Color Profile and Color Shift Headache

I am having a terrible time trying to fix a color issue. I have seen suggestions in various discussions. Here's what I have tried:
Reset PRAM
Calibrate monitor
Double checked Univesal Access
Trashed preferences file
Tried using other profiles
Created seperate user account
I even tested to see if the video card or monitor was bad but when I plugged in a Viewsonic LCD display into the ADC port (using a converter) my Hitachi CM721F CRT monitor apparently "slaved" and mirrored off of the Viewsonic profile and everything was fine. When I disconnected the Viewsonic, the problem reappeared. Since then I have also had an Apple Cinema Display hooked up and there was no problem.
In fact, just this evening I was using iPhoto and all my photos had a red shift to them. Out of curiousity I played them as a slideshow and they looked fine. Additionally photo previews in the Finder, when set to column view look fine but when I open in preview I get a red color shift
What exactly is going on here?
Thank You
G4 Quicksilver Mac OS X (10.3.9)

HI
Even if bit depth and color profile aren't related, we can say that a small bit depth (8 bit) can have problems with posterization effects if a large (i.e. ProPhotoRGB) color space is used.
More colors can be "reached" in a large color space, so, if many of them are in a small range of RGB values (XYZ coordinates in color spaces are translated in RGB values at the end), some "near" colors could be "rounded", practically disappearing. So some "posterization" effect could be visible (posterization stands for colors that do not "fade" between them but are clearly separated at the eye).
So, in practical use, a 8-bit color depth is better used with sRGB and AdobeRGB color space, while larger color spaces like ProPhotoRGB need a 16-bit depth. Using "dithering" (random distribution of color pixel) technique can reduce the posterization effect (for Web image for example), but is better to keep the larger color spaces with large bit depth.
Hope it helps.
Massimo

Similar Messages

Camera profiles and Highlight Recovery: color shifts

I often see significant hue shifts and loss of saturation when using the Recovery slider in conjunction with the new dng camera profiles. I don't remember to ever have this 'problem' with legacy ACR profiles. In the sample below, you can see just that:
Sample: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3224/2918603614_7a562db832_o.png
This becomes a bit of a problem, as recovering highlights now brings color shifts as a side-effect and you have to go fiddling with color controls.
Often, the new, 'shifted' colors are even more pleasing than the 'unshifted' (i.e. recovery set to zero), but this is a psychological and a workflow problem too. It is just not nice to know that controls are interdependent and have side-effects.
Is it a bug or a fact of life? What's so different about the old a new profiles, that cause this difference in recovery effect?
The DNG to play: http://www.yousendit.com/download/bVlBblFOR0Y3N0JFQlE9PQ

Eric, thanks a lot for the explanation and technical details.
Knowing this helps me a bit, as it confirms my observations. What is not clear, is how these shifts will/should (or would they?) be addressed?
I mean Recovery was a perfect control until now. it just did what is should, reliably and consistently. Now we have the side-effect of color shifts.
a) Will Adobe adjust the algorithm to fit the new profile system? A bad thing, because it will not assure backward compatibility.
b) Will Adobe add a new control? Worse, because it adds unnecessary complexity.
c) Will/could the profiles be modified in a way as these color shift don't happen. As I understand from your previous post, this doesn't seem possible.
d) Will it just be left as is and I'll have to live with the color shifts? Now it seems it's the most likely option. Sad, because Recovery used to be so powerful, and now its power is somewhat compromised.

Premiere Pro CS6 and Media Encoder CS6 Color shift on export

Hello,
I am working on an early 2008 Mac Pro with 2 X 3.2 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon Processors 32 GB of RAM a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB Graphics Card and I am running OS X 10.8.2.
I have the updated Version of Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 and Media Encoder CS6 through the awesome Subscription program that Adobe has started.
My footage is shot with the Canon 1D Mark IV shot 1920X1080 at 24 FPS
I am importing the camera files and then exporting them after I cut them up in to Quicktime Pro Res 422 HQ files
With the technical explination out of the way here is my problem. I have color right from the camera files that I like. and with out doing any thing to change the color I export the footage and get a dramatic color shift. The exported file looks desaturated and slightly green.
I have tried using Media Encoder CS6 to export my footage and that has the same result.
I started my career as a photographic retoucher and use photoshop and light room constantly so I am pretty confident that i know color. I also calibrate my Lacie 526 and Lacie 324i montiors monthly as well as have a sensor that will slightly shift the profile depending on the time of day.
I have attached three screen shots that show the color shift exactly. Now what I need is a solution. What I am not seeing is color settings for Premiere. I am totally open to any suggestions on what I might be doing incorrectly.
Ben

