Snow Leopard's Default Gamma & Color Correcting for Pre Press in Photoshop CS4

After searching the forums I thought I would start my own thread on this subject.
I have Photoshop CS4 and InDesign CS4 and I have continued to color correct, for pre press, in OS 10.4.11 Tiger with the 1.8 Default Gamma and 6500 color tempurature, using Apple's display calibration tools in the OS's System Preferances.
I want to switch to Snow Leaopard but with it's Defualt Gamma of 2.2, I'm not able to make my minitor manually adjust to the needed range for brightness and contrast that is needed to begin the calibration process. Is there a way to color correct photos, for pre pre press, in Photoshop with a 2.2 Gamma setting in my display preferances?

I have had success just with Apple's System Preferences for color calibration. I do design and pre press for a number of customers of the various printers I work with. Most of the photos I work with are from digital cameras and are provided by the customer. The only point in the whole process, where the photos get adjusted to have eye pleasing color, when coming off the printing press, is when I work with them.
The printers I work with continue to send their customers to me, for design and pre press, because they like my color work on the photos. I send the pre press files as Press Optimized PDFs to the printer's FTP server and the printer does all the direct to plate separations in-house. I want to continue to be reliable in that area and so the brighter default Gamma built into Snow Leopard seems to complicate things if I ever want to move up from Tiger to Snow Leopard.
I have two 17" Apple CRT displays that cannot adjust into calibration range when I'm booted in Snow Leopard. These CRT displays can only manually adjust in range for calibration under Tiger or Leopard. It sounds like if I purchase an IPS based LCD monitor, made by Apple, Dell, or other brands, I will probably be able to manually adjust the display for Gamma 1.8, under Snow Leopard.
I was posing this question about using Gamma 2.2 because if I could color correct for pre press with the 2.2 setting, I could continue to use my old Apple 17" CRT displays and also any web content I create will preview closer in color, on PCs as they will on my Mac. Maybe my review PDFs will view with similar color on my customers PCs if I work with a 2.2 Gamma setting and instead of 1.8. For now I know I will keep my printers happy if I continue to work with a monitor that has a 1.8 Gamma setting and a 6500 color temperature setting. If that must continue to be the standard for pre press, then I will need to get an IPS based LCD monitor that will allow me to adjust in the 1.8 Gamma range while booted in Snow Leopard.

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Color correction for PrE 10 ?

Are there any plugins available for PrE 10 to do proper color correction ?
By default there is a 3-way color corrector but it is quite limited (no range definition for midtones, no secondaries). There is a "Color Fixer" in NewBlue Video Essentials but it appears to be mostly automatic. Basically what I am looking for is something similar to Colorista or Color Finesse that is compatible with PrE.

As Premiere is not a Color Managed Workspace, the calibrated computer monitor will not be 100% correct. To do advanced CC, I think that you will find Adobe After Effects (a Color Managed Workspace) to be more what you are looking for. PrPro adds many CC Effects, but is still not a Color Managed Workspace, so one needs to output to a calibrated broadcast monitor for critical CC work.
Also, as Video is likely displayed on myriad devices, from computer monitors to a plethora of TV sets (of various levels of calibration), one can only CC to broadcast standards, and then hope for the best with the viewer's equipment. PrE is designed for consumer output, where PrPro includes broadcast capabilities and After Effects is designed around broadcast. The difference between PrE and PrPro is similar to a comparison of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, in that Photoshop offers CMYK output for commercial printing, where PSElements does not.
Until fairly recently, PrE offered scant few Effects to manually CC footage. The addition of the Three-way CC Effect is a big bonus, but as you have found out, for broadcast work, it is lacking.
I do not know of any CC plug-ins, that will function better in PrE, but places to look would be the NewBlue FX portfolio, and the Red Giant portfolio. Also, make sure that when checking out host applications for their plug-ins, you see Premiere Elements, as most will work in Premiere Pro, but fewer in Premiere Elements, due to differences between those programs.
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Snow Leopard Chinese Input System Demo & Request for ideas to improve it

