An update on glennab's Nikon experience

[mschonher]

Huey and I are seeing an orangey red!

Candy, that rose is a beautiful and right on crimson red on my monitor and Glenna's shoes in the original are indeed burgundy. And speaking of Glenna, I enjoyed reading your adventures with the new camera.

Mary

[schen]

OK.  Time to calibrate the monitors.

The left swatch is red (255, 0, 0); the middle is the one I used (235, 43, 1); the right one is orange as half way between red and yellow (255, 127, 0).

[mschonher]

Hi Schen,

I'm sorry but I don't understand the numbers and why you use them.  I'm not very technical as you know.  What I see with those 3 colors you posted are; from the left:  Clear red that has a transparent look/feel to it then the middle red is somewhat duller and ore opaque looking,  the third color is a dullish orange with a bit of red in it kind of pumpkin-ish looking. Can you explain why the numbers are important?  The other point I'd like to make is that whatever color is next to the red has an effect on what our eyes are perceiving.  Maybe I've had too much color theory!

I'm just about finished with my first restore using huey, I'm very anxious to see how it looks in the gallery. 

I'm really looking forward to your explanation of those numbers.

Mary

[Hannie]

Mary, in the default workspace of Photoshop, on the right below the navigator/info/histogram palets you will find the color palet (along with the channels/paths).
When you click on the color tab you will see 3 sliders that you can move back and forth,  beside it are the corresponding numbers. 
The numbers Chen used you can type in those windows or use the slider.  That way you'll get the exact same color value that Chen used and then you can compare if it looks the same on your monitor.

Did I make any sense at all?

:loveit:

Hannie

[schen]

Mary,

I am sorry to confuse you with the numbers.  Those numbers are the RGB triplets representing the amount of red, green and blue in the color with 0 as none, 255 as the highest amount and 127 as half.  The RGB triplets are often used to define the colors in image files such as JPEG, webpage graphics or Windows programming.  With PhotoShop, you may open the "info" window and the RGB values will be displayed while you move the pointer around.  I hope this explains it rather than confuses you more.

When I choose a color, I usually double click on the swatch and get into "color picker" to select the color.  As I said in other threads, my personal color preference is a little yellowish and a little dimmer.  That shows in the "red" I picked for Glenna's shoes.

Shujen

[mschonher]

Hannie and Schen,

You must think I'm an idiot! I use that feature all the time and never have even glanced at those numbers before now, with the exception of setting a white and black balance. Schen it just did not occur to me that's what you meant when you posted. Now Schen, did you mean for everyone to calibrate their monitor with those colors and numbers?  I did just for fun and curiousity. I was off my 1 number for the first and third sample.

Thanks you guys.............Mary    :crazy:

[klassylady25]

OK.  Time to calibrate the monitors.

The left swatch is red (255, 0, 0); the middle is the one I used (235, 43, 1); the right one is orange as half way between red and yellow (255, 127, 0).

Based on your numbers, here ya go.   ;)  I'd say that's pretty dang close!

[glennab]

We have SO digressed from the original topic, but this is fascinating.  I'm going to post my color swatches and tell you a bit of what happened when I created them, because it was quite unexpected.

Swatches:


My original settings were at 16 bits per channel (overkill, and I discovered that one can't save a file as a jpeg at 16.  The file has to go down to 8.  I'd set the 16 bits earlier when I was experimenting with scanning.)  I also didn't realize that while my destination settings were at sRGB, my originating settings were AdobeRGB.  When I first created the swatches I could see no difference at all between the left and center red.  I changed my settings to sRGB and my gamma to 2.2 (recommended for LCDs), and the difference was amazing.  Since I was starting a new file, I don't think the settings would have affected any of the restorations, but that was a succinct demonstration to me of how the settings can drastically change what's seen on the screen.  I'm tempted to fire up the old G3 and do the same exercise and see the comparison.

Shujen, our resident engineer, thanks for getting us on this subject.  Great food for thought!

Glenna

[schen]

Oh.  I hope I did not give the impression that this is how we calibrate the monitors.  If the colors were created by numbers, they will all be stored with the same sets of numbers in the files and they will all appear the same on your monitor or mine.  But what you see on your monitor may not be the same as what I see on mine.  That is where the need of calibration comes.

[mschonher]

Schen, that's what I thought but I wanted to be sure. I hate to think I might be missing out on good color information or new thoughts on calibration.  Thanks.

Mary

[klassylady25]

LOL  Glenna, you're right we have strayed a bit,  but it's been a grand learning experience, not to mention fun.  Oh, btw, where'd you put the donuts, since we are all chillin'?   ::)

[mschonher]

Sorry Glenna, we seem to have kidnapped your thread. However, it is fascinating isn't it?  Calibration is so important.  I have to tell you that the calibration on my old crt was much better than my new lcd. Isn't that strange?  I bet Schen might know why.  My new monitor could not be calibrated properly and believe me I tried everything I could.  I'm using the monitor that came with my Mac and it's probably at the lower end of the line.  I'm sure they make a better one.  The huey has been my only help.

Mary

[glennab]

Mary, any of you can kidnap one of my threads whenever you want.  This reminds me of deep conversations that segue among so many subjects that one can't remember what the original topic was.  Even silly stuff like my original post can lead to wonderful sharing of knowledge.  I enjoy it.  We each bring different skills and opinions to the forum, and interacting can so enrich us. I'm finding that as time goes by I realize that I have more in common with most of you than I have with many of my acquaintances and friends.  I can't imagine more special people to associate with than my OPR pals. I'm just waiting for our budget to allow for a convention so we can all meet!

G

[Hannie]

... I'm just waiting for our budget to allow for a convention so we can all meet!
G...

Yea!!!  :up2:

[THJacobson]

Well as long as we on the subject...remember to try and calibrate to the printer that will be used to print the end product.

Second note, Scott Kelby-many of you know the name, states in Color Correcting digital camera images...
on the RGB channel in the level dialog first set for shadows R=10 G=10 B=10,  in highlight R=240 G=240 and B=240  Mid tones   R=128 G=128 and B=128.  I have found this to be a good starting place.  Midtones may need additional adjustment visually.  This works well when the camera has a variance in color balance.

This helps when there is a variance in monitors.  Again a lot depends on what the lab is set up for.

Tom