Benjamin Peterson wrote:
I started my career as a photographic retoucher and use photoshop and light room constantly so I am pretty confident that i know color. I also calibrate my Lacie 526 and Lacie 324i montiors monthly as well as have a sensor that will slightly shift the profile depending on the time of day.
I've been doing this for a few years now, and have come to some conclusions. Basically, the difference between still photography and video is like the difference between playing the trumpet and the sax. What you bring to the sax from playing trumpet is your ability to read music, what you know about composition, blending while playint with others, ect. But playing trumpet tells you nothing about how to physically play a sax. So it is with still photography and video.
For starters, your carefully calibrated computer monitor is just that, a computer monitor. It doesn't display the correct working space for video. What you need for WYSIWYG in video is a monitor that can show you the Rec.709 working space. Rec.709 has a different gamut, a different gamma, probably a different white point (D65), different phosphor colors, etc., etc., etc. Enought differences that it's difficult to make a computer monitor that can successfully display Rec.709. Yet there are a couple of computer monitors that can do this (a few Eizos, one HP). The vast majority of people doing serious color correction work in video use a production monitor for just this reason.
But a production monitor isn't enough. You also have to make sure that the signals you're sending the production monitor are correct. There's a sub-industry making signal converters for signals from NLE video cards (usually RGB based) -> signals for production monitors (usually YUV based).
That said, it is certainly possible to get a very good match between your NLE suite and a DVD / BD as displayed on an HDTV. But it's not as simple or easy as a calibrtated computer monitor for still photography use.
This is probably part of your problem. But Quicktime is probably the root of it. Quicktime is, well, I guess the polite way of saying it is that Quicktime is problematic. It gives all kinds of problems. Most people have abandoned it. You should too.

[FIX] Darker prints and color shifts when printing from Lightroom 2

Hi,
The problem :
When printing RAW or TIFF files from LR2, you get a printer output that
is much darker than it should be and that presents various color shifts.
I'm using an Epson Stylus Pro 3800 with the latest Windows driver
(6.50 - which is rather old by the way). The workaround described below
works for me under Windows XP SP3. It should also probably work with
other systems/printers/drivers. Use at your own (minor) risk.
The "official" procedure for printing from LR is as follows:
1. Do not let the printer manage colors and select "Other..." from the
profile dropdown list and select the ICC/ICM paper/printer profile that
you want to use.
2. Click on Print... in LR which opens the Print Settings dialog.
3. Select the options you need and the paper you're using.
4. **Disable the color management from the driver's side** (in Epson's
drivers, "Mode | Custom | No Color Adjustments").
5. Print
Unfortunately, **this doesn't work** for many of us and this produces a
print that is dark and has color shifts as mentioned above. Note that
the same image prints correctly from QImage or Photoshop CS3 (that is,
the printer output corresponds to what you see on your calibrated
display).
Apparently, although color management has been (allegedly) disabled in
the driver, there's something wrong between LR and the driver which
makes that *both* LR and the driver are still trying to manage colors.
In other words, the "No Color Adjustements" option of the driver doesn't
seem to work with LR.
The workaround (found after hours of hair pulling and paper and
expensive ink wasting):
In step #4,
1. Instead of selecting "No Color Adjustments", set Mode to "Custom |
ICM
2. Click Advanced...
3. Check "Show all profiles".
4. Select Driver ICM (Advanced)"
5. Set **both** the "Input profile" and the "Printer profile" fields to
the very same profile that you specified in LR.
That is, if you specified Pro38 PGPP (Premium Glossy Photo Paper) in LR,
then also select Pro38 PGPP in both "Input Profile" and "Printer
Profile". This has actually the same effect has disabling color
management in the driver (what "No Color Adjustements" should normally
take care of).
That's it. When printing, you'll get exactly the same color results as
when printing from QImage or Photoshop. No more dark prints. No more
color shifts.
One might think that the bug is in the Epson driver but in that case,
QImage would have the very same problem. So I tend to think that the bug
is on the Lightroom side.
Note: Although Photoshop CS3 produces a correct printer output, it
demonstrates the same problem as LR when using the "Match Print Color"
option for soft proofing. But in that case, only the preview colors are
wrong. The printer output is ok. Which also tends to demonstrate that
Adobe has the problem, not Epson. Or maybe both... :-) .
Don't ask me why some users have the problem and other don't.
Hope this helps.
Patrick Philippot
MainSoft Consulting Services
www.mainsoft.fr

