View Full Version : Help! Blues look Purple - in PhotoShop
lorimgarcia
23-06-09, 08:27 AM
Hi everyone,
I have exhausted myself on the Internet and cannot find the answer to this problem.
When I open the raw image in Canon's Digital Photography Professional, all the colors look great as expected. When I save them as jpg, they look great in Digital Photography Professional, but in Photoshop the blue goes to purple and they look overally saturated.
It seems to be only in Photoshop. The color profiles/spaces are the same. I've done them both in sRGB and in AdobeRGB, and I keep getting my blues turning into purple in Photoshop.
I read A LOT tonight on the Internet, but I still don't get it. I talked to my lab - whcc - and they had never heard of this before. I called Canon as well and they do not what's going on. Any ideas?
Patrick
23-06-09, 10:47 AM
Hi everyone,
I have exhausted myself on the Internet and cannot find the answer to this problem.
When I open the raw image in Canon's Digital Photography Professional, all the colors look great as expected. When I save them as jpg, they look great in Digital Photography Professional, but in Photoshop the blue goes to purple and they look overally saturated.
It seems to be only in Photoshop. The color profiles/spaces are the same. I've done them both in sRGB and in AdobeRGB, and I keep getting my blues turning into purple in Photoshop.
I read A LOT tonight on the Internet, but I still don't get it. I talked to my lab - whcc - and they had never heard of this before. I called Canon as well and they do not what's going on. Any ideas?
Check photoshop is correctly set up Edit/colour settings, help for this can be had here http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps11_colour/ps11_1.htm.
Some blues do cause problems with digital cameras, like flowers, bluebells in particular, something to do with the way they radiate colour. The eye sees blue but they record towards purple.
To correct open your RAW file in photoshop and go to the fourth adjustment tab the one with zig zag symbol HSL/Greyscale. Here you can adjust all individual colours without effecting the rest. Second from bottom is purple, adjust until blue is correct. Saturation and luminance can also be adjusted from here.
Patrick
(Apologies, just re-read the original post and apparently there is no colour space mismatch, so sorry about the first half of my response! But I feel the second half, about proof setup in Photoshop may be of help. Ian)
Your Photoshop working colour space is almost certainly a mismatch to that of the files you are opening in Photoshop.
Have you set Photoshop to alert you when an incoming file's colour space does not match the working space?
Photoshop > Edit > Color Settings...
http://dpnow.com/files/forum/colour_settings.png
When set like this, when you open an image in Photoshop, if the colour space of the image file is not the same as your working colour space (in my example above this is Adobe RGB 1998) then you will be asked if you would like Photoshop to convert the file's colour space (for example sRGB) to your working space.
If you don't do this, the colours in the file will be wrongly mapped to the colours Photoshop displays and you will get a colour shift.
It's generally considered best to set your working space to Adobe RGB, but you should convert to sRGB before exporting if you want to use your picture on the Web.
One other problem that could be the cause of your problem is an incorrect soft proof setting.
http://dpnow.com/files/forum/ps_proof.png
If it's on an odd setting (not Windows RGB or Working CMYK) then displayed colours may be shifted.
Ian
rogleale
23-06-09, 12:03 PM
Hi Ian,
I must point out that these proof settings are absolutely useless! What is Windows RGB?
What is monitor RGB? The only proof settings that can be relied upon are profiles for paper/printer combinations, and with a calibrated monitor.
Lorimgarcia's problem may be due to his monitor not being calibrated, and the fact that PS uses the monitor calibration, and most other applications do not. I don't know about DPP.
Roger
Hi Roger,
I'm not saying that Windows RGB is an ideal setting, but in my experience (assuming you are running Windows :)) it's less useless than some other settings. There are huge debates as to which soft proof setting one should use in Photoshop.
I'm not sure that monitor calibration is a central issue in this case (it's a constant, no matter how much out of calibration the monitor might be).
