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Author Topic: how to select out of gamut colors in Photoshop?  (Read 20748 times)

smilem

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how to select out of gamut colors in Photoshop?
« on: August 20, 2013, 04:46:58 pm »

Hello, there is the Select -> Color range then choose out of gamut, but it usually selects nonsense and in CS3 there is not such thing at all.

Isn't there some sort of plugin that would do this right? Select out of gamut colors marked by Photoshop "Gamut warning" ?

If selected properly I could select convert to profile only the areas out of gamut to desired profile.
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MarkM

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Re: how to select out of gamut colors in Photoshop?
« Reply #1 on: August 20, 2013, 08:09:23 pm »

If selected properly I could select convert to profile only the areas out of gamut to desired profile.

First, I don't think you can convert the profile of a selection. It's all or nothing.

Second, selecting out-of-gamut colors in a file doesn't really make sense. All the colors in the file are, by definition, within the gamut of the image's color space. These colors might be out of gamut of a different space, but in order to select these the color range filter would need to know which space to use for the gamut test. I suppose it could use the space selected in proof setup, but Photoshop doesn't seem to do this. Instead it looks like it assumes colors on the edge of the space are clipping and selects those. This is not a particularly useful thing in my opinion and these colors are not technically out-of-gamut.

If you are trying to convert to a smaller space, just convert the image and allow the rendering intent to do what it's designed to do. This is very often the best solution. If you find this isn't working, the next thing to try is working in the soft proof view and making adjustments that look better to you—then convert.
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jmlphotography

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Oldfox

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Re: how to select out of gamut colors in Photoshop?
« Reply #3 on: August 25, 2013, 01:58:45 am »

This is a good question.

(In my CS3 there is Select -> Color Range -> Select -> Out of Gamut).

I have always thought that this selects the out-of-gamut pixels that are outside the gamut selected in View -> Proof Setup -> Custom. But it seems that this is not the case.

Does anyone really know what is happening in Select -> Color Range -> Select -> Out of Gamut ?
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smilem

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digitaldog

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Re: how to select out of gamut colors in Photoshop?
« Reply #5 on: September 02, 2013, 03:48:35 pm »

The gamut warning and selection isn't accurate (one could say buggy) and unnecessary. The output profile is going to do this for you anyway, and a perceptual intent is going to do so with a lot more smarts, assuming a good profile than you could ever do yourself.
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Oldfox

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Re: how to select out of gamut colors in Photoshop?
« Reply #6 on: September 04, 2013, 12:59:57 am »

and unnecessary.
unnecessary?

Really? No. If it would work and you could choose the profile, it could be very useful. If you are using Relative instead of Perceptual, you could tweak the out-of-bounds pixels without affecting the in-of-bounds pixels.

 
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D Fosse

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Re: how to select out of gamut colors in Photoshop?
« Reply #7 on: September 04, 2013, 02:07:55 am »

It seems to me there are two schools here. One is to let the profile handle the clipping. The other is to bring everything into gamut before conversion.

Personally I'm in the latter camp, but I'm not fanatic about it. The main argument is that the display limits the usefulness of proofing (many or most output profiles partially exceed the gamut of the display, even wide gamut ones). But it's time-consuming.
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smilem

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Re: how to select out of gamut colors in Photoshop?
« Reply #8 on: September 04, 2013, 05:05:04 am »

Let me toss a wrench here  :P

Why Photoshop colorpicker does not show color delta E ? It you also be very useful.
The same goes for out of gamut colors, you can't specify delta E when a color is out of gamut. There are no boundaries shown (like a weather map) etc.

If you know any plugin that would do those 2 things, I'm all ears.

Professional tools ? Photoshop is not that professional after all if in all those versions they lack this basic functionality.

Hey Adobe, should I use Excel spreadsheet to do the calculations? No thanks.
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digitaldog

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Re: how to select out of gamut colors in Photoshop?
« Reply #9 on: September 04, 2013, 10:11:43 am »

unnecessary?
Really?

That's my story and I'm sticking to it <g>.