A sincere thank you for your reply, Michael. Sorry about the "it just doesn't make sense" shortcut. I have been trying to solve this issue since LR 1.1, spending dozens of hours on different trials and digesting everything written on this forum and the B9180 forum about color management and double profiling. My shortcut was a summation of my experience (and my frustration) but doesn't really advance the conversation. Here are some data that should be more useful in diagnosing the problem.
I am running Windows XP SP2. I calibrate my monitor monthly with the Spyder. The reason I suspect this may be an issue of double profiling is because the results (moderately strong magenta overlay plus an increase in contrast) match what more knowledgeable people than I on this forum describe when double profiling occurs. Perhaps I shouldn't presume it is double profiling, and follow Patrick Philippot's lead in naming the problem "color shifts." Patrick does refer in post #2 of this thread, however, to obvious double profiling.
I certainly do have a successful and consistent print method. With PS CS3, and either my Epson 1280 or my HP B9180, the output is almost always dead on. Here is how I do it. In PS from the print dialog box, under color handling I always choose "Photoshop manages colors." Then under printer profile I select the profile designated by the manufacturer for a particular paper/printer combination. Then in the printer driver I disable printer control of color. With the Epson I check the box "Off (No Color Adjustment)." With the B9180 I choose the option "Application Managed Colors." While I sometimes may tweak the final output, these procedures have served me well with PS for several years.
Contrasted with my positive PS experience, my experience with LR printing has been inconsistent. I regret having to be so imprecise but truly sometimes LR produces accurate results that match the calibrated monitor, but most of the time it does not. I use standard procedures with LR that parallel the PS ones described above. In LR's printing panel, under color management, I specify the correct profile, just as I did for PS. Then in the printer driver I use the same procedures I use with PS. Most of the time the prints have the magenta overlay and too much contrast.
BTW, the inconsistent LR printing only takes place with my HP B9180. I have never had any problem with off-color LR prints with my Epson 1280. Again, I emphasize that I have standard procedures that always work with PS (no matter which printer) and LR (but only with the Epson).
Unfortunately the LR printing problems are intermittent. Some of the time (perhaps 20%) LR produces fine prints in the B9180, indistinguishable from PS prints. When LR is printing well, it will continue to print fine until "something happens" and the output shows the color shift. This means I do not get a random sequence of good-bad-good-bad prints, but rather good-good-x factor-bad-bad-bad. Ths problem is that I do not know what this "x factor" is. Once, when LR was giving me accurate output, I simply changed the default printer (Control Panel-Printers and Faxes) from the B9180 to my Samsung 1430 laser; immediately afterwards the LR output colors shifted. Did LR react to this change in default printers? Another time I had good LR printing success with version 1.2 but ran into the problems described above when I upgraded to version 1.3.
Sorry for the long post. I am hoping that someone will see something that I am missing and provide a hint. I think, though, that Patrick is correct when he states, "I tend to think that the problem is with LR. After all, similar issues (obvious double profiling) are observed only in LR but with various printers."

