differing colours with DPP and Elements 8 in RAW

[kerryN]

Hi Everyone

I have looked through other posts but can't find the answer to this: I have just purchased Elements 8 after having used Digital Photo Professional since getting my 40D camera. When I open a RAW file in Elements the photo colours are totally different, despite the fact that I have settings such as sRGB the same in both programs. I have tried altering the settings under camera calibration and trying the different options but none give me colours that are anywhere near the original image. I have purchased Brundage's "The Missing Manual" and in that it mentions ticking "Ignore camera data Exif profiles" and I have tried that but still no success. Would anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do? It is driving me batty as the image looks so completely different colour wise, and certainly not for the better.

Many thanks
KerryN

[tonylong]

Well, the most likely thing you're encountering is that DPP has applied the in-camera settings for your Picture Styles, things like White Balance, Color Tone, Contrast, Saturation and Sharpness to your Raw preview, which makes the preview look very much like the jpeg would look like out of the camera. Elements (and many other Raw processors) does not apply those things.

The Raw processor in Elements 8 does have some calibration presets, but they are not the same as a Picture Style -- they are more subtle.

In DPP, try setting your Picture Style to Neutral, and in Elements, mess around a bit with your White Balance/Hue settings to see if you can get a similar "starting point". If that gets thing close, then go ahead and put your Picture Style in DPP back the way it was, and pay attention to the adjustments made in the Raw tab. You can then tweak the Elements adjustments and see how you can match them, and take it from there to improve things.

If that approach leaves things way off base still, then you may have calibration issues. Elements should recognize monitor calibration automatically while DPP needs to be "told". It would definitely help for you to get and use a monitor calibration system and get both programs set up to use the proper profile.

[kerryN]

Hi Tony

Many thanks for getting back to me with guidance. It is actually Elements that seems to be adding colours rather than DPP. I have my in-camera settings set all to nought, with Standard for picture style, and had used Cloudy white balance. I have always done any adjustments on the computer. If I open a picture in Elements and use the same settings, then the colours are way out and very orangy. I have just tried using the neutral setting in both programs and this does bring it nearer to the image in DPP if I use "as shot" for the white balance. If I use cloudy then I get a very orange image. But it is still too orangy even with "as shot" for the white balance.


Kerry

[Tee Why]

What camera profile are you using with PSE8? ACR should be using Adobe Standard, consider changing it to camera standard in PSE, if you want the colors on the RAW image to look like canon's std picture style and then go from there.

Another thing to consider is calibrating your monitor if that has not been done yet.

[kerryN]

Originally Posted by Tee Why

What camera profile are you using with PSE8? ACR should be using Adobe Standard, consider changing it to camera standard in PSE, if you want the colors on the RAW image to look like canon's std picture style and then go from there.

Another thing to consider is calibrating your monitor if that has not been done yet.

I have tried both profiles: acr and camera standard and both give colours totally different to DPP - they both look way off.

With regards to calibrating my monitor, would that make a difference? Wouldn't I still just get the difference in colour in the two programmes?

Thanks for your input.

KerryN

[René Damkot]

You need to set the proper monitor profile in DPP, otherwise it won't display correct.


You might have ACR set to "auto"?

ACR FAQ

Otherwise: Post a few screenshots to show what's happening....

[kerryN]

Hi Rene

Thanks for your input. No I don't have it set to auto. How do I post screen shots? I have just been trying to do it but they won't show up. If I can show the screen shots then you will be able to see the big difference.

Many thanks for your help.

Kerry

[René Damkot]

OSX: Shift+Cmd+3
Windows: Print screen button.

Then resize down to 1024px max to fit the posting rules & attach.

[tonylong]

For the Print Screen, you can use a new document in Elements to paste the screen shot into. If you are using Windows, pressing Alt-PrtScn will copy your selected window into the Clipboard, whereas just PrtScn will copy your whole desktop.

Is it possible that your white balance is simply the problem? Try in DPP opening the WB drop down list and choosing Color Temperature and typing a temp that is middle-range in there, then in ACR, typing the same temp in and seeing what your results are.

[kerryN]

Thanks Rene and Tony for the directions.

I have attached two images to this post and will attach another one to a separate post as the maximum is two:

Adobe standard as cloudy
Camera standard as cloudy

In the next post I will attach the DPP one.

As you will see both of the Elements ones have a peachy tint to them, whereas the DPP one is the realistic representation.

[kerryN]

I have attached the DPP one - standard, cloudy - and the Camera Standard Cloudy as that should be the one that has the same settings as my camera. You will be able to see the great difference in colour when they are side by side. The Elements one looks as though they have over done the fake tan!

Many thanks for your help.

KerryN

[tonylong]

Well, it looks like it's just a White Balance/Color Temp difference. The ACR version is too warm, whereas the DPP version doesn't look to good to me either, but maybe toward the green side.

You have to realize that the WB/Color Tone settings in Canon cameras are "proprietary", meaning that companies like Adobe can only guess. A couple tweaks in ACR should bring things closer.

[tzalman]

Probably every RAW converter in the market and every brand of camera has a different interpretations of what "Cloudy" means. That is why they also give you the tools to tweak the WB; DPP's "Tune" button/color ball or ACR's Temperature and Tone settings.

[kerryN]

Thanks Elie and Tony. I was assuming that the interpretation of colours would be pretty similar, but obviously not.

Thanks for everyone's input.

Kerry

[tonylong]

Originally Posted by kerryN

Thanks Elie and Tony. I was assuming that the interpretation of colours would be pretty similar, but obviously not.

Thanks for everyone's input.

Kerry

It's a long running thing! That's why we have the tools to adjust both Temperature and Tone with Raw files. From the above it looks like even DPP fell short of what I would consider a right-on rendition, but with some tweaking you should be able to get both DPP and ACR matching well.

The calibration presets in ACR can be helpful in making some subtle changes but don't equal the adjustments you can make in the Basic panel.