Any Apple ColorSync gurus in the house?

dstainerdstainer Registered Users Posts: 25 Big grins
edited January 4, 2008 in Finishing School
Hoping that one of you color management gurus could help me make sense of my Apple ColorSync issues.

The other day, I noticed that the color/tone of the pictures I was uploading to my Smugmug site did not match what I was seeing in my editing programs (Capture NX, Photoshop Elements). At first, I thought it was a Smugmug upload problem. As a test, I re-uploaded a picture I had successfully uploaded a week earlier (both saved as sRGB). When I looked at them side-by-side, the new picture was way off from a color perspective compared to the original image. Only later, did I find out that this color difference was only visible on my monitor (both pictures appeared identical on other remote monitors when I compared them).

No sooner did I come to this realization, that a dialogue box appeared on my apple desktop indicating that I had a colorsync problem. It asked me if I wanted to repair this problem, and I clicked yes. It then reported back that it was able to fix all but one profile (see below for the message I received along with the Nikon profile it could not fix). Because I shoot using Nikon (as Nikon RGB NEFs) then later convert to Nikon sRGB (within Capture NX program), I'm wondering if this one un-fixable profile won't cause continued issues? After hitting the fix button, the test picture I uploaded did revert back to the same color as the original. But I'm still noticing some color differences in some of the new pictures I'm uploading when compared against what I'm seeing in my editing programs (keep in mind that what I'm seeing in my editing programs is based on opening up and viewing the converted sRGB image, not the raw RGB image). An sRGB image in my editing program should look like an sRGB image in Smugmug--right?

As a final note, I use Spyder2 to calibrate my monitor.

So my question is, what is going on? How can I get things looking like they should? And should I be worried about the fact that the Nikon profile can't be repaired (I would not even know how to fix this, although I wonder if this was loaded as part of my Nikon Capture NX software package)? When I go under my monitor profiles, my saved Spyder2 profile is showing up, along with 1 or 2 other profiles, including a generic one that just says sRGB. I don't see any other profiles, including one marked Nikon.

Thanks,
Dan




About Profile First Aid:

Profile First Aid verifies the contents of ICC profiles installed on your computer. Errors are reported if any profiles do not conform to the ICC profile specification. Although some errors are unlikely to cause problems under typical usage, it is a good idea to repair any profiles that do not conform to the ICC profile specification.

One important component of an ICC profile, the description tag, contains up to three different names for a profile. This allows the profile name to be displayed in different languages or on different computer systems. Applications typically use one of the available names to show profiles in a list or pop-up menu. If you have profiles installed in your system that do not display in the ColorSync control panel, then you should run this utility to repair them.

Using Profile First Aid:

Select the “Verify” button to begin a verification process or the “Repair” button to verify and repair all installed profiles. Selecting the “Verify” button will report any problems with installed profiles without making any changes. Selecting the “Repair” button will report any problems with installed profiles and attempt to fix the problems.



Profile First Aid COULD NOT FIX the following profile:

Checking 617 profiles...
/Library/Application Support/Nikon/Profiles/NKLch2.icm
Header connection space is not correct. Could not be fixed.
Header data space is not correct. Could not be fixed.
Header profile class is not correct. Could not be fixed.
Tag 'A2B0': Number of input channels is not correct. Could not be fixed.
Tag 'A2B0': Number of output channels is not correct. Could not be fixed.
Tag 'B2A0': Number of input channels is not correct. Could not be fixed.
Tag 'B2A0': Number of output channels is not correct. Could not be fixed.
Repair done - 0 out of 1 profiles fixed.


Comments

  • arodneyarodney Registered Users Posts: 2,005 Major grins
    edited January 4, 2008
    That goofy profile of Nikon's just doesn't follow proper ICC spec so you got the error. You don't need it anyway. I don't think the issue you're seeing has anything to do with the profile. You can convert from Nikon sRGB to the real sRGB but I don't think that will buy anything (worth a try). Or first, try assigning the sRGB profile to one of the images. Does the color appearance change? IF NOT, you can just assign and save the right sRGB profile into the doc, then look at the web site (which isn't color managed and probably will not exactly match).

    Leave the display profile totally alone, that's not an issue (assuming the device and software built a good profile, that's a totally different subject).

    I don't know why Nikon can't seem to figure out color management and lose their unnecessary profiles.
    Andrew Rodney
    Author "Color Management for Photographers"
    http://www.digitaldog.net/
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