What am I doing wrong?

[Derryck]

I just recently upgraded my computer to an Intel Mac and CS3. I calibrated the Apple Cinema Display LCD monitor using a Spyder 2 Pro setting the Gamma to 1.8 and white point to 6500K.

I have a client that doesn't require too much effort when photographing products for them but they do require accurate color. I have just finished shooting the products and imported them into the computer. I have processed the Raw files and converted them to RGB Jpgs tagged with Adobe 1998. Now when I view the files in Bridge the color is pretty close to the real thing but when those images are opened in Photoshop the color changes, sometimes quite dramatically.

I have attached a screen shot showing the color difference, the images around the outside are the ones opened in Photoshop and the four in the middle are in Bridge. I've also attached a screen shot  of my color settings.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Regards,

Derryck.

[geotzo]

Firstly let me say that you should really calibrate for gamma 2.2 as that is the native gamma of new macs and 1.8 belongs to the past. About your problem now, the only thing I can think of is that you have not synchronized Adobe color settings. You can achieve that in Bridge under Edit>Creative suite color settings. In there you should choose your space (i.e ISO 12647 for International standards if that's what you want) and then choose apply. On the top of the same menu it should now say "Synchronized"

George

[Derryck]

Thanks for your reply George. I have re-calibrated my monitor to gamma 2.2. I had already synchronized my color settings in CS3. I know that sometimes this problem can be reduced somewhat if I desaturate the monitor colors by 20% but there's still the color shift.

[Ray]

Not sure what's going on but have you got the 'apply auto tone adjustment' box ticked in Camera Raw Preferences/Default image Settings?

If you have, then a jpeg or tif image which has been processed in Photoshop, when later opened in Bridge, will have those automatic adjustments applied on top of any other adjustments you've made.

[Derryck]

I double checked my Camera Raw preferences and the Auto Tone adjustment wasn't ticked. As you can see in the Camera Raw preview the color has also shifted from what I'm seeing in Bridge. What I'm trying to work out is which color I should trust. Unfortunately I don't have a Macbeth chart here to shoot and check the numbers on screen.

[Schewe]

Any help would be much appreciated.

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Check your Bridge CS3 preferences. Unless you have the "High Quality Thumbnails" checked in the Thumbnails preferences, the thumbnails and previews are built using sRGB as the assumed color space because it's quicker. It's only when you build HQ thumbnails will Bridge build color correct thumbs and previews.

[Derryck]

Thanks for the suggestion. I just checked the Thumbnail Preferences and it's currently set to "Convert to High Quality when Previewed". Should it be set to this setting or the one above "Hi Quality Thumbnails". When I toggled between the two I couldn't see a change.


Regards,

Derryck.

[Derryck]

After pulling my hair out for the last few days I dug deeper into the preferences menu in Bridge and found that I hadn't ticked "Enable Color Management" in the advanced section. While all the colors are wrong at least they are now consistently wrong. I will continue to try and find out where I'm going wrong with my calibrating techniques with CS3 and get my colors to match what I was getting in CS2.

[Derryck]

Problem solved!?


I went back to my older G4 and viewed these same images in CS2 and tried to find out why they looked better and a whole lot more accurate than they did in CS3 on the Intel Mac. After checking all the preferences the only thing that was different was my monitor profile. On the old Mac it was set to Gamma 1.8 with a white point of 6500K. So I re-calibrated the new system to 1.8 and 6500K and now everything looks as it should.

But every article I read including feedback on this forum recommends that I should be using a gamma of 2.2.