Color shift between Library and Develop module

Hi,
I recently noticed a color shift between in the image when going from the library to the develop module. Yes, I know this is mentioned in the FAQ, but I did not find the solutions given there to be satisfactory.
Let me explain what happens: I have taken Photos with my Canon EOS 300D, in Jpeg mode with Color Space in the Camera set to AdobeRGB. The photos I am talking about were taken with Tungsten light with auto white balance and have a distinct orange color cast. I use Windows XP and view my Photos on a LCD Display calibrated with the Pantone Huey system. The Lightroom Library Module and Photoshop CS2 both display the original image almost identically (there are no changes applied inside Lightroom or Photoshop, I view the original image in both applications). Photoshop is set to use the Adobe RGB Color space as its working Color space, Softproofing is switched off. However, when I switch to the Develop Module, the colors (especially the orange hues) shift very noticably toward pink. I can only assume that the Colorspace conversion or maybe some implicit soft proof used differs between the modules. So, to restate the problem: If I switch back and forth between Library and Develop, without changing anything and in 1:1 view to avoid errors introduced by different zooming methods, the colors shift quite drastically back and forth.
I have to say that this is really quite annoying. The whole point for me to use the develop module is to use it to make adjustments to the colors, and for this to work properly I have to see the same colors in both modules and in Photoshop. There is no point in correcting a pink color cast away in Develop that is not even there in either the library module or Photoshop (and that would then have a stronger orange tint because I tried to counter the pink tint in develop).
So this leads me to the final question: Is it possible to tell Develop to use the exact same color settings as the Library Module? Or is there another way to compensate for the color shift?
I hope I was clear in what happens and what I tried to do. If it helps I can gladly provide a sample photograph that clearly illustrates the point.
Thank you in advance for your help,
Daniel

Thanks for your comments, Don and Fred. I hope that this issue will be worked on soon.
Fred, I have set the Preview Quality to High, but it doesn't seem to make any differences concerning the color shift. I have investigated this matter further by now and made the following observations:
*The color shift is a lot less noticable on my laptop (the laptop screen is also color profiled). On my laptop the change is more of a subtle shift in contrast than in color. This might be caused by the smaller color gammut of my laptop display though.
*I have uploaded a testimage so that others can check if this shift occurs at their workstations too - after all, it might be a misconfiguration of my color management software, though I doubt that (because Adobe already states that library and develop render different previews). I would be interested if the color shift I describe is noticable at other workstations too. The link to the testimage: http://www.danyx.com/colorshift.jpg (permission to use the image to test the color reproduction is of course granted hereby).
Thanks for your help, I hope Adobe will listen soon,
Daniel

Third party profiles results in color shifts

Using LR on a calibrated iMac and printing to an Epson Pro 3800, I'm now getting easily noticeable color ***** in the printed output, when using 3rd party paper profiles (e.g. Hahnemuhle Fine Art Pearl or Pixel Genius Epson Exhibition Fiber profile), but if I specify an Epson profile, the output is a perfect screen match!? I specified the Epson Glossy Photo profile in LR and printed on their new Exhibition Fiber paper, and the print was perfect. Of interest here, is that print Preview showed the color shift with the other profiles and printed the same, which suggests Print Preview is an accurate rendition of the final output to paper (and yes ... no color control was specified in the driver).
This was not the case prior to the last LR update, as the 3rd party profiles the job accurately!?

"Also, I've emailed the correct people at Epson regarding the issue with the info sheet inside the paper. From what I know and the discussions I've had with the product manager for the 3800 and the EFP, the info sheet is WRONG. But, due to the holidays, I don't expect a response till mid-week next week. "
I'd be curious to hear back what the response is. I hate ambiguities. There is one other thing that is bothering me about your theory, and that is I just came back from mounting an exhibit of my photos, printed using LR specifying the HFA3800FineArePearlPK.icc profile printing to their Fine Art Pearl paper. The results on paper matches the current LR screen images. This I did I think prior to applying 1.3.1 (a few weeks past). Those images in LR look the same to me, yet the profiles are now visibly altering the tonality. I will re-calibrate, but my confidence level is in the sewer.
btw I'd love to see what PS does with the profile, but I can't install CS3 trial. It says CS3 is already installed, but it isn't.
"System check: Adobe Photoshop CS3 cannot be installed because it conflicts with:
Adobe Photoshop CS3"
I had installed it a while back, but it got uninstalled along the way. Any tips around this. My gut feeling is CS3 won't have any problems with the profiles.

