Help with Adobe Photoshop and Bridge CS2 color profile syncing, please ?

calypsonick · January 28th, 2008, 12:47 AM

I had to create a color profile for my Photoshop CS2 running on my Mac G4 with color desaturation of 32%. Without this, my colors show up overly saturated and after adjusting they would post to the web all washed out and colorless.

Problem - Even when I choose my custom color profile from the above in Bridge, I still get the oversaturated color when I view the photos in the RAW processor and in Bridge. So, when once I get the colors fine tunes in the RAW processor and then go back to look at them in Photoshop they are all washed out and desaturated.

Did that make any sense ? What am I doing wrong ? Should I be using a preset profile that will eliminate this issue ? There are so many profiles to choose from. Any help appreciated. Thanks - Nick

JackConnick · January 28th, 2008, 11:46 AM

Nick;

What's probably happening is that your RAW defaults are set to use a different profile. And I don't think (not sure at all) that you can actually pick a custom profile in RAW, you're pretty much stuck with the 4 or so that you have. I'd love to pick a CMYK one myself for printing.

What I do with good results is just use either Adobe RGB for prints or computer use and crappy sRGB for web. Use the same one in camera RAW and PS. sRGB is a dumbed down gamut, but will deliver consistent results with browsers that don't use color profiles.

Jack

calypsonick · January 28th, 2008, 01:42 PM

Jack,

Wow, that helped a bunch in terms of "what I see is what I get" but I still have an issue on seeing the color as it is captured by the camera and what Photoshop is doing to it. Examples below :

Top picture is straight out of the camera

Bottom image is the way photoshop shows it to me in Adobe RGB and the way it subsequently saves it to .jpg format.

No matter what profile I choose in Photoshop I cannot get the original color from the camera to show on my screen. I have tried all the preset profiles in Bridge (including the web/internet profile) that syncs the profiles with all Adobe apps but I still get washed out color when I open the image.

Any more hints ?

Thanks again.
Nick

dsafanda · January 28th, 2008, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by calypsonick

No matter what profile I choose in Photoshop I cannot get the original color from the camera to show on my screen.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around this. How do you know what the "original color from the camera" is? Your saying your monitor never displays the correct "original" color but what makes you think the camera recorded something other than what you see on screen? Are you basing this on what you see on the camera LCD? Or is there some other application you're using that you assume is displaying the "original color" correctly?

calypsonick · January 28th, 2008, 06:01 PM

David,

Yeah, that's it. I guess what I was trying to say in a roundabout way was that the colors I see on my camera LCD, and in my Firefox browser and in iPhoto on my computer are the same, whereas what I am getting in Photoshop and Bridge for the same image is all washed out. So, given the above, it must be something in the color profile I am using, right ? I just can't figure out why it's not jiving.

dsafanda · January 28th, 2008, 06:17 PM

Hmm...I'm not sur that is it. I thought that perhaps you were assuming the LCD on your camera was a more accurate representation of color than your computer. I was going to warn against that assumption. However, it doesn't sound like that's the case. I guess your also factoring in the way the files diplay in other apps such iPhoto. I don't think I have an answer. I'm as confused as you are.

Mike Veitch · January 28th, 2008, 11:51 PM

are you shooting RAW +jpeg? or straight raw? what colour profile do you have set in the camera itself?

I am thinking you have a profile set in your camera that is different to what is set in PS. Basically, the camera is doing some profiling, then when you open in PS it is back to no profiling, just straight RAW. Meaning you have to do some profiling in RAW.

ALso, set your Raw to default Adobe RGB, then in PS go to Preferences and set it also to a default of Adobe RGB. When you are saving to jpg does it go back to sRGB? are you doing save for web or just save as? Save for web will turn it back to srgb usually

JackConnick · January 29th, 2008, 12:20 AM

I think Mike has it right (as usual). The camera is doing quite a bit of processing, looks to be darker and more saturated. Set it to sRGB or Adobe RGB.

All of the programs you listed use color profiles, but remember that many browsers on PC don't.

Jack

calypsonick · January 29th, 2008, 12:43 AM

Mike,

You da man!! I dug around in my camera to find that it was set to sRGB. So, I set it to Adobe RGB and BINGO!! Everything is in sync from Camera LCD to all my CS2 apps to my web browser. Woohoo! No more guestimation processing for me!!

Now, one last question for you experts. Why are the colors that I am getting in both RAW and SHQ JPEG in the Adobe RGB color profile more subdued than they were when in the sRGB profile ? Is it normal to have to saturate your Adobe RGB images some to recreate the natural colors of the original subject ?

Thanks again !!
Nick

JackConnick · January 29th, 2008, 12:53 AM

Nick;

sRGB has less colors in it's available makeup or "gamut". Adobe RGB has many more. I think what you're seeing is color contrast to make up the difference. Yes, I commonly tweak up saturation on UW images in Camera RAW; ain't life grand?

I'd suggest poking around on Adobe.com. They have some excellent articles and tutorials available free that go into color profiles. I also read a lot of great articles on Creativepro.com and Apple's site as well. It's a very complex subject...

Jack