Luminous Landscape Forum

Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Colour Management => Topic started by: shadowblade on October 08, 2012, 07:07:58 am

Title: Colour management problems - Spyder 3, Windows 7, red cast on everything.
Post by: shadowblade on October 08, 2012, 07:07:58 am
Just having a bit of a colour management issue here. For photo processing on the go, I have just moved to a new laptop with a wide-gamut screen, which I have calibrated with a Spyder 3 Pro. Images look fine in Photoshop or Firefox, and they look fine in colour-managed environments on my other colour-calibrated, wide-gamut desktop monitor (calibrated using the same Spyder), but, when I upload a file to Flickr and view it in Internet Explorer (a non-colour managed environment) the photos all look oversaturated and with a strong red hue. And, apparently, they also look horribly red on other people's monitors, so it's not just a case of my monitors, when not colour managed, turning everything red.

I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong with the setup. My monitor profile is called 'Monitor.icm', and I'm using that as my default profile in Windows 7 colour management setup, in the 'Devices' tab. In the 'Advanced' tab, under 'Windows Colour System Defaults', I've set the Device Profile to sRGB. In Photoshop, under 'Colour Settings', I've set the RGB working space to Adobe RGB, and process all my photos in Adobe RGB space. They look fine while I'm editing them in Photoshop, but look awful as soon as I view them outside of that colour-managed environment.

Any ideas?

Examples attached (converted to sRGB):

Title: Re: Colour management problems - Spyder 3, Windows 7, red cast on everything.
Post by: digitaldog on October 08, 2012, 11:08:14 am
Older versions of IE were not color managed. I believe the latest version is (I never touch this product so double check). Any non ICC aware application will suffer this issue.
Title: Re: Colour management problems - Spyder 3, Windows 7, red cast on everything.
Post by: shadowblade on October 08, 2012, 11:24:38 am
Older versions of IE were not color managed. I believe the latest version is (I never touch this product so double check). Any non ICC aware application will suffer this issue.

How do they look on your computer? OK, or far too red? In browser and also in Photoshop?

I thought that was the issue too, but, apparently, other people opening these files in Photoshop or Firefox on calibrated monitors are also seeing a strong red cast, which leads me to believe the problem is on my end.
Title: Re: Colour management problems - Spyder 3, Windows 7, red cast on everything.
Post by: digitaldog on October 08, 2012, 11:27:55 am
In a color managed app, what you see should look the same in each. But of course, if your display calibration is iffy, it is possible they look fine to you and too red to others. At this point I'd just figure out what looks good to you in a color managed app and see if that matches others expectation. You probably should download some kind of color reference file that has a tagged profile and examine it on your system. The Printer Test File on my web site (tips and tricks) would do.
Title: Re: Colour management problems - Spyder 3, Windows 7, red cast on everything.
Post by: shadowblade on October 08, 2012, 11:33:20 am
In a color managed app, what you see should look the same in each. But of course, if your display calibration is iffy, it is possible they look fine to you and too red to others. At this point I'd just figure out what looks good to you in a color managed app and see if that matches others expectation. You probably should download some kind of color reference file that has a tagged profile and examine it on your system. The Printer Test File on my web site (tips and tricks) would do.

How would I use a colour reference file if I don't know what it's supposed to look like in the first place?

In the top-left image in your printer test file, is the woman's skin tone supposed to appear yellowish? Because her skin looks yellow in my calibrated environments and pink in my non-calibrated environments.
Title: Re: Colour management problems - Spyder 3, Windows 7, red cast on everything.
Post by: digitaldog on October 08, 2012, 11:34:37 am
How would I use a colour reference file if I don't know what it's supposed to look like in the first place?

Well for one, you'll not see any color cast anywhere if the display is properly calibrated.
Title: Re: Colour management problems - Spyder 3, Windows 7, red cast on everything.
Post by: shadowblade on October 08, 2012, 11:49:47 am
Well for one, you'll not see any color cast anywhere if the display is properly calibrated.

It's hard to tell a colour cast if you don't have anything to compare it to - all my devices are calibrated on the same Spyder 3 Pro, so I can't calibrate two monitors using different devices and look for a difference.