If you are a retoucher and have not already upgraded to Photoshop 2019, just don’t! at least until the following bug is fixed.
It seems like the latest Photoshop update to Photoshop CC 2019 broke some layer blending modes or at least the Color blending mode.
Color layer blending mode should replace the hue and saturation of the layers below it to the one on top. In the photo above, provided by Stefan Kohler, that means that the color inside the circle should be cyan. In the 2018 version, you can see the way it should look like when everything is working right (left image). In Photoshop 2019, however (the image on the right) it is definitely not cyan.
Color blending mode is often used for color correction in retouching, so that bug renders Photoshop 2019 useless for retouchers.
A quick search in the Adobe forums shows that Stefan is not alone and that other users are complaining about similar effects. Looks like so far this has only affected PC users.
As users on the Adobe support forum noted, if you don’t need the new Photoshop 2019 compositing engine, you can revert to the “old” “working” engine by checking “Legacy Compositing” in Preferences > Performance.
Users also commented that this solution is “not an improvement, it’s scrapping the new compositing engine and going back to the old one. Improvement will be Adobe fixing the buggy new engine“.
Have you updated yet? if not are you planning to? Do you have a good workaround, let us know in the comments.
