One more Q- re color management win 7

[Imjinman]

Many thanks for your previous help; seems like I screwed up my color management.

I am still facing problems in that a RAW file has different coloring in PSP 4 vs Olympus Viewer 2 vs Lightroom vs Picasa. I now have them all using sRGB as the color workspace or using color management, and I have calibrated my monitor again with Spyder Pro 4. What am I doing wrong? I want to ensure that a TIFF file created in one of the RAW editors, appears the same in PSP4 for further pixel editing. Which one is right?

Is my screw up In Win 7? :

In Color Management/Advanced:

In "Windows Color Systems Default/device profile", what do I select? The new calibrated nonitor profile? Or which one of the many sRGB profiles?
"Windows Color Systems Default/Viewing Conditions Profile?: "WCS profile for ICS viewing conditions" ? or "WCS profile for sRGB viewing conditions"

Thank you!

[MarkZ]

Imjinman:

I'm no expert in colour management but can comment with respect to what I have done. I also have used Spyder to calibrate my monitor. Since I've gone to that amount of trouble and since I believe that Spyder is the best choice of the alternatives, in Windows(Control Panel)/Appearance/Display/Screen Resolution/Advanced Settings/Color Management I have set the file generated by Spyder as my default colour management setting. Some programs, such as PSP, give the option for colour management and when the option exists I set Spyder as the manager. With this, I feel I have good consistency in the appearance of my photos.

Before AfterShot Pro (ASP) I used Picasa as my photo viewer and as an aid in organizing - my file system was how I organized. I noticed that RAW files looked different in Picasa than in other programs. When I changed cameras, Picasa was a bit slow in providing viewing of the RAW files and again, once the viewer was available, they looked quite different than in the other programs. Without any other evidence I came to the conclusion that Picasa developers created the interpreter for RAW files and they ended up with something different than other programs. It appears that they are trying for an "average" look and not rendering exactly what is in the RAW file. RAW images look far better in the other programs than they do in Picasa but it does still have its uses for me.

Now I use ASP for the initial viewing, sorting, organizing and a good portion of editing of my photos and believe that the colour rendition from it and PSP is correct - it matches well what I see in the editor that came with the camera. I belong to a camera club and enter photos in competitions. When they are shown I look carefully at how my submissions match what I saw on my monitor - and these images are sRGB jpgs, 1024 pixels per side maximum shown using calibrated equipment - and the match is good.

My conclusion is that there are no absolutes and we need to decide what space we want to work within.

[bigfatron]

This might be stating the obvious so apologies if it is, but you have explicitly enabled colour management in the applications too? IIRC for Picasa you have to switch it on.

[Imjinman]

I have turned color management on...but is it fair to say that, although the monitor is calibrated, different software applications (eg PSP, Lightroom, Photoshop, Olympus Viewer, etc) will all potentially display a RAW and JPEG files differently?

Thanks

[thazooo]

is it fair to say that, although the monitor is calibrated, different software applications (eg PSP, Lightroom, Photoshop, Olympus Viewer, etc) will all potentially display a RAW and JPEG files differently?

Yes, RAW especially. Each RAW converter processes the data differently. Your camera manufacturer's program should be the most accurate since they know how the RAW file is written.
All other converters are mostly reverse engineered to get similar results. The appearance in each can vary from slight to BIG difference in color/exposure.
I run Pentax and use it's RAW converter as a bench mark for others conversions. PSP X3, Corel Photo Paint, Never get used for conversion since everything is OFF big time and a lot of adjustments are required to get the image to resemble what I shot. ACDSee Pro 3 is closer to what was shot and requires minor adjustments. The new ASP/Bibble is extremely close to what was shot and I use it. Lightroom was very close to what I shot but I went a different route because of other issues.
Best I can suggest is find a converter and processor you LIKE and stay with the combination. Get your prints to match as close as possible and enjoy.

The JPG files looking differently should be only minor change. Check to see that your not changing color space when importing them into your processor.
Hope this helps.

[bigfatron]

On the subject of colour management, i've got two different model monitors that are both independently calibrated and the first time I start up PSP X4 it always knocks the profile off on the secondary monitor. I can get it back on by going into the colour management applet in Windows (7) and reselecting the profile. Does anyone know why this happens and if it can be stopped from happening?

[thazooo]

On the subject of colour management, i've got two different model monitors that are both independently calibrated and the first time I start up PSP X4 it always knocks the profile off on the secondary monitor. I can get it back on by going into the colour management applet in Windows (7) and reselecting the profile. Does anyone know why this happens and if it can be stopped from happening?

Read this http://www.slagermanphoto.com/2009/03/0 ... anagement/

This doesn't happen to all machines but does happen in Vista and 7. Might give you a place to start.

[bigfatron]

On the subject of colour management, i've got two different model monitors that are both independently calibrated and the first time I start up PSP X4 it always knocks the profile off on the secondary monitor. I can get it back on by going into the colour management applet in Windows (7) and reselecting the profile. Does anyone know why this happens and if it can be stopped from happening?

Read this http://www.slagermanphoto.com/2009/03/0 ... anagement/

This doesn't happen to all machines but does happen in Vista and 7. Might give you a place to start.

Cheers. Seems i'm doing in the Color Management applet what LUT Manager in the link provided, but it does but at least point a finger more in the direction of the OS than the application. Its a minor pain but I guess I can live with it for now. Games also seem to reset the calibrations.