I had been looking for a detailed Snow Leopard Chinese Input System demo online for sometime and failed. What I found were just short video clips of people trying to use the system for a few words here and there, nothing detailed. So I've taken the initiative to create such a video and hope people interested learning more about the Chinese Input System may find it useful.
http://kempton.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/snow-leopard-chinese-input-system-demo/
I like the system and like to see users of the system sending in suggestions to Apple for them to improve it and make the system even better.
Here are some comment/ideas of mine,
1) I love the predictive word association, it has saved me time in entering many words.
2) Add an "undo" to the track pad input.
Sometimes I see the right word predicted but my hand was too fast and I added a dot or stroke that takes out the word I want.
3) My pen stroke order sometimes ***** and this mess up the recognition system badly.
I wonder will it be difficult to implement a display tool that
given a passage of "Chinese text" as input
have the system "display" the "correct" pen strokes order of how the words are expected in the system. The stupidly simple word “生” should not take 20-30 seconds for someone to fight with the system to get the correct recognition.
Here is how I captured some of my thoughts earlier this month in Chinese typing the article in Snow Leopard,
自從九月 [...]，我便開始用Apple Snow Leopard新的中文輸入系統。當時我寫
“打本文某一㘹字時慢到我想死 (一笑)！希望將來我的中文輸入會快一點吧！”
我現在有點經驗使用這中文輸入系統，慢慢開始熟練，寫文章都叫做幾快。以下是我的一些觀察，
1) 輸入系統的”聯想”(predictive word association)有時可以幫我寫小好幾個字。
2) 輸入系統非常依靠正確的筆劃順序。不幸我寫得不太好，所以有時候我要同一字寫多次才成。
3) 冇undo。有時我寫得太快，加多一箑一點，字便變了。冇undo，很不方便。

Make sure you also send your ideas for improvements to Apple via this link:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html
(In these forums you are only reaching other users like yourself)

I have a copy of Windows 7, and I am trying to bring up Boot Camp on my MacBook with Snow Leopard. But my Snow Leopard install disk is too old for Windows 7, so attempted Boot Camp install of drivers fails.

I have a copy of Windows 7, and I am trying to bring up Boot Camp on my MacBook with Snow Leopard. But my Snow Leopard install disk is too old for Windows 7, so attempted Boot Camp install of drivers fails.
I have hand-installed the NVidia graphics driver, and I have keyboard, minimal trackpad, and hardwire to internet all working. So the WIndows machine is usable. But I am hurting for wi-fi, better trackpad, and whatever else is delivered by Boot Camp. I can't use any of the Boot Camp upgrades because I do not have XP or Vista.

While we all have MacBooks in this forum not all of us use Boot Camp. There's a Boot Camp Support Community where everybody uses Boot Camp. You should also post this question there.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/windows_software/boot_camp

HT3258 I have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 installed. For me to use XCode 4.5, I must have 10.7 or later. What is the best way to go ahead? Should I install OS X Lion and then move to Mountain Lion, or can I straight away install latest Mountain Lion, i.e. 10.8.2

I have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 installed. For me to use XCode 4.5, I must have 10.7 or later. What is the best way to go ahead? Should I install OS X Lion and then move to Mountain Lion, or can I straight away install latest Mountain Lion, i.e. 10.8.2

You can directly install Mountain Lion 10.8.0 to 10.6.8, and then apply the 10.8.2 Update.
Hope this helps

Snow Leopard, FCP, AFX & Gamma

Hi all. First of all I'd like to say that I've already googled about this for hours and that I wouldn't post a question on the subject if wasn't on a tight deadline and had already pulled out whatever hair I had left.
We are finishing a project using FCP 7.0.1 running on Leopard on a 2 x 2.66 Dual Xeon.
At the last minute we decided to rent a second Mac Pro to help us with some After Effects rendering. The new Mac is a 2.66 Quad Xeon, newer model (no FW 400 connector). And of course it runs Snow Leopard.
After Effects CS3 has been causing us problems with gamma shifts when rendering on the same (Dual Xeon) machine that runs FCP, but we've sorted them out (activating the "Legacy" option in Project Settings dialog of AFX, a tip from Creative Cow). However, on the new machine the nightmare has begun again, only this time I can't find any solution to the gamma shift.
Footage exported from Leopard FCP (both from the timeline and from the original .mov file using Quicktime Player), after the round trip to the After Effects installation on Snow Leopard (without any effects added), is always darker, whether using ProRes or DVCPRO HD 1080i50 (which is our timeline's codec).
I know Adobe doesn't offer support for CS3 on SL. I also know that the switch from 1.8 to 2.2 might be involved, but I can't figure out how (Apple says the ColorSync utility should make this an invisible, but I've also tried changing to 1.8. in the Display Settings - however this is for display only and obviously doesn't affect the pixel processing in After Effects).
I would like to know if there is ANY solution available or whether we should return the SL machine, install Leopard on it, or buy CS4 (which seems to have its own issues in this area). Needless to say, all the above options except the first one would be a major pain (we're editing nights here...)
Thanks for any help.