My display color shifts to a blue tint when opening photoshop and bridge with Yosemite

The display on my mac book pro color shifts to a blue tint when opening Photoshop CS6. Any suggestions on how to maintain the current color profile? My photography work is dependent on proper display calibration. Thank you

First open the Universal Access preference pane and in the 'seeing' tab, make sure that the slider for 'enhance contrast' is all the way to the left. Next, open the Displays preference panel and click on the 'color' tab. The click the 'calibrate' button. This will take you through a color/brightness/contrast set up procedure that may eliminate the problem.
There are two options in the calibration process, standard, which is the default option and has fewer adjustment screens, and expert, which is selected by checking the box for it on the first calibration screen and offers more adjustments. You can't do any harm with either since any settings you create can be discarded, or profile(s) you save can be deleted or ignored if necessary.
This won't necessarily resolve the problem, but if not, then it would indicate that there's an issue with the hardware - possibly just the connector on the back of the system, which needs to be fastened really tightly. If you can't readily resolve this, since your system is so new, I'd then suggest you call Apple.

Color shift between image viewed in ACR and open in PS

Today I updated Photoshop CC and now I have a slight color shift problem between the same image open in ACR and then opened in Photoshop. It appears to be slightly more saturated in ACR.
I have tried the same thing on another computer and it does NOT have the same problem so it must have been something that happened in the update (ACR was one of the items updated). I have also compared the preferences between the two computers and they are identical.
I guess the next thing to do is to deinstall PS and reinstall????
Any advice would be appreciated.

Any difference between ACR and Photoshop is most likely due to a monitor profile problem. They both use the same monitor profile, but there are differences in the actual conversion so a problem can show up differently between them.
Is your monitor calibrated/profiled, and if so how, using what calibrator? Or are you using the Windows default (sRGB), or perhaps you got a bad manufacturer profile through Windows Update? (yes, that happens frequently).
To find out if the monitor profile is indeed the problem, go to Control Panel > Color Management > Devices. Set sRGB IEC61966-2.1 as default profile (if it isn't already), then relaunch Photoshop/Bridge and see if the difference is still there. If your monitor is wide gamut, use Adobe RGB instead.
Note that this doesn't fix the problem as such, but if you don't have a calibrator sRGB will usually be close enough until you decide to get one.
If you do have and use a calibrator, make sure it is set to make v2 profiles, not v4, and matrix rather than LUT profiles.

Color shift between play and pause

Hello,
On CC 7.0 and 7.1, I noticed there is an important color shift between pausing and playing my timeline when using "CineForm Visually Perfect" encoded source material.
This is especially noticeable on reds.
Using other codecs, there is no such shift.
My video card is a Geforce 650M. At first, I thaught it might be related to the video overlay settings of the card, but there are no such settings in the control panel.
Besides, using Quicktime to play the source produces no shift as well.
As I am often doing color correction using Premiere, and as I have dropped Avid exactly because I always had this same problem (when using a profiled calibrated screen), I would like to know precisely what is going on. As I'm regularly producing shows for broadcast, it is a real problem not to be sure whether what you see matches the final exported output in all circumstances.
NB : For the need of searching the cause of this problem I disabled any custom profiling of my screen.
Thanks ! for any answers.
Fred

Sure and thanks. But nevertheless, if you color correct using a calibrated screen, and produce for the web ; or if you do a first pass of color correction before the ultimate pass happens with a "properly calibrated TV", wouldn't you like that your paused frame would look like your playing frame ?

Color shift problem in Safari and Preview

I have recently had a color shift in Safari and in Preview. My monitor is color profiled (using eye-one) and images opened in Aperture, Bridge, Photoshop and the Color Management app look just fine. However, images on the web-browser (Safari) and in Preview show a definite and disagreeable increase in saturation, particularly in the red-orange range. Is there a suggestion on how to deal with this problem?
Thanks for the help.

