Help with colour cast in Adobe Camera Raw

[Spooky]

I got ACR working but have a bit of a problem with it.

When I open a NEF file the image comes up in ACR but it has to my eyes a slight but distinct green/yellow tinge to it. The WB is set to "As shot". I have tried numerous files from numerous shoots and they are all effected.

If I make no adjustments and click ok it opens in photoshop and looks fine. That is, the green/yellow cast has gone and the image looks as I would have expected it to look in ACR.

Any idea why it opens it with this tinge? My other Raw convertors don't have that tinge so it is not the files themselves. It seems to me ACR is not reading the WB info from the image but photoshop proper is.

[sirhc55]

Don’t know the answer but that is real Spooky

[Onyx]

Have you tried the "tint" slider below the temp one in the WB section of the dialogue box thingy?

If you don't select as shot but specify a certain temperature, eg. 5500K, does it match the output from another converter?

Also, what colour mode are your pics shot in? PS I would assume defaults to Adobe 1998; and if the "as shot" info was in sRGB mode Ia or IIIa it could be automatically converting it to the aRGB colourspace upon opening the file, and hence altering the colourcast of your images.

Of course the above comes with the usual disclaimer of having a properly calibrated monitor....

[Spooky]

When it opens a NEF the tint slider seems to be on a setting other than 0. Is this usual?

In any case, moving the tint slider back to 0 does not correct the images.

Why would it select a tint value if it is set to "as shot"?

My pics are shot in Adobe 1998 and that matches my PS settings so shouldn't be a problem there.

I have tried downloading it and installing again, but same result.

[JordanP]

sounds alot like a colour space issue but from what you have said it doesn't seem to be (scratching head)

Is it consistant with image that were taken with a deliberatly set WB on camera rather than auto?

[Spooky]

Craig, I have tried NEFs shot on Auto and also ones set correctly on say Sunny. They all look a bit green/yellow.

Its like ACR is disregarding the WB in the image and putting its own tint on it. But if you don't touch anything, hit okay PS opens the image and it looks as it should be.

Unfortunately if I do get the WB wrong when shooting ACR isn't going to be much good as a RAW editor because of the cast it puts on the image.

[JordanP]

Unfortunately if I do get the WB wrong when shooting ACR isn't going to be much good as a RAW editor because of the cast it puts on the image.

That is a very good point. I haven't used ACR much but will try it out this evening to see if I'm getting the same problem. Just out of interest you are heading the ACR way because you find Nikon Capture too clunky?

[Spooky]

Previously I used NC just to adjust WB and exposure and quite liked it, however it takes between 7 and 10 seconds to open a NEF and that is just too slow when you have hundreds of images to process.

I tried Raw Shooter Essentials the other day and it is not bad. Takes about 3 seconds to open a NEF however I still have to go to PS afterwards to crop, sharpen touch up etc so it is still a two step process.

With ACR I was hoping to open the image only once do all my work in ACR and PS then save once hopefully streamlining the workflow.

[sirhc55]

Couple of Q Spooky - are you using 2 monitors or just one? What version of ACR and PS are you using? Mac or PC?

[Spooky]

I am using two monitors. But the ACR opens on the same CRT monitor that I open the photoshop image on. My pallets are on the LCD.

My PS version is CS and I downloaded the Plug in Camera Raw 2.4 from the Adobe site. There is a later one but it is for CS2 only.

I use a PC.

[sirhc55]

I am using two monitors. But the ACR opens on the same CRT monitor that I open the photoshop image on. My pallets are on the LCD.

My PS version is CS and I downloaded the Plug in Camera Raw 2.4 from the Adobe site. There is a later one but it is for CS2 only.

I use a PC.

The mystery deepens - one thought I had was opening ACR on one monitor and then the image on the other in PS - but you don’t do that

My system is 2 monitors and I use them the same way as you. I have PSCS and ACR 2.4 plus PSCS2 and ACR 3.1 - neither of them show a differential in colour. Do you have the same assigned profile for ACR and PS?

[Spooky]

Yeah, down the bottom left it is set to Adobe RGB (1998)

When you open a NEF in ACR is all the settings eg shadow brightness etc on 0 ?

[sirhc55]

ACR 2.4 opens new NEFs with the following:

White balance as shot
Tint -4 - I believe this can be different depending on WB temperature
Exposure 0
Shadows 5
Brightness 50
Contrast +25
Saturation 0

[Deano]

One thought I have is the setting in the callibration tab in ACR. Are these all set to zero?

Cheers
Dean

[Spooky]

Yes Chris, those are my setting as well.

Deano, what do you mean by calibration tab?

[Deano]

Deano, what do you mean by calibration tab?

Spooky,

I'm doing this from memory so I might have some of the terms wrong.

In ACR there are two radio buttons near the top right which are something like Basic and Advanced. When you use Advanced, two extra tabs appears in the right hand panel. The right hand one (the last one) is a tab to enable calibration of the hue and sat for each of the colour chanels. These settings can then be saved if for example you want to calibrate the colours for a given camera.

What are you settings in this tab?

Cheers
Dean

[Spooky]

They are all set to 0

[Onyx]

Try setting to something OTHER than zero. Then when you've found that magical setting that seems to produce favourable results, stick with it in future.