Author Topic: Color management, when wrongs colors are better  (Read 5637 times)

Offline OM

  • Newcomer
  • *
  • Posts: 12
    • View Profile
Color management, when wrongs colors are better
« on: May 30, 2016, 03:40:38 PM »
Hello,
I will speak about raw files.
I have notice that colors are more "punchy" when the Color Management is turned on OFF. Turned OFF PM print directly the color off the pixel. Turned ON, it give the accurated color depending of the .raw files ? is that correct ?

So on ON, this is the "real" colors, but on OFF it look like more nice !!

So, It's maybe sound like a weird question.... but is there any way to keep those "wrong" colors in Lightroom ?  Is there a way to apply a conversion from the OFF color space to the ON color Space ? 
So that , when I open a photo in Lightroom I have the "punchy" colors, and then I can export pictures like usual to the color space i like (SRGB in my case).

I hope that I'm clear, and don't make to much confusion between the color space of the files, and the screen.

Offline Kirk Baker

  • Senior Software Engineer
  • Camera Bits Staff
  • Superhero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 24977
    • View Profile
    • Camera Bits, Inc.
Re: Color management, when wrongs colors are better
« Reply #1 on: May 30, 2016, 03:46:20 PM »
Hello,
I will speak about raw files.
I have notice that colors are more "punchy" when the Color Management is turned on OFF. Turned OFF PM print directly the color off the pixel. Turned ON, it give the accurated color depending of the .raw files ? is that correct ?

So on ON, this is the "real" colors, but on OFF it look like more nice !!

So, It's maybe sound like a weird question.... but is there any way to keep those "wrong" colors in Lightroom ?  Is there a way to apply a conversion from the OFF color space to the ON color Space ? 
So that , when I open a photo in Lightroom I have the "punchy" colors, and then I can export pictures like usual to the color space i like (SRGB in my case).

I hope that I'm clear, and don't make to much confusion between the color space of the files, and the screen.

Do you have a calibrated ICC profile assigned to your monitor?  If not, then color management is all but useless.

You should be able to adjust the saturation of your images in Lightroom.

-Kirk

Offline OM

  • Newcomer
  • *
  • Posts: 12
    • View Profile
Re: Color management, when wrongs colors are better
« Reply #2 on: May 31, 2016, 01:28:12 AM »
Hello Kirk ,
Yes I have a calibrated screen plug on my macbook .
So for you , the difference is just saturation ?

Offline Hayo Baan

  • Uber Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 2552
  • Professional Photographer & Software Developer
    • View Profile
    • Hayo Baan - Photography
Re: Color management, when wrongs colors are better
« Reply #3 on: May 31, 2016, 03:30:27 AM »
Hello Kirk ,
Yes I have a calibrated screen plug on my macbook .
So for you , the difference is just saturation ?

No, not just saturation (though that usually is the most obvious aspect); it is the complete way the colour numbers are interpreted. To completely mimic the results of uncalibrated vs calibrated is not easy. First of all what you see in PhotoMechanic is the jpg from the camera, this will be different from how Lightroom interprets it. But even if you got that to match exactly, you'll still need to change the way the colour numbers are interpreted. You can't do that in Lightroom, but you could do that in e.g., Photoshop. First you save the file in Lightroom (preferably as 16 bit tiff to prevent losing image info), then you open it in Photoshop, assign the profile of your display to it, then convert to the colour space of your liking. Now it will look as if you hadn't turned on colour management in PhotoMechanic. Complex indeed, and honestly not a good way to go about your images ;) Better just tweak the image as you want it to look.
Hayo Baan - Photography
Web: www.hayobaan.nl