RAW conversion - Canon 10D - green skin

[helicopter]

Hello,

If I try to open CRW files photographed using a Canon EOS 10D in Adobe Camera Raw or Capture One the skin tone in the shadows appear greenish. And currently I don't know how to achieve a pleasing skin tone without tweaking it in Photoshop. Because by comparison the JPEG using the same lighting looks very well!

Anyone there who have similar problems ?

[T Paul]

What may be happening (mind you I am no expert on this), is that your settings (perhaps exposure and white balance) are off creating the green color cast.

Why do the JPEG files taken in the same lighting look fine but the RAW files have a colorcast?

RAW format simply saves the data recorded - the camera does nothing else to the image. In essence you have a raw "negative" of the shot you took. It is then up to you to process that "negative" in a RAW converter program or in a Photoshop.

JPEG on the other hand is pre-processed for you, color is determined by the camera, as is the tone, white balance, saturation and sharpness. Then the image is compressed throwing out information that the RAW file retains.

A couple of links that may help:

RAW vs. JPEG

RAW

Raw vs JPEG Photoshop Tutorial

[CJ Swartz]

Originally Posted by helicopter

Hello,

If I try to open CRW files photographed using a Canon EOS 10D in Adobe Camera Raw or Capture One the skin tone in the shadows appear greenish. And currently I don't know how to achieve a pleasing skin tone without tweaking it in Photoshop. Because by comparison the JPEG using the same lighting looks very well!

Anyone there who have similar problems ?

Afraid I don't have a Canon DSLR, but I shoot raw with my Fuji super zoom. I'm not sure I understand exactly what you mean -- are you saying that the skin tones are greenish when you first open the file in your raw converter, but you are able to change it to a more normal look with Capture One or Camera Raw -- if so, that's the way it's supposed to work, isn't it? We shoot raw so that we can make changes if necessary to improve on how the camera processed the image. With my camera, I shoot raw because Fuji's noise reduction is too strong on my camera, and I prefer to use other noise reduction set to my taste instead of letting the camera do it. If the lighting in some of your shots is creating a greenish hue in the shadows, and using raw lets you change the white balance or tone curve to eliminate/reduce the green caste, that's a good thing.

Or are you saying that there is still a green caste in the skin AFTER using Capture One and/or Camera Raw? Does changing the white balance help, or reducing the green saturation before you convert to jpeg?

[helicopter]

The white balance doesn't really help. The attached images will show you the difference. img_crw.jpg was converted using ACR the other file is the JPEG of my Canon 10D. Do you see the greenish and washed out image in comparison to jpg ? I already found the same problems on following page: http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetc...id=00E0O5&tag=

Another thing I don't understand: If I save the images for the web I using Edit > Convert To Profile > sRGB I must proof against my Monitor (View > Soft Proof - preserve rgb numbers) to achieve the same colors as in a Browser or any Image Viewer.

On a PC of a friend (because I use a Mac) I try to open these images using a demo of breezebrowser and the raw looks the same like the jpegs. But on raw converters like capture one or camera raw I don't achieve the same results.

I'm really confused! :-)

[videosean]

I don't see green. See attached images, taking a color mesurement, 3 pixel average, right on her face where the cursor is.
Windows, srgb monitor colorspace in photoshop.

[helicopter]

Ok using the browser there is only a significant difference in comparison to Photoshop. If I open the CRW in Photoshop the image looks greenish in ACR. Only if I enable Soft Proof against my monitor profile using preserve rgb numbers) it looks right. It's confusing me!
Attached you will see the two images. One is converted using ACR the other one is converted using breezebrowser on a PC. If you put the images in Photoshop on top of each other you will see the difference if you toggle the visibility of the layers. The result of breezebrowser looks the same as if I shoot in JPEG.

My main problem is that I don't see in ACR or in Photoshop the end result.

[T Paul]

This may be more of a color management issue. How does the image print? Perhaps you need to calibrate your monitor? I've included a few links to some articles that deal with color management and soft proofing. Also make sure that you are not using color management in BOTH Photoshop and your printer when you print. You need to turn off color managment in one of them.

RetouchPro: Getting Good Prints From Dig Files

Soft Proofing

Get Great Photos from Desktop Printers: Part 2
In this installment, you'll learn how to whittle down the difference between screen and print with profiles and soft proofing.

Get Great Photos from Desktop Printers: Part 3
Legalize out-of-gamut colors, simulate daylight, and other tips on producing prints that match what you see on your monitor.

Get Great Photos from Desktop Printers: Part 4
Driver-controlled color, custom paper profiling, third-party RIPs

Color Management Changes in Photoshop CS2

Color Management: Converting versus Assigning

Color Management Tips

[helicopter]

I've already read a lot of color management literature! I am using a Sony GDM FW520 which is already calibrated using Spyder hardware. But for example If I open the posted image it looks very very greenish in Adobe Camera Raw. The working space is Adobe RGB because images always will be published for print and web. Only if I using the Sooft Proof against my Monitor Profile it looks ok. But if I using Breeze Browser on a PC and convert the same image it looks very red-saturated in Photoshop and looks well if I enable Sooft Proof against my Monitor.

I don't unterstand why I have to enable Sooft Proof against my monitor to get an image looks well!?

Regards,
Thomas

[T Paul]

Perhaps this article may help:

Color Matching with Adobe Camera Raw 3: It deals with calibrating ACR to improve the color rendering.