This could be part of the problem > Known Issues | Adobe products on Mac OS 10.7 Lion
You can have Safari set to open PDF files in Preview.
Right or control click the Safari icon in the Applications folder then click Get Info.
In the Get Info panel click: Open with
Select Preview
Click: Change all

Color shift between Develop Module and other modules in Lr 5.7.1

Hello,
I'm getting a color shift between the devolop module and any other module in Lr.
It's a recent problem that I've been experiencing since the last update.
I'm using Lr as part of the Adobe Photographers Bundle in a Windows 8.1 pro.
Below I have an example for the kind of color shift i'm seeing. The image on the left is from the Devolop Mobule and the one on the right is form the Library Module.
Is this happening to any one else? Does any one know why?
I would appreciate any help.

Gautam is correct in that the preview mechanism isn't the same in Develop and the other modules and, you must view the color in Develop at 1:1 to see an accurate preview. The color space is different that's probably why you see this difference in reds (especially if you use a wide gamut display).
IF you build your own ICC profiles for your display, be sure the software is not building a V4 (version 4) profile, stick with V2.
As for exporting and comparing, be sure the secondary application is color managed! Otherwise it's expected that there is a visual disconnect between LR and that app.

Color Profiles and Web sRGB Images

I have my LCD's calibrated using an i1 Display Pro with Color Eyes as my calibration software. The images I create look fine in Photoshop/Lightroom/Preview/Etc... but the problem that I'm having is that they look very different in a web browser when I use sRGB.
Converting the image to sRGB and imbedding the profile in Photoshop looks fine. Looking at the JPEG Photoshop/Lightroom/etc. looks fine, but as soon as I look at the image in a web browser I get a much more saturated image with a red color shift.
I found that if I change my LCD display profile to the sRGB profile then the images will look the same in Photoshop and using a web browser. So... does anyone have an idea on what is going on here? And do I trust the calibrated profile, or use the sRGB profile for my monitors?
(FYI, if I look at the images on my Apple Laptop or iPad the images look fine on the web. And if I download an image from the web (not mine) it looks the same in the browser and in Photoshop.)

You have a wide gamut monitor.
You need to use a web browser that reads and converts to the monitor profile. Firefox, Safari and Chrome will do that (but not IE); as long as there is an embedded document profile to convert from. If the image is untagged, it will pass straight through without color management.
However, Firefox has an option that the others don't have: with color management set to mode 1 (not the default mode 2) it will assign sRGB to any material that is untagged (does not have an embedded profile). This allows the color management chain to operate and the proper conversion to your monitor profile to happen. With this setting, everything displays correctly.
To do this, type about:config in the adress bar, and scroll down to gfx.color_management.mode.

Using Color profiles and exporting for web browsers

I've been trying to figure out the answer to this question. As I'm sure you're aware Safari supports color profiles while other web browsers like Firefox do not. I would like to setup Aperture so that it displays and exports images for the widest audience possible. Unfortunately it embeds a color profile and my images on the web only display correctly in Safari. I've tried changing the proofing profiles and export settings to no avail. I didn't seem to have this problem in iPhoto, a picture there looked the same on screen as it did in Safari and Firefox but I can't achieve the same with Aperture...

Thanks for that information, unfortunately I'm not really any closer to solving the issue since I've already tried that. 1) by default, doesn't Aperture automatically embed the sRGB color profile? 2) if I set view>proofing mode to sRGB shouldn't what I see on screen match what a "dumb" application such as Firefox does when it ignores the embedded profile and display sRGB? I've tried going into the preferences>export settings and changed everything to sRGB IEC61966-2.1 but I see no difference in the final image between that and the default setting.
I guess my question is more specific to Aperture since I don't have this problem with other applications. For example, in photoshop if I do Export for Web it strips out any embedded profile and when I open that image in Firefox and Safari side-by-side they are exactly the same. But not so when I export an image from Aperture, when opened in Firefox it is desaturated and flat and of course in Safari it honors the embedded profile and looks fine.

