Urgent Photoshop Issue

<p>Some of my tiff files on a recent session won't open in photoshop and some of my other software. The box that opens in photoshop says, "Can not open file number ___ because the tiff file uses an unsupported color space." I have to get these to the bride tonight or first thing in the morning. This has never happened before, and other images from the same session open just fine. I can't find anything pertinent in Adobe help. Does anyone have a "fix" for this? Thanks so much for any help.</p>

<p>Update to this...I figured out the difference in photos that will and won't open. I rotated the vertical images in Microsoft Document Imaging when I was editing, and those are the ones that won't open in Photoshop now. I rotated them back to horizontal in that software, but they still won't open in Photoshop.</p>

<p>You don't say what version or platform, but apparently there was a bug in PS CS2 Win that would generate this error message. See <a href="http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3446">this Adobe KB article</a></p>

<p>It sounds like some of the files were corrupted at some point between taking the image and the computer.</p>

<p>I would first try re-downloading them from your memory card.</p>

<p>If that doesn't work, see if you can get these shots to open in any application. If the image is normal (with the possible exception of color issues), at worst, you might have to convert such images to B&W. If you get lucky, you might not even have to do this. You might be able to strip out all the EXIF info in a program such as EXIF_tool, EXIF_tool_gui, XnView, etc., read in the remainder of the file (ie, the actual image data) into PS, and then assign the appropriate profile once it's within PS.</p>

<p>Let us know how it goes.</p>

<p>Good luck,</p>

<p>Tom M</p>

<p>PS - Ignore the above suggestion. As I was typing it, you posted your update to the problem in which you identified the source of the problem as image rotation. It sounds like you are on your way to a fix.</p>

<p>PPS - I sure hope you were doing all of your edits on a copy of the original? If so, you're in good shape. If not, you're not. ;-) ... or, at the minimum, you just made a lot more work for yourself.</p>

<p>Thanks Tom and Martin. I have to own this one. I can't believe I've done this. I've been shooting weddings for several years, and I don't think I've ever done anything as downright stupid. The wedding is Saturday, and this bride waited until this afternoon to let me know her selections. She's been down to the wire on every decision she's made, so I should have known better, but...nope, I didn't copy the files, since I thought I was just rotating them. Once the bride makes selections, that's when I usually copy the images and save them into a "favorites" folder to work on. And to make matters worse, I cleaned my cameras, charged all of my batteries, and (ouch, this is why I said I should've known better) cleared all of my memory cards this morning (literally a couple of hours before she called) in preparation for the wedding.</p>

<p>I'm going to work on figuring this out tonight. (On copied files this time.) I've sent an urgent email to my rep at Miller's to call me first thing in the morning just in case. They've been able to email urgent files to me in the past for the clients to print themselves when they've waited too long to make decisions. Of course, I'll still have to pay for prints from them if I can't make this work tonight.</p>

<p>I included this as a complimentary session on her contract, but still. Again, I can't believe I've done this. She had to get her hair done and she got a mock bouquet. I feel horrible!</p>

<p>Have you tried using another program to open these files? Perhaps Photoshop.com (the web version) or Google's freebie Picasa or even Irfanview. If one of these can open the file you may then be able to save it as a JPG file or resave it as a Tiff file but in a form that your photoshop can open.</p>

<p>HLA</p>

<p>From Wikipedia, about Microsoft Document Imaging, which I have never used and now never will:<br>

“However, MODI produces .tif files which violate the TIFF standard<sup id="cite_ref-0" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office_Document_Imaging#cite_note-0">[1]</a></sup> and are usable only by the Microsoft Office Document Imaging products<sup id="cite_ref-1" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office_Document_Imaging#cite_note-1">[2]</a></sup>.”</p>

<p>You might try using the clipboard to get them out and into Photoshop? If it came to that, I would even consider stitching screenshots together.</p>

<p>If you have not formated your memory card, it may be possible to recover the photos. There is a software that does that. Check also in your camera utility software for file recovery. Good luck</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>“However, MODI produces .tif files which violate the TIFF standard and are usable only by the Microsoft Office Document Imaging products.”</p>

</blockquote>

<p>That's SOP for µ$oft.</p>

<p>- Leigh</p>

 

<p>Even if you have formatted your card there are several recovery programs available that can still recover the images. If you haven't taken any fresh images using the card you should be able to recover every image.</p>

<p>I don't know the details of this particular problem, but I'll bet that if you strip out all the EXIF and IPTC metadata, which includes the picture orientation bit, you'll be able to open them just fine. I gave the name of some programs that can do this in my previous post. I just thought of another program that can do this: Photo Mechanic. Many pros use this one to ingest images.</p>

<p>Post one of the files, and I'll be happy to have a look at it.</p>

<p>Again, good luck!</p>

<p>Tom M.</p>

<p>I didn't see this suggested, but If you can, you can try making a backup of the uncooperative files and opening them in MODI and looking for a way to export them in a format other than TIF. I don't have MODI to test it, but many programs have alternative output formats, and if you're lucky in might not violate the standards.</p>

<p>Oh, one more suggestion, if the other tools suggested can't open the files, you could try downloading and installing <a href="http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html">Gimp</a>, I've found it pretty robust when opening various file formats.</p>

