Colour Issues Ubuntu

[clifford]

Hi There

Im a photographer and long time photoshop/lightroom user. I've recently tried to see whether using ubuntu is a viable option for me and so have installed the trial of Aftershot Pro. Im impressed with the speed and familiarity of the layout etc. However I seem to be having some problems with consistant colour between aftershot pro and other lnux programs, and obviously colour and apearence are critical to my work.

I'm working with NEF raw files from a Nikon D700, when I first import them into Aftershot pro, I notice that with 'toggle soft proofing' set to on, the files look good, similar in colour to lightroom initial preset. however if i export that file as a 16 bit tiff and open it in image viewer, there is a slight colout shift and my blacks certainly open up a little, to what i see in ASP.

Now if i set 'toggle soft proofing' to off, the image in ASP becomes much less contasty and the blacks open up to where they look muddy. now if i export this as a 16 bit tiff file, and then open the image in image viewer, the image looks exactly how the first exported version did.

Now i understand this makes sense, as all ASP is doing is showing me how the image will look with the profile soft proof on and off and wont change the final exported version regardless of whether it is toggled on and off. i understand this.

after that long post i guess what I'm asking is this, all i want to do is edit to be able to export a file that looks exactly what i would see in ASP before i import. If I want to do this should I edit with soft proofing toggled to on or off (I'm guessing and will this make a difference because I'm not seeing the same colour exported regardless of whether its on or off.

its pretty annoying especially as this could keep me on linux full time. i just want the same colours and constrast that are previewed in ASP to be exported. lightroom and photoshop do achieve this.

I hope this long winded post makes some sense to someone

thanks.

[afx]

Do you have a color managed setup?
Is AS using the right screen profile?
Which profile are you using for soft proofing?
Is your screen calibrated and profiled?
And does the image viewer you use support color management and is it set up to use it?

cheers
afx

[clifford]

Hi afx

I have seemed to have solved the problem I was having. you where right in that the image viewer didnt support colour management and so i set up my profiles in the gimp, and opened it there and things almost look identical. not perfect but very close.

I'll still answer your questions though as i have a few more questions of my own, if you dont mind.

I have a colour managed setup insofar as I calibrated my monitor (Dell U2311H) in windows 7 using an x-rite i1 calibrator. I then opened this as my monitor profile in linux using the colour option in system settings. Although I guess its looking in my windows directory for the icc profile each time (i'm not sure where to place it in the linux file structure.

I've set up AS to look at that profile although it doesnt seem to stick when i close and re-open and reverts to DefaultMonitor.icm. (I'm not sure if then though it will see my calibrated profile, as I've set it as default under setting, as I stated above).

The profile I'm using for softproofing is a custom print space for fuji matt paper from the lab I use in london. Can I ask as I mainly print and dont really use screen images to show anyone, do you consider it best to edit all my pictures with this soft proof profile turned on? To be honest there doesnt seem to be much of a shift between the deafult RGB and the softproof profile, just mainly the reds become more muted.

Another question I have regards the colour space to edit it. Do you recommend ProPhotoRGB as lightroom uses? I'm sure I read somewhere my monitor only displays colours in sRGB, so I'm a little confused?

Finally, I seem to have a problem with the highlight bar in AS. I'm assuming it has the same functionality as highlight recovery in lightroom/camera raw, however when i use it I seem to get what looks like a horrible purple posterisation. For testing purposes I did the same function on the same file in lightroom and the problem didnt replicate. I've attached a picture of the problem I'm talking about, you can see it on the left, in the sky, just above the hand cursor. Is this a bug or a limitation of AS do you think?

I notice you have a book, would that help with AS (i know its written for bibble) but it seems awfully handy.

Cheers

[clifford]

ok ive just read that purple highlight problem is a known bug.

[tomsi42]

I notice you have a book, would that help with AS (i know its written for bibble) but it seems awfully handy.

Cheers

It is awfully handy. I believe most of it will be useful for ASP, even though it is written for Bibble.

The biggest differences [between Bibble and ASP] are in library and the fact that ASP doesn't have the look profiles any more. And those doesn't take too much space in the book.

[chrisgiltnane]

As a Linux(Ubuntu) user to I have recently got hold of a colorhug to calibrate my screen in native linux. if interested, this is the link. http://www.hughski.com/ its a open hardware as well as a opensource project by a redhat man thats pretty deep into colour and photography. Other than being a user I have no other link to this guy.

[afx]

so i set up my profiles in the gimp, and opened it there and things almost look identical. not perfect but very close.

Different programs use different CM engines and potentially different rendering intents, so a perfect match is not guaranteed, but it should be quite close.

I have a colour managed setup insofar as I calibrated my monitor (Dell U2311H) in windows 7 using an x-rite i1 calibrator. I then opened this as my monitor profile in linux using the colour option in system settings. Although I guess its looking in my windows directory for the icc profile each time (i'm not sure where to place it in the linux file structure.

Do i get this right, you profile under Windows, but load the profile in Linux without having it loaded in the X Server? That is problematic....
How about Using ArgyllCMS (and DispcalGUI) under Linux to generate the profiles right there?

The system path for color profiles in Linux is /usr/share/color/icc/

I've set up AS to look at that profile although it doesn't seem to stick when i close and re-open and reverts to DefaultMonitor.icm.

You seem to have a permission problem in your ~/.AfterShotPro or ~/.config directories.

The profile I'm using for softproofing is a custom print space for fuji matt paper from the lab I use in london. Can I ask as I mainly print and don't really use screen images to show anyone, do you consider it best to edit all my pictures with this soft proof profile turned on? To be honest there doesn't seem to be much of a shift between the default RGB and the softproof profile, just mainly the reds become more muted.

I'd never use a specific output for general image editing....
But that very much depends on your usage.

Another question I have regards the colour space to edit it. Do you recommend ProPhotoRGB as lightroom uses? I'm sure I read somewhere my monitor only displays colours in sRGB, so I'm a little confused?

Just like LR, the working space in AS can not be changed (finally!!!!)
Just like LR, AS uses a variant of ProPhoto in this case linear ProPhoto.
You might want to have a look the sRGB link in my signature to understand working spaces for image editing.

Is this a bug or a limitation of AS do you think?

Old nasty silly ugly bug. But I finally have high hopes that this will be a non issue in the foreseeable future.

I notice you have a book, would that help with AS (i know its written for bibble) but it seems awfully handy.

The basics did not change, but lots of little details.
Marco and I are working on an update. But that will take a bit as there are AS changes we hope for (the current screen layout has some warts) and a bit more stable plugin situation is needed before we bring out the AS version.

cheers
afx

[quadrox]

Hi There
after that long post i guess what I'm asking is this, all i want to do is edit to be able to export a file that looks exactly what i would see in ASP before i import. If I want to do this should I edit with soft proofing toggled to on or off (I'm guessing and will this make a difference because I'm not seeing the same colour exported regardless of whether its on or off.

Make sure that your output queue has the output color space set to srgb (or whichever color space is appropriate. If you don't know, it's srgb).