I don't know if this is the solution, but it is a solution and I'm jotting this down in case someone bumps into this post while searching.
Do a search for "Adjusting Gamma" in the FCP 7 documentation. Read the whole page.
The workflow using the Animation codec works for me :
1. Export your footage (either from FCP or directly from QT) as DVCPRPO HD 1080i50 (or whatever your native footage is).
2. In Snow Leopard, process the clip in After Effects and make sure you use the Animation codec in the Output Settings (and Upper Field first in the Render Settings). Don't use a color corrected workflow (use "Preserve RGB" everywhere).
3. Still in Snow Leopard, add the clip to a FCP project, right-click on it and export a DVCPRO HD 1080i50 sequence (not using quicktime conversion). You don't need to create a sequence to do this and you don't even have to modify the Gamma value in the clip's properties (although you now can do it, since Animation is an RGB codec).
4. Import the clip back in FCP on Leopard.
You can easily setup a batch process for all this.
Disadvantage: on your SL AFX machine you can't have a precise idea of how the result would look, color-wise, in FCP. I can live with that because I'm only using it for calculations.
But I would be interested in any alternative solution.

Setting up Snow Leopard Server with Address Book, iCal for Small Business

Hello Folks,
I have a small business with 2-3 people and I want to setup Snow Leopard Server on a Mac Mini. I have everything in place, RAID, Backup drive etc.
What I need is a guide on how to setup the server correctly and how to setup Address Book Server, iCal Server, DNS, etc. I was in IT a long while back but have gone back to my creative roots and sworn off IT but I am in a situation where my IT guy's wife is pregnant so he is busy painting the baby's room, etc.
I was looking at Snow Leopard Server for Dummies and a few other books. Do you guys have any suggestions on resources for me to read or research that would give me very straightforward steps in getting this setup. I am at a point where I can re-install from scratch if needed.
For the ease of those that might respond let's assume I know my way around Mac and general networking as a whole.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Cheers,
Jason

Hi Guys,
First of, I will give you a brief background on me regarding networking as a mac user since 1994. I can setup and network multiple macs without a server in our home and small office. Turning file, print and internet sharing with a regular Mac OS X client version at no problem at all. This would be my first time setting up a Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server.
I'm in the same boat as Jakekub but we do not have a static IP from our DSL provider. We just bought a Mac Mini Server for our small office with 3 iMacs and 1 MacBook. We will just use the server for internal usage and to centralized things out and use some of server's features like Address Book, Mail, iCal etc. I've search the forums and found Orhidy's post here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2148553
I even followed the sample IP Address, Subnet Mask, Router, DNS Server and I think I had it correctly setup initially. And I think I got it all running on the basic setup base on his instructions. So I tried to test my DNS settings via Terminal > hostname then got answer as
servername.companyname.private
And double checking DNS again with a command: sudo changeip - checkhostname and was given an answer of:
Primary address = 192.168.1.192
Current Hostname = servername.companyname.private
DNS Hostname = servername.companyname.private
The names match. There is nothing to change
dirserv:success = "success"
But here's another one that bugs me. I tried to follow from "Mac OS X Snow Leopard for Dummies" the command line:
NSLOOKUP hostname
and got an answer of:
;; Got SERVFAIL reply from 192.168.1.192, trying next server
Server: 192.168.1.1
Address: 192.168.1.1#53
** server can't find hostname: NXDOMAIN
So does it mean that I still haven't configured my server properly?
Thank you all for the help in advance!
dive

Color Correction for Web

This is sort of a generic post questions. I am working on a project for the web. My final output will be to Digibeta. How do others approached color correcting in this situation? Being the computer monitors generally have such different characteristics than a traditional TV. In the past I correct as if I was going to air but this sometimes makes the online videos over saturated and contrasty. I realize there is really no web standard yet but wonder if anyone out there does a lot of web stuff that has any tips.

