Why do the demo images appear light and washed out in Photoshop?
The demo images were created in the Adobe RGB (1998) color space and designed to be worked on in Photoshop 5.0, 5.5, 6.0 or 7.0. If you are working in a different RGB color space, such as Monitor RGB on a Macintosh and choose not to convert colors on opening, this is to be expected. Choose “Convert Colors” when opening the pictures.