A switch from color to B&W???

Hey guys and gals, got a quick question for ya.

I'm copping an image form PS cs3 onto a 4gb usb memory drive and when i view the image on the memory stick, the image is B&W in the windows viewer but in color when opened in PS.....a little strange don't ya think. Oh, and another thing, I am using the blue channel in a sharpening technique.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Frank

The memory stick issue is a red herring. You've messed something up with your processing, or with your selection of channels inside PS. It's hard to say without seeing the image.

Save it as a jpeg and look at it with something like Irfanview and that'll tell you how it really looks.

Is this a Raw file? One would think so -- you should understand that an "image viewer" will show the jpeg that is "embedded" in a Raw file, so if you set your camera to the Monochrome Picture Style then that's what you will see.

However, the Raw data will be "untouched" by your Picture Style setting. The Canon Raw processing software Digital Photo Professional (DPP) "reads" and applies those in-camera settings to give you an initial Raw preview that will show that.

But other Raw processors, including Adobe Camera Raw which comes with Photoshop CSx, does not read and apply those settings, but rather applies a "default" process which renders an RGB/color image, and then has tools for Grayscale conversion and manipulation, and also offers numerous Grayscale/B&W presets that you can use -- just realize that the Raw file data is the same either way.

It could also be the "preview" picture is B&W but the actual one is not.

tim wrote in post #13329901
The memory stick issue is a red herring. You've messed something up with your processing, or with your selection of channels inside PS. It's hard to say without seeing the image.

Save it as a jpeg and look at it with something like Irfanview and that'll tell you how it really looks.

Thanks Tim, I'll give "Save as jeg" a try

tonylong wrote in post #13329905
Is this a Raw file? One would think so -- you should understand that an "image viewer" will show the jpeg that is "embedded" in a Raw file, so if you set your camera to the Monochrome Picture Style then that's what you will see.

However, the Raw data will be "untouched" by your Picture Style setting. The Canon Raw processing software Digital Photo Professional (DPP) "reads" and applies those in-camera settings to give you an initial Raw preview that will show that.

But other Raw processors, including Adobe Camera Raw which comes with Photoshop CSx, does not read and apply those settings, but rather applies a "default" process which renders an RGB/color image, and then has tools for Grayscale conversion and manipulation, and also offers numerous Grayscale/B&W presets that you can use -- just realize that the Raw file data is the same either way.

Thanks Tony but the file is a tiff

Numenorean wrote in post #13329935
It could also be the "preview" picture is B&W but the actual one is not.

Thanks Numenorean, do you think these a matter of check box selected/deselected?

Frank_Hollahan wrote in post #13330008
Thanks Tony but the file is a tiff

OK, so could you be specific/detailed about the process you've used? Did you shoot in monochrom? Did you shoot in jpeg or Raw? And, what steps did you take from the camera and in Photoshop?

tonylong wrote in post #13330103
OK, so could you be specific/detailed about the process you've used? Did you shoot in monochrom? Did you shoot in jpeg or Raw? And, what steps did you take from the camera and in Photoshop?

shot in RAW, adjusted in DPP, tweaked in PS. Image resized then sharpened. Blue channel used for the edge mask, only because it gives me the higher contrast.

Tony, this has been a process I've used over and over again.. One funny thing though, it takes a long time to copy.

OK, was the camera set to shoot Monochrome? And at what point did you convert to tiff?

You know, there is always some reason that strange stuff happens, but figuring out what, well, it's a process of troubleshooting the details!