sRGB is the recommended color space for internet application.< </div>
You'd need to provide some documentation to support that statement.
sRGB is not necessarily meaningful beyond photographic applications. sRGB was designed to roughly reproduce color regardless of local profiling. The sRGB standard was created in 1996 to, among other things, create a smaller number of colors to increase the likelihood of correct reproduction in printing photographs, The mere presence of Microsoft on the list of supporting companies is reason enough to be skeptical.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleI d=67719
When an RGB image from a high-end scanner or other device is imported into an SRGB environment, however, some color information is lost. What SRGB offers is a lowest-common-denominator view of images in business applications and on Web sites.< </div>
This from the wiki:
As the recommended color space for the Internet, sRGB should be used for editing and saving all images intended for publication to the WWW. Images intended for professional printing via a fully color-managed workflow, e.g., prepress output sometimes use another color space such as Adobe RGB (1998), which allows for a wider gamut.
Images intended for the Internet and created in one of the other color spaces may be converted to sRGB when editing, using a suitable editing program, e.g., Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Photoshop; ideally, the original non-sRGB file should be saved and the conversion to sRGB done on a copy, as some loss of image information occurs when converting to another color space.
Due to the standardization of sRGB on the Internet, on computers, and on printers, many low- to medium-end consumer digital cameras and scanners use sRGB as the default (or only available) working color space. Used in conjunction with an inkjet printer, an sRGB image produces what is often regarded as satisfactory for home use. However, consumer-level camera LCDs are typically uncalibrated, meaning that even though the image is being labelled as sRGB, one can't conclude that the image is color-accurate on the LCD.
The two dominant programming interfaces for 3D graphics, OpenGL and Direct3D, have both incorporated sRGB. OpenGL 2.1 incorporates sRGB textures first introduced by the EXTtexturesRGB extension. OpenGL's EXTframebuffersRGB extensionsupports rendering into framebuffers assuming either a linear or sRGB color space. DirectX 9 supports sRGB textures and rendering into sRGB surfaces using Direct3D.<
bogiesan

Color Correction for movie theaters

I am currently editing a commercial that will be played in a couple of local movie theaters before the movie previews. I am in no way a professional and I'm kind of a Color newbie. I am working on a Mid 2009 15" MacBook Pro with HDV 1080i60 footage. The MBP's display is great and I'm happy with what I've done with my footage but I'm sure the color will look different in the theaters. I was wondering if anyone had some advice on how to color my footage differently for theaters.
I have referenced my color corrected footage on my 22" Dynex TV and it definitely looks a little darker and "warmer", so I'm a little afraid of giving my clips too much of a warm tone (which is the tone I'm going for). I'm also thinking about connecting to a projector to get another reference there.
Let me know what you guys think.
THANKS!
P.S. I have a technical contact number from the theater that I can call if it might help to ask them about it.

Are you delivering a video tape format like HDCAM SR/D5, supplying a QT file or printing back to film.
If its either of the first two methods the main thing is to preview your edit on a properly calibrated (the correct color space and gamma curve etc) monitor or preferably a projector in a suitable grading environment. If it looks good there then it should be ok to go - if the theatre has a properly calibrated set up as well.
As mentioned already you also may want to take into account the environment its likely to be screened in e.g brightness etc and adjust the grade accordingly, as peoples eyes will interpret the visual material differently under different conditions. Though in reality obviously you cant take into account every circumstance it may be shown in - the best thing to do is make sure it looks correct under optimal conditions using correctly calibrated gear.
If you are printing back to film - take care. Going to a film out out is an extremely sensitive and complicated process.
For a start you should really know what stock you are printing back to? You should find this out and obtain a LUT (look Up table) that will emulate this stock on your grading monitor so you know exactly what the final product will look like.
What process are you using to go to film?
I would contact a local post house and ask to speak to their Digital Intermediate specialist.
Good luck
JB

We have a 4 year old iMac 24 inch. My hard drive died and we have a new hard drive now, but all that the fixit shop put on it was the Snow Leopard OS; can I ask Apple for a download of our other many software programs to reload them? Does it cost to do

We have a 4 year old iMac 24 inch. The hard drive died and we had a new hard drive installed. They only installed the Snow Leopard OS on it, and there were many software programs that came with the iMac originally.. now missing. Does anyone know whether Apple will resupply these? I do have an Apple installation disc but have upgraded from the original Leopard to Snow Leopard... so the OS is not quite the same. Ideas? Thanks!

No bootable bakup/clone or Time Machine backup? No initial install discs? If no to both of those, call 1-800-MY-APPLE and request replacement discs for that machine. They're available for a nominal S&H charge.

Why am I not able to install snow leopard on a new hard drive for my macbook pro, which at one point was upgraded to Lion?

