

Adjustment Layer

Another approach is to create an OCIO adjustment layer. You can do this by first exporting a LUT from the OpenColorIO plugin.

Select your imported image layer, but this time we won't be converting it to a Smart Object. Apply the OpenImageIO filter, choose the same settings as before, then click Export.

In the window that comes up, save your LUT as a .csp file. After doing so, click Cancel in the main OpenColorIO window. Clicking OK would apply the transform to the layer, which we don't want.

Now, add a new Color Lookup Adjustment Layer.

And load the .csp file you just created.

That's all there is to it! You can enable and disable the adjustment layer as needed, just make sure to always keep it on top of your image layer. Don't forget to change to Proof Colors using the View menu. Exporting will follow the same steps as well, requiring that you disable Convert to RGB and Embed Color Profile.