SOS - magenta face??

I am having a somewhat weird problem...

When opening a jpg or raw file in Photoshop Elements 4.0 or Nikon Capture
4.4, I can see the thumbnails showing portraits with skin colour =
magenta...
When in EDIT mode of both Elements and Nikon Capture, I am seeing the same
problem.

When I view the images in Window Explorer (WIN XP), both the thumbnails and
filmstrip view versions show normal skin tone...

When I view the images in Photoshop Album Starter 3.0, the skin tone once
again is NORMAL...

After seeing the problem, I have removed and reloaded my Photoshop Elements
4.0. But the problem remains.

I have tried recalibrating my monitor (LACIE electron blue 19inch) with
sypder 2 software. The problem remains.

When I view web pages, and other windows-based applications, all the colours
on screen seem to be NORMAL....

The only problem is when viewing in Nikon Capture and Photoshop Elements!!

What's wrong??

Any advice please....

W Chan wrote:
: I am having a somewhat weird problem...

: When opening a jpg or raw file in Photoshop Elements 4.0 or Nikon
: Capture 4.4, I can see the thumbnails showing portraits with skin
: colour = magenta...
: When in EDIT mode of both Elements and Nikon Capture, I am seeing the
: same problem.

: When I view the images in Window Explorer (WIN XP), both the thumbnails
: and filmstrip view versions show normal skin tone...

: When I view the images in Photoshop Album Starter 3.0, the skin tone
: once again is NORMAL...

: After seeing the problem, I have removed and reloaded my Photoshop
: Elements 4.0. But the problem remains.

: I have tried recalibrating my monitor (LACIE electron blue 19inch) with
: sypder 2 software. The problem remains.

: When I view web pages, and other windows-based applications, all the
: colours on screen seem to be NORMAL....

: The only problem is when viewing in Nikon Capture and Photoshop
: Elements!!

: What's wrong??

: Any advice please....

One thought. It may be a mismatch or misread label of color space. If your
camera records the image using the "standard" color space and some of the
programs are unable to read the label of what color space, some programs
may default to something else (such as an adobe product defaulting to
adobe color space). Or vice versa. Since different color spaces use
slightly different pallets of colors, it could be that the number 200
(just choosing a number at random) is a light red (as would be part of the
tone of skin-tone) and in another color pallet the same 200 could be a bit
more purplish-red (magenta). So if the display program assumed the wrong
pallet, you would get the wrong color displayed.

Unfortunately it may be that the camera is placing the "color space" label
in a place in the header that not all programs recognize. One possible
thought. Try loading a photo that has this dual color problem into one
of the programs that seem to read it correctly, and do a Save-as function
to save it to a new name. The header would also be rewritten and may be
repaired in the process. Then see if the resaved image opens correctly in
the previously incorrect display programs.

Also you might try checking which color space your camera is using or has
been set to. Then after opening the image in each of the programs check
the "properties" to see if it lists "color space" and if the listing
matches your camera settings.

There are probably many more possibilities and even some variations on
what I pointed out that I haven't thought about. So I'll leave it to
others to give you more ideas. At least checking out these preliminary
possibilities shouldn't cost you any money to check out.

Randy

==========
Randy Berbaum
Champaign, IL

"Randy Berbaum" wrote in message
...
W Chan wrote:
: I am having a somewhat weird problem...

: When opening a jpg or raw file in Photoshop Elements 4.0 or Nikon
: Capture 4.4, I can see the thumbnails showing portraits with skin
: colour = magenta...
: When in EDIT mode of both Elements and Nikon Capture, I am seeing the
: same problem.

: When I view the images in Window Explorer (WIN XP), both the thumbnails
: and filmstrip view versions show normal skin tone...

: When I view the images in Photoshop Album Starter 3.0, the skin tone
: once again is NORMAL...

: After seeing the problem, I have removed and reloaded my Photoshop
: Elements 4.0. But the problem remains.

: I have tried recalibrating my monitor (LACIE electron blue 19inch) with
: sypder 2 software. The problem remains.

: When I view web pages, and other windows-based applications, all the
: colours on screen seem to be NORMAL....

: The only problem is when viewing in Nikon Capture and Photoshop
: Elements!!

: What's wrong??

: Any advice please....

One thought. It may be a mismatch or misread label of color space. If your
camera records the image using the "standard" color space and some of the
programs are unable to read the label of what color space, some programs
may default to something else (such as an adobe product defaulting to
adobe color space). Or vice versa. Since different color spaces use
slightly different pallets of colors, it could be that the number 200
(just choosing a number at random) is a light red (as would be part of the
tone of skin-tone) and in another color pallet the same 200 could be a bit
more purplish-red (magenta). So if the display program assumed the wrong
pallet, you would get the wrong color displayed.

Unfortunately it may be that the camera is placing the "color space" label
in a place in the header that not all programs recognize. One possible
thought. Try loading a photo that has this dual color problem into one
of the programs that seem to read it correctly, and do a Save-as function
to save it to a new name. The header would also be rewritten and may be
repaired in the process. Then see if the resaved image opens correctly in
the previously incorrect display programs.

Also you might try checking which color space your camera is using or has
been set to. Then after opening the image in each of the programs check
the "properties" to see if it lists "color space" and if the listing
matches your camera settings.

There are probably many more possibilities and even some variations on
what I pointed out that I haven't thought about. So I'll leave it to
others to give you more ideas. At least checking out these preliminary
possibilities shouldn't cost you any money to check out.

Randy

==========
Randy Berbaum
Champaign, IL


There are two things that strike me:

1. The RAW conversion defaults are way-off. Do you adjust the colour,
brightness and contrast before exporting? In Windows Explorer you are
probably looking at a JPEG version of the file, which would have used
different colour defaults. Were you shooting JPEG and RAW simultaneously?

2. As Randy says, there is a colour space mismatch. Usually, the problem is
that people try to view Adobe space images in the sRGB world, see:

http://dpnow.com/forum2/showthread.php?p=5719#post5719

This is an illustrated example of how colour space mismatch can affect
displayed colour.

But the effect here is to desaturate the colours rather than make them more
pink.

Ian

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