diff --git a/libvips/colour/LabQ2sRGB.c b/libvips/colour/LabQ2sRGB.c
index 97184762..06b6c285 100644
--- a/libvips/colour/LabQ2sRGB.c
+++ b/libvips/colour/LabQ2sRGB.c
@@ -22,6 +22,8 @@
  * 	- spot NaN, Inf in XYZ2RGB, they break LUT indexing
  * 	- split sRGB <-> XYZ into sRGB <-> scRGB <-> XYZ so we can support
  * 	  scRGB as a colourspace
+ * 10/3/16 Lovell Fuller
+ * 	- move vips_col_make_tables_LabQ2sRGB() to first pixel processing
  */
 
 /*
@@ -468,8 +470,6 @@ vips_col_make_tables_LabQ2sRGB( void )
 static void
 vips_LabQ2sRGB_line( VipsColour *colour, VipsPel *q, VipsPel **in, int width )
 { 
-	vips_col_make_tables_LabQ2sRGB();
-
 	unsigned char *p = (unsigned char *) in[0];
 
         int i, t;
@@ -480,6 +480,8 @@ vips_LabQ2sRGB_line( VipsColour *colour, VipsPel *q, VipsPel **in, int width )
 	int ae = 0;
 	int be = 0;
 
+	vips_col_make_tables_LabQ2sRGB();
+
         for( i = 0; i < width; i++ ) {
 		/* Get colour, add in error from previous pixel. 
 		 */