color managment enabling within software

This is not a screen to print issue. Same screen, different software.
I don't have great monitors so I would not trust the work flow through to printing without some experimentation to see how well they fair.
I have some filters set up to make my prints look close... but I'm not going to delve into those issues quite yet. (hardly worth spending time to calibrate the printer to four or five different pieces of software!)


Knowing that Matt has both SilkyPix and CS2 running with consistent color almost certainly means there is something on my end that is not right.

I can try a Spyder2, (Currently using Manaco Optix).
I'm just not sure any other calibration tool would make a difference. The issue does not appear to be a calibration issue but an issue with how the software communicates the image color space into the display color space.

Here's a good one fer ya...
Lets say I shoot an image in RAW+JPG and use a tool like ACDSee, IrfanView and others to view the images, both formats display differently.

Yet when I copy the same software (i.e. IrfanView or SilkyPix) to another machine, those same images do not differ between jpeg and raw formats.
The other machine does not have any calibration. So th images don't look "right", but they are more consistent.

I am sure that behavior is telling me something significant about the problem being on my machine and something with its calibration. But I cannot determine where else to look.
I guess I can turn off the calibration and see what happens.


Anyway, thanks for the info. As long as this stuff is working consistently for someone, I know it is an issue on my end. I'll just have to hunt down the problem.

As expected
On an uncalibrated machine, without colour management at all, the image software has to assume that your display is probably sRGB. Without CM, the software will just output the RGB values directly to the display. i.e. camera RGB of 150,128,128 will be output exactly as 150,128,128 straight to the video card. With the RAW it has to assume the same thing.

When you use a Spyder etc it will introduce a conversion between the application output and the display output. Your video card may have a LUT capability (Look Up Table) to provide the transformation, or it may have to be done in software.

Then, when you get a CM app, there are now two routes for RAW and JPG. The JPG is marked with the colour space (either sRGB or AdobeRGB, depending on your settings in camera). The app will transform from sRGB the 150,128,128 through a colour space conversion maths routine and output that to the video card, AFAIK bypassing the simplistic LUT that is there for non-CM apps (see above paragraph).

Additionally, when converting from RAW you can choose to output in other colour spaces - Silkypix can output in sRGB or AdobeRGB. Capture One can output in others too (like Pro Photo). Note that an output TIFF/JPG that is not in sRGB will look very "sick" when viewed in a non-CM application

So, here's a check list (think I mentioned these in my Colour Management sticky thread):

* Make sure you have a decent video card driver. Some drivers may have issues with the calibration tool.
* Check your version of the Spyder/Huey etc software
* As I mentioned, make sure the profile is listed in the display properties advanced settings.
* If you have had other colour management tools installed (like Adobe Gamma) then disable or uninstall these! Two CM tools on the same machine makes for a very great mess!!

As I've said, you can have an issue "hiding" - like I did with the M200 video driver - that can really freak you out when it comes to CM. If it's any consolation it took me about a year to work out what was going on... and I even asked experienced pros who were flummoxed!

I would suggest working from the video card and driver upwards, sticking with just Silkypix and CS2 until you find the source of your problem. It's likely that when you have these two working properly that the rest will follow.

Matt

another point worth mentioning: When you update or change the display driver in any way then you should profile your system again.

and what Matt allready wrote, make absolutely sure that you only have one CM system installed.

The way a MAC handles CM is way better, for the people like me who can't afford a mac there is some light behind the horizon, it is just about possible to run OS X on a PC.

OK solved it. Well, at least a majority of my issue.

The images I were using were being showed in Adobe RGB colorspace (via FileInfo from PhotoShop), but some how SilkyPix was saving the images as sRGB, (I know I changed the setting almost immediately after install. I would not pay for a DSLR, PhotoShop, SilkyPix and a color calibration system and use sRGB!)

Anyway, the bad mix of internal settings as AdobeRGB and the actual colorspace of sRGB really screwed things up. I have no idea how the conflicting meta data occurred.

I changed SilkyPix to save as AdobeRGB, re-developed a few images and now all applications look consistent; Photoshop, SilkyPix, Firefox/MSIE, IrfanView. ACDSee Pro 2 is still crap but a bit closer.
The color is still a very slight bit off between apps, so I won't be doing color critical Pantone work, but I am very pleased with results.

I assume if the image was in sRGB and the setting was stored as such, I would not have quite so many problems, but I'll just keep tgesetting as AdobeRGB.


As usual, the problem is between keyboard and chair.
Although I refuse to take all of the blame. If the File Info showed the correct information, I may have found the issue a lot earlier.
I still don't know when or why SilkyPix reverted to sRGB. Argh!

Silkypix has a useful, but also annoying feature

You can specify the colour space in the development tab of the image. BUT, when you process, there is an advanced setting in the dialog box:

Click the "Setting" button and you'll see a "Setting for developed image". There's an "Output colorspace" combo box that chooses between sRGB, AdobeRGB, and "Specified colorspace in parameter".

If you select anything but "Specified colorspace in parameter" then your setting on the main screen will be overridden!

(It's very useful when you want to quickly output web images straight from Silkypix... but if you forget to change that setting you'll be in trouble!)

It's also worth mentioning that you SHOULD have the option "Record ICC profile" ticked - then Silkypix will embed the profile in the output image. That way your imaging application should know which profile the image was created in

HTH!
Matt