You can use screwdriver as a kitchen knife or even for brain surgery but I don't recommend it. The tools in Photoshop for OOG control are buggy (not accurate) and crude. It treats 1% and 100% OOG the same. It predates soft proofing introduced in 1998. I've tried it, it isn't very effective and I've illustrated the differences in my LR soft proof video. I'm working in a very wide gamut space that exceeds my wide gamut display as does my printer. There's a lot I can't see the profile can affect and does affect. Let alone having an ugly overlay over my image as I attempt to edit that ugly overlay. IOW, the soft proof while not perfect shows me a lot more than a sold overlay that treats all OOG colors as if they were the same. The tools to adjust the overlay is as crude as that screwdriver in an operating room. Note that some could say that it is more accurate to use all Photoshop brush tools set to a single pixel for editing but I don't recommend it! Now if you charge by the hour, futzing with the OOG overlay seems like a good business plan.

IF Photoshop were to improve the feedback, selection and tools to control OGG would I use them? Perhaps. I don't see that happening anytime soon and in the meantime, good ICC profiles have vastly more 'precision' to affect individual pixels than anyone can manually and the soft proof at least shows me, within the gamut limitations of the display (but not necessarily the limitations of the output device) what I'll get and DO get.

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Why Photoshop colorpicker does not show color delta E ? It you also be very useful.

Agreed and that's something you can see in ColorThink Pro (but forget editing that image).
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Bart_van_der_Wolf

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Re: how to select out of gamut colors in Photoshop?
« Reply #10 on: September 04, 2013, 11:12:31 am »

The tools in Photoshop for OOG control are buggy (not accurate) and crude. It treats 1% and 100% OOG the same. It predates soft proofing introduced in 1998.

Why not do the following (I know it is not elegant, as it should be, but it allows to stay in Photoshop):
- Make a duplicate of the image
- Convert that duplicate to the destination profile.
- Shift and Drag a copy of that back onto the original as a new layer and accept the Profile mismatch warning (preserve appearance).
- Change blending mode of that layer to difference, and create an ALT + Merge Visible layer of that.
- Disable the intermediate copy, or delete it if you are confident.
- Then change that new difference layer's blending mode to e.g. Hue or Color blending.

You now have a display of the OOG areas in color on a Black and white original, with intensity as a guide to the largest differences and in which colors to do the adjustments in the original, or rather on an adjustment layer. The actual corrections may differ depending on the best remedy, maybe brightness, maybe saturation, maybe a hue shift, etc.

Made into an Action, it becomes very simple to repeat after some corrections have been made. As I said, not elegant, but accurate and it can be tuned for different situations.

Cheers,
Bart
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digitaldog

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Re: how to select out of gamut colors in Photoshop?
« Reply #11 on: September 04, 2013, 11:52:06 am »

You now have a display of the OOG areas in color on a Black and white original, with intensity as a guide to the largest differences and in which colors to do the adjustments in the original, or rather on an adjustment layer. The actual corrections may differ depending on the best remedy, maybe brightness, maybe saturation, maybe a hue shift, etc.

Not sure I understand the benefit of all this. You've used the output profile and RI you'll use anyway to handle the OOG it will deal with anyway. Why not just convert using the profile based presumably on the soft proof you viewed to select the RI and be done?
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Bart_van_der_Wolf

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Re: how to select out of gamut colors in Photoshop?
« Reply #12 on: September 04, 2013, 02:10:07 pm »

Not sure I understand the benefit of all this. You've used the output profile and RI you'll use anyway to handle the OOG it will deal with anyway. Why not just convert using the profile based presumably on the soft proof you viewed to select the RI and be done?

Hi Andrew,

After converting, it is hard to know what exactly has changed and by how much. Checking the original against the converted version will allow to exactly see the magnitude of the losses because they won't come back after converting back to the original colorspace,  especially with the Relative Colorimetric RI. What was lost (quantized to same values) remains lost, and what changed only a bit will still be only a bit different, as with some parts of a Perceptual RI.

It is a very good predictor of problematic colors.

Cheers,
Bart
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digitaldog

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Re: how to select out of gamut colors in Photoshop?
« Reply #13 on: September 04, 2013, 02:19:46 pm »

After converting, it is hard to know what exactly has changed and by how much. Checking the original against the converted version will allow to exactly see the magnitude of the losses because they won't come back after converting back to the original colorspace,  especially with the Relative Colorimetric RI. What was lost (quantized to same values) remains lost, and what changed only a bit will still be only a bit different, as with some parts of a Perceptual RI.

