Photoshop turning everything red

I have a rather strange problem. I own Photoshop 7, Photosho Elements, and Photoshop Album. When viewing a photo in any of them, it gives the picture a red cast. Even black and white shots have a redish tinto to them. This does not happen in any other editor I have, such as Paintshop Pro, PhotoImpact, or any other editors/viewers. It seems to only be with the Adobe products. Is there something common to these products, a driver or something, that is causing this? These programs use to work fine, so I am at a lost.

are you using a mac?

Thanks for the reply, Rob. I am using a pc running windows xp. I have noticed that if I turn off color managment in Photoshop 7, and then load a picture, it will ask me if I want to use color managment or not, and if I select "no" then the picture will load with the correct colors, and without the red cast. I don't know how to get it to stop asking, of if there is a certain managment I should be using. Confusing.

Should I say the obvious? Your Photoshop "color settings" are probably wrong.

Read here if you want to know the details of how to get it right: http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps8-colour/ps8_1.htm

You might want to consider re-installing Photoshop. There are many places where things can go wrong with color management. Sometimes it's just better to start off with a clean slate after a fresh install.

Good luck.

maderito wrote:
Should I say the obvious? Your Photoshop "color settings" are probably wrong.

Read here if you want to know the details of how to get it right: http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps8-colour/ps8_1.htm

You might want to consider re-installing Photoshop. There are many places where things can go wrong with color management. Sometimes it's just better to start off with a clean slate after a fresh install.

Good luck.

I not only did a fresh install of Photoshop, I did a fresh install of windows xp, because I updated my sytem. It still didn't help. Strange. It seems to have started back around when I got my new video card, which is an ATO 9800 pro. I don't know what the relationship would be, but it's seem to be around that time this all started. New drivers didn't help, even though I don't know what one would have to do with the other. I just know if I turn off color managment in Photoshop 7, then it will ask when I load a picture if I want to use color managment, and if I say no, then the picture looks fine. I will check out the link you sent. Thanks!


Update - I just noticed that on ATI's website, there are new drivers and the following statement: Adobe Gamma and other colour calibration software now have the ability to adjust their independent gamma values.

I am downloading this now, and will report back if it solves the issue.

The fact that: This only occurs in a color managed environment and that you are getting a red cast suggests that there is a conflict in profiles or two profiles trying to load at the same time. It would serve you well to follow Maderito's advice to review all your color settings including what your monitor profile is set to. If you calibrated your monitor with somthing other then Adobe Gamma. you need to remove Adobe Gamma from your Start Up directory or it will load every time you boot up your computer.
Regards,
Scott

Thanks, Scott. I haven't aligned it with anything after re-installing windows, not even PhotoShop. I disabled the adobe managment from loading after I installed photoshop. That's why this is strange. I just finished downloading the drivers, so I am going to try this.

You might also want to check out what monitor profile Windows is using. Right click on the empty part of the desktop and select "Properties". A Display Property panel should open up. Click on the "Settings" tab and then click on the "Advanced" button on the bottom of the panel. Another window called "Plug and Play Monitor and RADEON 9800..." should pop up.
Click on the "Color Management" tab and see what profile is being used for the monitor. It the correct monitor profile is not specified, click on the "Add" button and look for the correct profile for the monitor.

The newer drivers didn't help, not that I thought they really would. However, I checked the color managment profile as you suggested, and it was using the montors default profile. I changed it to the Adobe RGB1998 profile, and that fixed the problem. I am not sure if that is the best profile to use, but it works. I am going to also check out the link the other person suggested for understanding adobe profiles. A rather confusing and complicated subject I am learning.

You wouldn't set or select your monitor profile anywhere in PS or in any other color managed program, even though it may be shown as an ICC option. It is a system wide environment that isn't set or selected anywhere else other than Display > Settings > Advanced > Color Management.

You could say that your monitor profile is basic room lighting. When you then bring an image into the room that requires Adobe RGB lighting, then according to the aRGB profile embedded in the image it will alter the lighting to be correct for that image. If you bring in an image with a sRGB embedded profile, the lighting will be altered to best display that image.

If you are using PS principally to publish images to Web, then you might want to set your working color space in PS to sRGB and make sure all images you bring into PS be sRGB (shoot sRGB) or convert them to sRGB if they are not. Then process and publish.

If you are mainly viewing and printing your images, then you may want to open your image in PS using it's original embedded color profile to get the maximum out of it.

The key to all of this is to be sure your monitor is correctly calibrated and profiled, preferably with a good colorimeter. This involves correcting your monitor with your monitor controls, changing settings in your graphic card's Look Up Tables (LUT) and writing a description of your monitor's capabilities, characteristics and settings for Windows and color managed programs to refer to.

If your monitor is not correctly calibrated, it will have absolutely no direct affect on the other output forms. Your display can look terrible, but at the same time your prints are perfect. If you were then to try to "correct" your perfect images in PS to look right on screen, your prints would come out a four-letter pile.

I view each output form, screen, print, web, etc. as quite seperate, but having a common hub. If I get each individually correct, they will work correctly with each other over the hub.

Alternative non-technical description, hope it helps...

The monitor profile should not be a color space like Adobe RGB( 1998 ). It is a profile made specifically for each monitor. If you don't use any other profiling device, I suggest that you run Adobe Gamma from the Windows Control Panel and name/select/save the profile you create as your default monitor profile. That is the only place you should have to select it. Windows will then use it across color managed applications.

In PS CS, your working space should be set to the space that you usually shoot pictures in. Check off all the boxes that require PS to notify you of any space conflicts. When you go to open a file in PS, PS will identify the space your picture is in and if it is the same as your working space, it will open it.
Scott

And Scott, if you will allow me to take it one step further, if you open an image that has a different embedded profile from your working space, PS will ask you what to do with it.

1. Use embedded profile (instead of the working space)

2. Convert document's colors to the working space

3. Discard the embedded profile (don't color manage)

If you are going to view or print, choose 1.

If you are publishing to web and your working space is sRGB, choose 2.

You can also choose 3 for web and the results will not necessarily vary from converting to sRGB when displayed on the web. Both may vary depending on the browser they are viewed in. Most web images have no profile to decrease the file size, but I usually include it.