ps/LR color change, HDR

Shooting Canon 14mm/5d mkiii, HDR 7x, RAW: When in post, I found that green diamonds in the backsplash turned brown. Any suggestions? I tried to extract and change colors without success. Thanks to all for thoughts and suggestions

Hi Cordek. You did not provide too many details yet this sounds that it is a color management issue.

If the image you save is in ProPhoto RGB, yet either:

a) Not embed the color profile with the image or

b) Are using a non-color manage browser

 

Then the ProPhoto RGB color data may be interpreted as sRGB color space data which will desaturate a lot of colors and in particular turn many greens into brown.

I suggest that you convert the profile to sRGB when you are going to post on the web and ideally also embed the profile with the image.

 

The following image shows a rainbow band of colors in the bottom and the same band (inverted) above showing the look if a ProPhoto RGB color space image was interpreted as sRGB color space.

 

Hope this information is of some use

 

John Wheeler

 

A slight shift in color temperate changes green into blue, but green to brown seems a bit extreme. Lightroom has defaults which you can change of eliminate, so I would start there to find out where you stand. In the Develop tab, you can select from a list of color temperatures, including the as-shot version, or adjust it with a slider/data box. You can then fine-tune the results using the Tint slider. If you are grading images to match others, there are more detailed options as well. The exposure level affects the perceived color temperature, so when grading you must adjust the exposure level at the same time as the color balance.

 

You must also consider the light source. Fluorescent lamps and gaseous discharge lamps (e.g., high pressure sodium) are deficient in blue, which will have a strong effect on green objects. Except for a spike at 480 mu (near UV), LED lamps have a smooth, predictable spectrum approximating a black body source. Even daylight is hard on green and red balance, in open shade or at sunset.

 

If you change these settings but see no difference, something is very wrong.

 

All this goes out the window if your editing screen is not calibrated. If you are serious about photography and wish your images to be consistent from monitor to monitor (also calibrated of course), you can buy an effective calibration device for $300 or less. For a little more, you can calibrate your printer as well.

Edited August 2, 2017 by Ed_Ingold