Need help understanding profiles and color management

I made the big leap from inexpensive inkjets to:
1 Epson 3800 Standard
2 Spyder3Studio
I have a Mac Pro Quad, Aperture, PS3, etc.
I have a steep learning curve ahead, here's what I've done:
1 Read a lot of books, watched tutorials, etc.
2 Calibrated the monitor
3 Calibrated the printer several times and created .icc profiles
What I've found:
1 The sample print produced by Spyder3Print, using the profile I created with color management turned off in the print dialog, looks very good.
2 When I get into Aperture, and apply the .icc profile I created in the proofing profile with onscreen proofing, the onscreen image does not change appreciably compared with the no proof setting. It gets slightly darker
3 When I select File>Print image, select the profile I created, turn off color management and look a the resulting preview image it looks much lighter and washed out than the onscreen image with onscreen proofing turned on.
4 When I print the image, it looks the same as was shown in the print preview...light and washed out, which is much different than what is shown in edit mode.
5 When I open PS3 with onscreen soft-proofing, the onscreen image is light and washed out...just like displayed in PS3 preview. If I re-edit the image to look OK onscreen, and print with the profile and color management turned off, the printed image looks OK.
So, why am I confused?
1 In the back of my simplistic and naive mind, I anticipated that in creating a custom printer profile I would only need to edit a photo once, so it looks good on the calibrated screen, and then a custom printer profile will handle the work to print a good looking photo. Different profiles do different translations for different printers/papers. However, judging by the PS work, it appears I need to re-edit a photo for each printer/paper I encounter...just doesn't seem right.
2 In Aperture, I'm confused by the onscreen proofing does not present the same image as what I see in the print preview. I'm selecting the same .icc profile in both locations.
I tried visiting with Spyder support, but am not able to explain myself well enough to help them understand what I'm doing wrong.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

Calibrated the printer several times and created .icc profiles
You have understand that maintaining the colour is done by morphing the colourants, and you have understood that matching the digital graphic display (which is emissive) to the print from the digital graphic printer (which is reflective) presupposes a studio lighting situation that simulates the conditions presupposed in the mathematical illuminant model for media independent matching. Basically, for a display-to-print match you need to calibrate and characterise the display to something like 5000-55000 kelvin. There are all sorts of arguments surrounding this, and you will find your way through them in time, but you now have the gist of the thing.
So far so good, but what of the problem posed by the digital graphic printer? If you are a professional photographer, you are dependent on your printer for contract proofing. Your prints you can pass to clients and to printers, but your display you cannot. So this is critical.
The ICC Specification was published at DRUPA Druck und Papier in Düsseldorf in May 1995 and ColorSync 2 Golden Master is on the WWDC CD for May 1995. Between 1995 and 2000 die reine Lehre said to render your colour patch chart in the raw condition of the colour device.
The problem with this is that in a separation the reflectance of the paper (which is how you get to see the colours of the colourants laid down on top of the paper) and the amount of colourant (solid and combinations of tints) gives you the gamut.
By this argument, you would want to render the colour patch chart with the most colourant, but what if the most colourant produces artifacts? A safer solution is to have primary ink limiting as part of the calibration process prior to rendering of the colour patch chart.
You can see the progression e.g. in the BEST RIP which since 2002 has been owned by EFI Electronics for Imaging. BEST started by allowing access to the raw colour device, with pooling problems and whatnot, but then introduced a primary ink limiting and linearisation.
The next thing you need to know is what colour test chart to send to the colour device, depending on whether the colour device is considered an RGB device or a CMYK device. By convention, if the device is not driven by a PostScript RIP it is considered an RGB device.
The colour patch chart is not tagged, meaning that it is deviceColor and neither CIEBased colour or ICCBased colour. You need to keep your colour patch chart deviceColor or you will have a colour characterisation of a colour managed conversion. Which is not what you want.
If the operating system is colour managed through and through, how do you render a colour test chart without automatically assigning a source ICC profile for the colourant model (Generic RGB Profile for three component, Generic CMYK Profile for four component)?
The convention is that no colour conversion occurs if the source ICC device profile and the destination ICC device profile are identical. So if you are targetting your inkjet in RGB mode, you open an RGB colourant patch chart, set the source ICC profile for the working space to the same as the destination ICC profile for the device, and render as deviceColor.
You then leave the rendered colourant test chart to dry for one hour. If you measure a colourant test chart every ten minutes through the first hour, you may find that the soluble inkjet inks in drying change colour. If you wait, you avoid this cause of error in your characterisation.
As you will mainly want to work with loose photographs, and not with photographs placed in pages, when you produce a contract proof using Absolute Colorimetric rendering from the ICC profile for the printing condition to the ICC profile for your studio printer, here's a tip.
Your eyes, the eyes of your client, and the eyes of the prepress production manager will see the white white of the surrounding unprinted margins of the paper, and will judge the printed area of the paper relative to that.
If, therefore, your untrimmed contract proof and the contract proof from Adobe InDesign or QuarkPress, or a EFI or other proofing RIP, are placed side by side in the viewing box your untrimmed contract proof will work as the visual reference for the media white.
The measured reference for the media white is in the ICC profile for the printing condition, to be precise in the WTPT White Point tag that you can see by doubleclicking the ICC profile in the Apple ColorSync Utility. This is the lightness and tint laid down on proof prints.
You, your client and your chosen printer will get on well if you remember to set up your studio lighting, and trim the blank borders of your proof prints. (Another tip: set your Finder to neutral gray and avoid a clutter of white windows, icons and so forth in the Finder when viewing.)
So far, so good. This leaves the nittygritty of specific ICC profiling packages and specific ICC-enabled applications. As for Aperture, do not apply a gamma correction to your colourant patch chart, or to colour managed printing.
As for Adobe applications, which you say you will be comparing with, you should probably be aware that Adobe InDesign CS3 has problems. When targetting an RGB printing device, the prints are not correctly colour managed, but basically bypass colour management.
There's been a discussion on the Apple ColorSync Users List and on Adobe's fora, see the two threads below.
Hope this helps,
Henrik Holmegaard
technical writer
References:
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx?14@@.59b52c9b/0
http://lists.apple.com/archives/colorsync-users/2007/Nov/msg00143.html

