Help with monitor/color correction (Vista OS)

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Archive 2010 · Help with monitor/color correction (Vista OS)

bigwave
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p.1 #1 · Help with monitor/color correction (Vista OS)

Hey everybody,

I'm using Windows Vista with an HPLP2475 monitor. I've got the monitor calibrated with Spyder3 device.

I'm trying to understand what causes the following behavior whenever I import photos to Lightroom (or any other photo program for that matter..PSE, or even Picassa).

After I import the photo, the image comes up and looks great to my eye but a split second later, some correction is applied (color, saturation, white balance..not sure exactly which it is). The net effect is that the image is much less saturated and pretty dull.

Problem is, I don't know where the calibration/correction is being applied. It seems like its at the OS level, not the application (LR, PSE etc..) level but I can't find where to inspect the correction and I don't know all the parts in the chain that are affecting this.

Can someone explain what's going on or point me to a primer on how image color correction works with Windows (Vista)?

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks,
Dave

Mar 06, 2010 at 07:09 PM

Eyeball
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p.1 #2 · Help with monitor/color correction (Vista OS)

Well, I suspect the following is what you are seeing in Lightroom:

- See this info from Victoria Brampton on why you see the change in LR after import:

http://photoshopservices.wordpress.com/2007/10/23/lightroom-changes-the-colours/

- Here is how you need to import differently:

http://joopsnijder.blogspot.com/2009/04/lightroom-tip-speed-up-import-with.html

- Often times, a big improvement can be had in Lightroom by using the camera profiles specifically for your camera rather the "Adobe Standard". Here is a link that explains where to change this. Once you have selected the camera profile you want, you can then save this as part of a preset to be used as explained earlier. If you are using an updated version of LR, you probably don't need to download the profiles from Adobe Labs. Check first in the Camera Calibration tab as shown in the first image of the link.

http://blogs.oreilly.com/lightroom/2008/08/adobe-camera-profiles-and-ligh.html

Read through that and see if it helps you.

If you are sure you are having problems with other programs as well, then it could be another problem of some type or perhaps a shortcoming of the program being used. Picasa, for example, is not color managed to my knowledge. That means it won't be using your Spyder 3 monitor profile for viewing. This normally will result in images appearing MORE saturated, not less, particularly with a wide gamut monitor (and I believe the HP LP2475 is wide gamut).

I suggest tackling your Lightroom problem first and see if you can get that under control.

Mar 06, 2010 at 07:37 PM

flash
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p.1 #3 · Help with monitor/color correction (Vista OS)

Search is your friend.

Having said that, what you see initially is the in camera generated jpeg preview. This is displayed while LR generates its own preview. After a few seconds LR will have generated its default preview and that's the change you see.

The in camera jpeg uses the settings (WB, colour profile, saturation, sharpness etc) you set to generate that preview. This will also be the default in the software that came with the camera.

The reason that they don't match is that third party software does not have access to the propriatary information the camera manufacturer uses to process the file. There fore they must generate their own import profiles and previews, which do not match the manufacturers ones. Some companies licence the manufacturer SDK, but this severely limits what can be done to the raw file compared to a program like LR.

The change has nothing to do with the camera, computer, OS or calibration of your machine.

Gordon

Mar 07, 2010 at 03:33 AM

bigwave
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p.1 #4 · Help with monitor/color correction (Vista OS)

Thanks, Excellent information all.

I was a bit thrown off by the way Lightroom displays the camera profiles (implicit selection of the Camera and nothing indicating that D2x profile applies to any other Nikon camera --very poor behavior IMO) but after figuring out how the camera profile worked, I shot some JPG+RAW photos and sure enough, the default profile selected was to blame for the shabby looking imports.

So far, so good. Thanks for the assist!

-Dave

Mar 08, 2010 at 06:08 PM


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