<p>Wow. You guys are awesome. I've been on the phone with a wedding coordinator for the past two hours (discussing upcoming weddings, not this issue :-) ) and when I saw all of the responses, I thought y'all were going to totally rip me apart for being a moron! Thanks so much for the understanding, suggestions and support. I just got back on this and will look into all suggestions....and cut and paste them into a word doc as a "just in case" for the future. I hope I'll never have to open it!</p>

<p>Curiosity got the better of me, and I just checked the behavior of this file format by generating a MODI document (targeted to an Epson inkjet), and then trying to read it with various programs:</p>

<p>You've got a problem. I couldn't read it in CS3, CS5, Irfanview, VuPro, XnView, Picasa Photo Viewer, Windows Photo Gallery, and another couple of miscellaneous image viewing programs that I tried. In PS, I got the same error that you reported. EXIF tool said that there was no EXIF or IPTC info. Even worse, the MODI editor supplied with 32 bit Vista Home Premium initially displayed the document correctly, allowed me to do some manipulations (eg, rotations), but then, within some tens of seconds, always crashed. I tried this several times.</p>

<p>This contrasts with the behavior when I generated a MODI document targeted to an HP laser printer. In that case, CS3 read and displayed it, but the aspect ratio was wrong. CS5, Irfanview, VuPro, XnView, Picasa Photo Viewer, and Windows Photo Gallery all read and displayed it correctly. The 1st four of these said it was a B&W bitmap. From there, I could turn it into an 8 bit Grayscale, and from there, with one more click, I could turn it into a 16 bpc RGB file.</p>

<p>At this point, your problem is above my pay grade. Perhaps one of the other suggestions already given will work.</p>

<p>Again, the best of luck!</p>

<p>Tom M.</p>

<p>If you only formated your cards and didn't write anything on them, the photos can be recovered easily. try Zero Assumption Recovery - it's free.<br>

A.</p>

<p>Wow, this tells me I need to make sure I back up my files before I even start working on any of them. Hope you sort it man.</p>

<p>Well, one more thing to try.. <a href="http://www.ehow.com/how_6586712_convert-mdi-file-jpg.html">this web page</a> seems to be saying that the MODI output TIFF files can be opened in Microsoft Paint!</p>

<p>Okay guys. At this point, I don't know what's going on. I sent them to another professional photographer who's a dear friend of mine. He could open them in Paint, but I couldn't see them with the same conversion options. He was able to convert them in Paint (how simple?) then balance and crop the photos in Adobe and sent them back to me to send to the bride. I have (supposedly) most of the same software but not the same options he had when we tried working it out together over the phone. I can see them just fine after what he's done. I'm going to try to retrieve them from the memory cards in the morning as suggested so that I have the original files, but he had no problems getting the most important four images back to normal on a PC with options that don't seem to show up on my same software. My God. There seem to be a million ways to get what you need within several software combinations, but it's a damned puzzle, if I break from my normal workflow, as far as I'm concerned. I regularly use The Photoshop CS Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby for easy fixes, but some of that doesn't cover more creative things I can do on my own. I wish I could just get up to speed on all the ways to (ick) "skin the cat."</p>

<p>It appears that this is a known issue in Windows XP SP3, when rotating an image in Windows and Fax viewer. The same issue may be also affecting MODI. See <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970922">http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970922</a> for more information and for a patch to resolve the issue. Unfortunately images which are already corrupt cannot be recovered unless you have a backup.</p>

<p>I am happy and thrilled for you that the problem got partially solved and you were able to full fill your obligations to the customer. We all have had problems of one sort or other and it pains to even read about another photographers woes..<br /> I was wondering if you are using Microsoft to download and catalogue your files. I use only Adobe and Capture One products so I could not quite follow the thread. Any education here to help me and others avoid future problems will be most appreciated.</p>

<p>Rae,I don't use MODI, but let me suggest Adobe Lightroom for processing and managing your photos in the future. Not only does it excel as a photo database and cataloging tool, it contains most controls a photographer will need for tweaking and processing your images. It also includes commands for creating picture packages, slideshows and web presentations and you can easily call up Photoshop if you need to do something more advanced. This is one tool worth learning.</p>

<p>I concur with Mike. I used Aperture for a few years, and while it's more than capable, it never felt very intuitive. Lightroom's catalog capabilities alone are worth the price. It's keywording is essential for large catalogs of images. In addition it's a powerful editing tool and as he said, if you need something deeper, you can always open the image in PS.<br>

LR 3 has a 30 day free trial. Both LR and Aperture do, for that matter. Give them both a try. You'll find you spend less time editing, and more time shooting.</p>

<p>I HAVE to tell you guys...she called this morning and said, "Whoops, I gave you the wrong numbers." I can laugh about it now, thank goodness. My friend isn't at his computer today, so I called Miller's, and Ted emailed a link to me. www.irfanview.com. I opened the images up with that software, re-saved them, and now they're just fine. I can see them in Photoshop, no problem. Ted said they really enjoy that software, so I'm going to play around with it and see what all it can do. It took all of five minutes to load the software and save the files. </p>

<p>Mike, I've read lots of posts regarding Lightroom, and it does sound awesome. I obviously need to look into that. I also plan to download one of the applications that can retrieve erased files. Anything that will help my workflow and save my behind in case I lapse into another episode of sheer stupidity will save a lot of headaches.</p>

<p>Rae, you're lucky Irfanview worked for you. It was one of the 1st programs that I tried. While it worked on B&W images, it didn't work at all on color images. That's great. Congrats.</p>

<p>Tom M.</p>