Sorry, I don't see the practical implications. You have an output profile and you have to use it. You soft proof and decide visually what RI to use because it looks better. So after this exercise you do what? Use a different RI, don't convert? OOG is a fact of life, I don't see the point agonizing over it. I don't see the point editing based on this. I do believe it's a very good idea to soft proof to select the RI you prefer. And I think it's a good idea to edit in the original working space with the soft proof on while viewing a copy with the soft proof off in an attempt to make them match closer within reason. But short of that, I don't see what the exercise does that's useful.
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Bart_van_der_Wolf

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Re: how to select out of gamut colors in Photoshop?
« Reply #14 on: September 04, 2013, 02:32:18 pm »

Sorry, I don't see the practical implications. You have an output profile and you have to use it. You soft proof and decide visually what RI to use because it looks better. So after this exercise you do what?

Adjust the 'original' before converting to the destination colorspace, and avoid problems such as lost of color detail.

Quote
I don't see the point editing based on this. I do believe it's a very good idea to soft proof to select the RI you prefer. And I think it's a good idea to edit in the original working space with the soft proof on while viewing a copy with the soft proof off in an attempt to make them match closer within reason. But short of that, I don't see what the exercise does that's useful.

Photoshop is not accurate enough to do well dosed good corrections based on its OOG indicators, not all displays have a sufficient gamut to preview the gamut issues of the output medium.

Cheers,
Bart
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digitaldog

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Re: how to select out of gamut colors in Photoshop?
« Reply #15 on: September 04, 2013, 02:36:41 pm »

Adjust the 'original' before converting to the destination colorspace, and avoid problems such as lost of color detail.
Which is what I do. Easier in LR which at least provides simple before and after previews. I see the soft proof while in the working space, I convert. That's again what I see. What I get isn't 100%, usually due to the limitations of a display gamut among a few other things. But the output isn't a surprise either. Dealing with OOG overlays in any mode just isn't as useful to me as a soft proof. Blocking my image and then expecting me to somehow make that overlay disappear is very 20th century Photoshop.
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Bart_van_der_Wolf

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Re: how to select out of gamut colors in Photoshop?
« Reply #16 on: September 04, 2013, 02:42:48 pm »

Which is what I do. Easier in LR which at least provides simple before and after previews. I see the soft proof while in the working space, I convert. That's again what I see.

Exactly, and I thought that that is what the tread was a bout, how to get a meaningful prediction in Photoshop. LR is already much better in predictability, not perfect, but usable.

Quote
What I get isn't 100%, usually due to the limitations of a display gamut among a few other things. But the output isn't a surprise either. Dealing with OOG overlays in any mode just isn't as useful to me as a soft proof. Blocking my image and then expecting me to somehow make that overlay disappear is very 20th century Photoshop.

I agree, but one has to make do with the available tools, which is a compromise, but doable.

Cheers,
Bart
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Oldfox

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Re: how to select out of gamut colors in Photoshop?
« Reply #17 on: September 08, 2013, 02:47:20 am »

@Andrew. How would do you handle the out-of-gamut pixels using the Relative rendering intent?
« Last Edit: September 08, 2013, 03:20:57 am by Oldfox »
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digitaldog

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Re: how to select out of gamut colors in Photoshop?
« Reply #18 on: September 08, 2013, 01:07:59 pm »

@Andrew. How would do you handle the out-of-gamut pixels using the Relative rendering intent?

Again, with the ICC profile I'll use to convert the data. Assuming again that I prefer the gamut clip behavior of that profile on each image, based on the soft proof.
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Oldfox

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Re: how to select out of gamut colors in Photoshop?
« Reply #19 on: September 10, 2013, 02:01:26 am »

So if you dont like the clipping, you'll accept the Perceptual one?

In theory that maybe right. Here is an example of an image (tight crop). The Relative is very ugly because the shirt is totally ruined. The Perceptual is washed out (hopefully you can see it that from the upper corners).

For me choosing the shirt and tweaking with saturation, hue and lightness in an adjustment layer plus using the Relative gave the best result.

Therefore it would be nice to be able to select the out-of-gamut pixels properly.

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