Photoshop 8 Editor - Colouration

[Lee Storer]

Hello all.

I am new to PS8 and have noted a strange behaviour.

When i have an image in the Editor, it has a very different colouration to any saved outputs.

For example, i open a JPG image in the Editor, make ammendments regardless of Full, Guided etc, save the image, and then when it is opened in a viewer alongside PS8 in After Only mode, the images have very different tones and colours.

It is a default PS8 installation.

Any ideas what i have done, or what setting needs changing, as i makes editing guess work?

lee

[Photologyst]

Calibrate your monitor and set your color space. Synch all your Adobe programs, thereafter if you have the Design Suite and Lightroom.

[Lee Storer]

Hi Photologyst. Really appreciate your advice.

I am not sure how to calibrate a monitor with calibration hardware/software. Any suggestions?

I have a pair of monitors attached - one VGA and one DVI. Both are the same. I am not sure why a default installation of Photoshop Elements would display the colouration so differently to say the Windows Picture Viewer, when free editors such as Picasa work without any such mucking about.

lee

[teaking]

I think this is to do with colour spaces as pointed out above. I would guess by default adobe probably uses its aRGB colour space for images which displays your files correctly in photoshop.

Where as other viewers may not be colour aware and wont recognise the colour space attached to the file.

Calibrating your monitor is always a good step, but I would also consider what colour space you do want to edit in for example does your camera allow you to put aRGB as the colour space it records in if not then I would recommend changing photoshop to work in sRGB as you kind of loose the benefit unless of course your shooting RAW? in which case you can stick with aRGB as long as you know what your doing in alot of cases the befits of shooting in sRGB and editing in sRGB far out weight the potential benefits of aRGB.

Really hope that made sense haha

[Photologyst]

Originally Posted by Lee Storer

Hi Photologyst. Really appreciate your advice.

I am not sure how to calibrate a monitor with calibration hardware/software. Any suggestions?

I have a pair of monitors attached - one VGA and one DVI. Both are the same. I am not sure why a default installation of Photoshop Elements would display the colouration so differently to say the Windows Picture Viewer, when free editors such as Picasa work without any such mucking about.

lee

Hi Lee:

It is because Adobe programs are so much more sophisticated. They can be used professionally while “Picasa” et al. are for hobbyists and amateurs.

I am assuming that you have a PC with Windows OS? If so then look here to learn calibration techniques: Using Adobe Gamma on Windows

You should copy the page and use it for future reference. If you are using a mac, then it’s much simpler to calibrate the monitor. Again, if you are using several Adobe programs calibrate PS and synch that with the others so there is no conflict.

Save your colour spaces to use as needed.

The “working colour spaces” RGB or CMYK, etc. are different than what you use to finally export for print or web. You will want to export in sRGB if you want to print say, photos. However, this often depends on who is doing the printing, e. g.: You, a photo lab, DocuTech shop (sophisticated copiers) or actual printshop that will use a 4 colour, CMYK printing press process.

Always ask your printers how they want the files. If you are making a photo book you will probably export in sRGB or in pdf. If you are making a sophisticated book with photos, where the printer uses the 4 colour CMYK process, you must also convert your photos to that colour space.

Always get test shots. . .

Here is an article on color management: Color management terminology

If you do the printing then you should always let your photo editing program control the printing and not let your printer do that or you may end up with some weird colors.

Explore the various settings on your PS print options and use the “help” function experimenting with different papers.

If all else fails, convert to pdf and try that.

CREATING PDFS OF PROOFS AND PRINT-READY FILES:

http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/cr...kflows_13.html

It all seems rather confusing at first. But, just read, learn, practice and all of a sudden it will all make sense to you.

[Lee Storer]

Photologyst / Teaking

Many thanks. What you are saying makes sense.

Really appreciated.

lee

[Photologyst]

You are welcome, Lee.

Let us know how it goes.

[teaking]

Yeah would be great to hear how it all pans out

[Lee Storer]

All

Unfortunately i have still not cracked this one.

Monitor 1 - Dell 1707FP on the digital output from a Radeon HD 4600
Monitor 2 - Dell 1707FP on the analogue output from a Radeon HD 4600

Adobe Gamma does not seem to be shipped with Elements 8, but i have found the Calibrator in Windows 7 for what its worth.

Both monitors running sRGB IEC61966-2.1 icm profile.

Both monitors reset to system defaults.

Elements 8 'Colour Settings' to 'Always Optimize Colours for Computer Settings'.

Yet the two monitors have very different colouration. This can be seen when you move an image across both screens. Monitor 1 is greyer, wheras monitor 2 is browner.

I have no idea which one is right as the Windows 7 calibration tool is quite vague.

I am not too sure what i can try next. Any ideas?

lee

[Photologyst]

Check here, Lee: Google