Color changes when photos are zoomed

[TGeist]

I checked on my laptop (Mac Pro 17", OS X 10.8, calibrated with Datacolor Spyder 3pro).

The same things happen, however the visible effect is somewhat different.
Turning CMM on in Contact Sheet adds some saturation mostly in the greens but also lowers tha contrast somewhat so that the thumbnails look a bit more foggy.

[HvTFoto]

Kirk,

Sorry for the late reply but I'm at my summer house and have limited internet access. Yes, I'm interested, just tell me what to do. In camera color space is Adobe RGB, I have 32 GB of RAM on a quad-core MacPro and although PM is not 64bits (?) there should be enough RAM. The monitor is newly calibrated (Nec SpectraView 271 reference) and I don't experience the same problem when zoomed in using Photoshop or Bridge and I didn't experience the problem when running Lion (at least not that I'm awre of).

//Hans

Hans,

Thanks for the sample image.  On my system the image doesn't become less saturated in color when zoomed in.  It looks very much similar to the scaled-to-fit image.

After discussing the issue with another member of the team (and getting some sleep as well) we have determined that color cast changes should indeed be nearly undetectable.

I think perhaps PM ran out of memory while trying to perform color management on that image in 100% size and was forced to use the non-color managed version.  I can add some logging code to the color management to put out messages when color managed bitmaps can't be generated.  We could then look in your log file and see if that is the case.

Let me know if you're interested.

-Kirk

[focusfinder]

I've just started a trial of PM5 and I'm having similar issues with erratic colour. Mac mini, Mountain Lion, Eizo CG275W.

EDIT:

I wish I could be more specific. I've been trying to pinpoint the issue for the last couple of hours. It's all a matter of saturation. Some images look undersaturated, others oversaturated. I'll be looking at an image in PM's preview, and then when I zoom to 100% the colours change (lose saturation). Or I can be browsing 10 images in PM's preview (same subject, all shot with identical settings) and just one image will be over-saturated. Something very weird seems to be going on.

[focusfinder]

Here's an example of the problem. Two screengrabs.

The first shows how PM's preview is more saturated than the thumbnail.

The seconds shows how if I zoom into that preview, the image reverts to being less saturated.



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[focusfinder]

Could you point me in the right direction to troubleshoot this?

Here's another example. Apple Preview is on the left, Photo Mechanic Preview is on the right.

In the first screenshot they match.

In the second screenshot, PM Preview has become desaturated. All I have done is drag on the edge of the PM Preview to resize it a little.



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[Kirk Baker]

Could you point me in the right direction to troubleshoot this?

Here's another example. Apple Preview is on the left, Photo Mechanic Preview is on the right.

In the first screenshot they match.

In the second screenshot, PM Preview has become desaturated. All I have done is drag on the edge of the PM Preview to resize it a little.

It's likely a bug that I'll have to work out how to fix.  I have no workaround for you at this time.

-Kirk

[focusfinder]

Thanks. I've noticed that if I drag the bottom right hand corner of the PM Preview window (to vary the Preview window size), the image will flicker back and forth between desaturated and saturated. Depending on when I let go of the corner, the image can be left in either state. (Happy to send you the RAW/JPEG pair if that's of any help.)

For the time being I'll go back to PM 4.6.7 on my old G5.

(Current tests - Mac Mini 2.7 i7, 16Gb Crucial RAM, OSX 10.8, Eizo CG275W calibrated with integrated puck and Eizo ColorNavigator software.)

[focusfinder]

I'm getting the same erratic colour renditions with the latest build.

(EDIT - I've made a video screengrab of the behaviour in action (attached ) - it takes about 15 seconds before the colours switch, and then they  switch back and forth.)

(EDIT2 - Oh, it's tiny! And it wants to open in Spotify (?!) - However, if you drag it onto QuickTime Player, it does demonstrate the issue.)


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[Kirk Baker]

I'm getting the same erratic colour renditions with the latest build.

(EDIT - I've made a video screengrab of the behaviour in action (attached ) - it takes about 15 seconds before the colours switch, and then they  switch back and forth.)

(EDIT2 - Oh, it's tiny! And it wants to open in Spotify (?!) - However, if you drag it onto QuickTime Player, it does demonstrate the issue.)

We have made no changes to address this issue.  We're still investigating the problem.

-Kirk

[focusfinder]

We have made no changes to address this issue.  We're still investigating the problem.

-Kirk

Thanks. Have you been able to reproduce the issue?

Here's another observation:

- With 'Manage Colors' on (i.e. coloured (?)): The image in the PM Preview window alternates between low saturation and medium (normal) saturation.

- With 'Manage Colors' off (i.e. grey (?)): The image alternates between medium (normal) saturation and high saturation.

[focusfinder]

I had been thinking that this issue might be related to my new wide-gamut Eizo CG275W and its Color Navigator software, but I've just dug out an old 20" Apple Cinema Display, plugged it into the Mac mini, unplugged the Eizo, and the problem persists. I guess I should also rule out the Mac mini, and try installing PM5 on my Macbook Air.

[focusfinder]

One more observation. After PM is launched, and I click on a thumbnail to see it in PM Preview window, and I drag the Preview window around to resize it - it ALWAYS takes at least 15 or 20 seconds before the colours of the image start jumping between two saturation states.

[Kirk Baker]

We're working on getting a Mac Book Pro with Retina Display and Mountain Lion installed on it.  Hopefully this will allow me to figure out what is going on.  My Mac Book Pro (no Retina Display) with Mountain Lion does color management perfectly.

-Kirk

[Kirk Baker]

Are any of you running PM in 'Spaces' feature of Mac OS X? (meaning in its own virtual screen)

-Kirk

[focusfinder]

I'm on Mac mini (2.7, i7, 16Gb ram) and I'm not using Spaces (i.e. single desktop). PM5 is the only application running.