Slight Color and Quality Shift when viewing RAW files for first time in Library Module.

Hello,
I have been shooting RAW for a while and have notice that after I import the images and then start to view them in the Library Module I will see a slight color and quality shift - almost looks like a white balance shift but not quite.   I was thinking that perhaps there was some automatic preset being applied but I don't have any presets at all.
I am shooting with a Canon 1DX as well as 7D. I have not checked to see if I get this situation with the 7D, but I know for sure that I get it with the 1DX.
Today I was reviewing some images in Bridge and decided to open one of them in Camera RAW.   At that time I discovered that the camera's Image Style Settings were available, Faithful, Standard, Portrait, etc. I noticed that the images did not have one of the camera styles applied to them but rather the Adobe Standard Style. At that point from within RAW I selected one of the camera's styles and bingo thats the kind of shift I am seeing when I first view an image in LR4 Library.
So as far as I can tell the RAW images are getting the Adobe Standard style applied in LR.   I have no idea if this is a default behavior of if I have done something to cause it. I'm also thinking that perhaps LR does not necessarily apply the Camera's Styles automatically even though the particular style has been set in the camera -- perhaps is not imported as part of the metadata during the import and thus defaults to the Adobe Standard.
I guess what I need to know is a few things and I hope someone can educate this newbie!
1. Should I expect LR4 to apply the Style as set from the camera automatically or not at all?
2. Can I prevent LR from applying the Adobe Standard Style and apply no style?
3. Can I cause LR to apply the Style as set in the camera for the particular image to be appied automatically upon import?
Thank you for any guidenace you can offer. Of course if you need additional information or clarification please let me know.
Scott

That sort of describes it and may be exactly what is happening. I have a shoot tonight and will pay closer attention to the process and behavior when I import.
It is the full image that I see the shift on though. Its not that the thumbnail and the full size image look different. It the full size image looking one way and then shifting in front of my eyes.
What is frustrating is that I typically find that the image before the shift is better than what appears after the shift, so I find myself always chasing to get back to where it was and because its gone I'm chasing an invisible ideal, so to speak.   Ahhh...isnt that the life of a photographer though!
It seems like its the last step in the render process -- if I could just figure out what it is and stop it I could finally figure out if I really care or not. Its just so quick its tough to tell if indeed the first appearance is better.
I'll feedback some more information when I get a better handle on this.
Thanks for the reference.

Color Profile and Color Shift Headache

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for