The colour shift is clearly either to do with a colour space mis-match or soft proof setting. What else could it be?
Ian
Re-reading the OP, I see there is no colour space mis-match, so it has to be the proof setting.
Ian
rogleale
23-06-09, 01:07 PM
Hi Ian,
It will only be down to an incorrect proof setting if the OP is selecting 'Proof' to view the image in PS, (Ctrl + Y), otherwise PS will be trying to use a monitor profile whilst other apps will be using, probably, sRGB.
Our first argument Dear:D
Roger
Hi Ian,
It will only be down to an incorrect proof setting if the OP is selecting 'Proof' to view the image in PS, (Ctrl + Y), otherwise PS will be trying to use a monitor profile whilst other apps will be using, probably, sRGB.
Our first argument Dear:D
Roger
*LOL Ha! And I thought a 'tif' was an image file format *whack
My thinking is that the OP accidentally set a spurious proof setting. If you do that, proof mode is automatically selected.
Ian
lorimgarcia
23-06-09, 02:14 PM
Thanks Guys for your advice.
I'm still not certain what's going on.
I have calibrated the monitor with Spyder3Elite.
There isn't a color profile mismatch. I have the box marked to indicate if there is one. The only way for the colors to look blue instead of purple, is to click "do no color manage". This is what I was doing with my old lab, and prints were looking good. I was wanting to switch to WHCC for various reasons, but they require a ICC profile embedded. If I make sure both color spaces are the same, I get the purple blues.
I read about soft proofing last night as well. I made sure my proofing was marked as you indicated and it doesn't change anything.
When I sent the RAW file and jpg files to the canon software customer service rep, she said the files didn't look blue in her version of photoshop.
It appears to be something that happens when I open the files and save them in Photoshop. As this is an essential thing for a photographer, I can't bypass this step.
Any ideas? Thanks so much for your help!
lorimgarcia
23-06-09, 04:08 PM
Okay, so I uninstalled Photoshop, and I noticed that looking at the photo in Windows Photo Gallery, the blues look blue again.
Windows Photo Gallery and Photoshop are the only programs that the blues look purple.
When I reinstall Photoshop, however, blues still look purple in both Photoshop and Photo gallery.
When I try to open the jpg in Photoshop, the jpgs look blue in the "open file" window, but then when select one and get a small preview at the bottom of this dialog box, it turns purple. There's got to be a solution.
I am workin on a laptop, HP, that I bought less than 6 months ago.
On my desktop, the colors look blue.
rogleale
23-06-09, 04:59 PM
Now I'm confused!!!! Your first two sentences contradict each other! Are the blues purple in Windows Photo Gallery or not?
Now you also tell us that this is happening on a laptop, and that on your desktop the colours are correct. So it would seem likely to me that the problem of purple blues is being caused by something in your HP laptop.
Roger
lorimgarcia
23-06-09, 05:08 PM
Hey Roger,
Thanks for your reply. Let me clarify.
When PhotoShop is loaded on my machine, both Photoshop and Windows Photo Gallery look purple. When Photoshop is not installed, Windows Photo Gallery looks blue.
Since all the other programs are looking fine with the color (other than Windows PHoto Gallery that I mentioned just now) I was thinking the problem has to do with Photoshop.
I'm sorry I neglected to tell you I had a laptop. I did the initial post at 2:30 am and I was exhausted after searching for 5 hours on the Internet and trying different things. I finally decided to make my own post.
Patrick
23-06-09, 05:42 PM
Hey Roger,
Thanks for your reply. Let me clarify.
When PhotoShop is loaded on my machine, both Photoshop and Windows Photo Gallery look purple. When Photoshop is not installed, Windows Photo Gallery looks blue.
Since all the other programs are looking fine with the color (other than Windows PHoto Gallery that I mentioned just now) I was thinking the problem has to do with Photoshop.