I've just had my hard drive go caput and after purchasing a new one was inclined to install snow leopard but received an error message when attempting to do so.
I did not create a back up or restore file before I decided to upgrade from snow leopard.
I'm wondering why am I not able to simply install snow leopard on a brand new hard drive. What would clue it into me having had ran lion before and why can't I simply delete that kernel or said file. It makes completely no sense to me. I come from a pc world where if I choose to format a hard drive, I can do a clean install of whatever OS I choose. After all I only paid for my laptop as should be able to do with it what I wish.
Any suggestions or insight would be greatly appreciated

1. Was Lion on the machine and trying to downgrade?
2. If so this might be an issue. Newer machines are done for current OSX.
3. If you have Lion on your machine try to install Snow Leopard on another partition or portable HD
4. After you format and install SL on the other partition or drive Try to boot from this machine retarting and holding the Option key at boot up.
5. See if that work.
This is a trial and error way but Mountain Lion is right around the corner and Snow Leopard is 2+ yrs old.
Brian

HOW to temporarily use Broadcast monitoring work on snow leopard OS X v10.6.8 for FINAL CUT PRO X

thx,macmacmac give me prompt.He had an interesting trick for getting the OS X Lion 'only' plugin to work on Snow Leopard
To install the plugin on Snow Leopard OS X 10.6.8 you have to temporarily change your system version number to Lion 10.7.2!
1. Go to HD:/System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist
2. Copy the file to the Desktop
3. Open the original with a text editor and change the string value of 'ProductVersion' and 'ProductUserVisibleVersion' to '10.7.2'.
4. Save & Overwrite.
I suddenly thought Apple said that Broadcast monitoring work on Lion OS X v10.7.3.I change system version number at once! Changing 10.6.8 snow leopard system version number to Lion 10.7.2!
ok,no problem. Restart final cut pro x,A/V output has appeared in FINAL CUT PRO X preferences and Window Menu
Enjoy it.HAHA!:cheer:

thanks for the tip fan!

Color Correction for DVD and online

I have a 13" SD TV hooked up to my mac working as a color correction monitor for FCE.
My question is: Should I always color correct using the TV monitor vs looking at the Canvas in FCE? What I'm seeing is the picture in the canvas is darker and more saturated then the view of the TV monitor. Is it best to trust the TV monitor vs the canvas? And should it make any difference if the final project is going to DVD vs online? I'm assuming the ending product (mov file) should look the same if the mov file is viewed from a computer vs on a TV from a DVD. In a nut shell, once the clip is color corrected using the ext monitor, should I be good to go no matter where the file ends up?
Thoughts?
Thanks so much

Hi
I would take some photos with color miss match eg blue tint (Blå-Stick in Swedish)
and with other known color anomalities.
Put them in TimeLine and playback. View TV - corrected or as bad as from start.
I use a color corrected CRT-broad-cast monitor but prior to this a small TV and
this one did a good job.
Yours Bengt W

Color correction for tube vs lcd tv's?

I did a few searches, and couldn't find anything on this topic. I know color correction is a big thing and I want to take full advantage of it, but one thing confuses me. If I shoot some footage, import, not do any color correction, burn dvd, and play that DVD on a LCD TV, wouldn't the color be the same? I know broadcast monitors are great for doing color correction, but isn't that for if you're going to watch the video on a tube or older tv? How does that work? Thanks.

It is best to get a professionally balanced LCD or CRT display for color correction.
WHY? Here is the BARNEY explaination:
Go to Best Buy, Circuit City...Sears...and look at all the LCD and plasma TVs. Notice that not one matches the other in color. Many waaaayyy off.
If you get a pro monitor and set it up properly, you know your colors are what they are SUPPOSED to be. Unfortunately, as your little experiment at Best Buy showed you...no one will see that perfect color correction. You know that your colors are right, and that most sets are wrong....but at least your colors are right.
Now, lets not have this topic go on for pages...
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Black Magic Flat - Color Correction for FCP7

Does anyone have any recommendations of FREE color correct plug-ins for Final Cut 7 to apply to footage shot specifically on the Black Magic Cinema Camera. We shot it RAW in ProRes and my editor is cutting on the FCP7.
I just want an easy fix before sending a rough cut to the client.
We will later hand off the locked picture to a colorist for a proper color grading.
(I use FCPX myself, and have a free plugin for BMCC Flat on that system. Just not sure if something similar & generous exist for FCP7 users)
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Marc

Probably the closest you'll come is the free DaVinci Resolve software Black Magic is offering, but that's not a simplistic solution. I understand that Resolve 9 has some support for RAW conversion that may work for your purposes.
Good luck

Snow Leopard's Default Gamma & Color Correcting for Pre Press in Photoshop CS4

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