I'm sorry I neglected to tell you I had a laptop. I did the initial post at 2:30 am and I was exhausted after searching for 5 hours on the Internet and trying different things. I finally decided to make my own post.
Now I'm confused.
On your PC you have no problems yes or no.
On your Laptop you have the problem only when photoshop is installed yes or no.
If the problem is happening only when photoshop is installed then its got to be a shared setting that is incorrect and causing a conflict.
Patrick
lorimgarcia
23-06-09, 05:55 PM
I'm sorry. My clarity issues must have to do with my lack of sleep.
On my desktop PC, there are no color problems.
The problems are all coming from my HP laptop.
My friend has an older laptop that is also calibrated. I sent her the files and s does not have a problem and sees blue correctly.
When Photoshop is installed on my laptop, I have problems
Patrick - "If the problem is happening only when photoshop is installed then its got to be a shared setting that is incorrect and causing a conflict."
This was my feeling as well, but I'm such a novice, I don't even know how to solve this conflict.
Any ideas?
I hope I'm being clearer now. Sorry for any confusion.
Lori
Patrick
23-06-09, 06:07 PM
I'm sorry. My clarity issues must have to do with my lack of sleep.
On my desktop PC, there are no color problems.
The problems are all coming from my HP laptop.
My friend has an older laptop that is also calibrated. I sent her the files and s does not have a problem and sees blue correctly.
When Photoshop is installed on my laptop, I have problems
Patrick - "If the problem is happening only when photoshop is installed then its got to be a shared setting that is incorrect and causing a conflict."
This was my feeling as well, but I'm such a novice, I don't even know how to solve this conflict.
Any ideas?
I hope I'm being clearer now. Sorry for any confusion.
Lori
Did you have a read at the web site I pointed you to http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps11_colour/ps11_1.htm the answer may be there. Sorry I don't the answer, but there is a conflict and as such there is an answer, probably a very simple one it always is with computers its just knowing.
Patrick
rogleale
23-06-09, 06:11 PM
Hi there,
Need to know more. What OS are you using XP; Vista, 7?
What profiles are installed on your machine? Look in System 32 (The profiles in Windows 7 are stored in Windows\System32\Spool\Drivers\Color - I forget, but I think that it is the same in Vista)
I think that you should look into your color management panel, again in System 32, spool right down to 'Colcpl', make sure that a good monitor profile is being used, and delete any monitor profiles that you don't recognise. It seems to me that PS is picking up a faulty monitor profile and applying it to the screen on boot, and this would affect other imaging programs.
Then calibrate your monitor, and instruct Windows to use this as the default display profile. The only profiles that should be used for the monitor are, the Spyder profile, the manufacturers profile for the screen, or sRGB. All the other available profiles are for print or web output.
In the PS Color Settings panel under 'Color Management Policies' make sure that you do NOT have 'Preserve Embedded Profiles' selected - this would mean that you don't get a profile mis-match warning.
Roger
Roger
rogleale
23-06-09, 08:12 PM
Ignore that last paragraph in my last post please - complete rubbish, and I don't know why I said it.
However, I would like to add something. If you are likely to get mis-matches it saves time and problems if you have that setting set to 'Convert to working space'. But then I'm lazy!
Roger
I had the same problem and remedied it by deleting all my color profiles in c:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\color\ and rebooting my Windows XP PC.
Did I do anything wrong?
I had the same problem and remedied it by deleting all my color profiles in c:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\color\ and rebooting my Windows XP PC.
Did I do anything wrong?
Seems a bit drastic! I'd guess that would make your system completely without colour management, which can't be good?
Ian
There is only one file in the color directory - srgb color space profile.icm.
Should I put each one back until I discover the culprit? Is there a way to download and reinstall all the standard/Adobe profiles. That way I'm adding fresh files.
Note: This issue was affecting all my Creative Suite applications except Fireworks.
I found the culprit. The profile for my second monitor, phLCD19a.icm.
I returned all the files to the /color directory except this one...all is well.