Problem with RED color in Aperture, iPhoto but NOT Preview

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Problem with RED color in Aperture, iPhoto but NOT Preview

I'm having a weird display problem in aperture and iPhoto, as well as in the small thumbnail preview in the Get Info window in the Finder: photos with large areas of red appear over saturated and blotchy, while the same image will be displayed fine in Preview, Mail, Safari etc.
I have checked with a number of people using OSX on G4/G5 and Intel machines and running 10.4.9 and they ALL have the same problem.
An example of the problem can be found in this picture: http://oroux.com/trucs/red_bug.png
Left is the image in Preview, middle in Finder's Get Info window and right in iPhoto...
I've checked the profiles in ColorSync Utility and there is no problem on that side.

2.4GHz core2duo MacBookPro Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Jun 8, 2007 3:38 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 9, 2007 2:11 PM in response to m::se

iPhoto, Aperture etc. rely on Core Image and Colorsync calibration. I'm not sure Preview uses these, so either of these may be corrupt. It's possible you may be needing a reinstall of OSX.

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Answer 2

m::se Author

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Jun 9, 2007 2:57 PM in response to David G Chapman

Yeah that's probably a bug in CoreImage or QT, BUT this is not related to MY install, since I've reproduced the bug on another install running 10.4.8 and QT 7.1.3, and a couple other people I know tried and found the same problem.
I've compiled a whole bunch of screenshots that can be found here: http://oroux.com/trucs/red/test_rouge/
the best illustration is this comparison of SIX screenshots of the same image which all look different according to the app used: http://oroux.com/trucs/red/testrouge/10-4-9qt7-1-6/comparaison.png

this looks like a heavy bug in some OSX component. And it ***** big time for a pro app like Aperture.

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Answer 3

Jun 10, 2007 11:09 AM in response to m::se

i'm experiencing the same problem, albeit in Photoshop. as in, my RAW files look exactly how i want them to look in preview, but in Photoshop they look oversaturated at their default settings. i assumed it was a problem with color profiles, which i know absolutely nothing about.

it's really frustrating in that, if i tweak the RAW file in adobe camera raw to attempt to make it look like the version in preview, i degrade the image quality to the point that it makes more sense (don't laugh!) to take a screenshot of my open preview file than use the adobe processed RAW file.

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Answer 4

m::se Author

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Jun 10, 2007 11:21 AM in response to Adam Weinberg

It effectively does the same in Photoshop too... looks like there is some OSX color-related component used by some apps and not others and that is causing the problem. Safari, Mail and Preview do not have the problem... iPhoto, Aperture and Photoshop do.
I've posted the problem on a number of aperture-oriented forums, and I'm investigating the issue with a bunch of people from the Hardmac/Macbidouille website ( http://www.hardmac.com).

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Answer 5

Jun 10, 2007 11:57 AM in response to m::se

I've done a bit more investigation, looked at more of my RAW files .. and for me this is not just happening with the red channel, but with any colors that are fairly saturated in the original image.

Is this happening to you just for your RAW files or JPGs taken directly from the camera as well? (i never ever shoot JPG).

Could you pretty please keep us posted here on the Apple discussion boards?I'm trying to develop a workflow in which i can (hopefully just temporarily) work around the issue, and if you have any suggestions it would definitely be appreciated.

I definitely think this must be a fixable color profile bug, too many pro photographers rely on Macs / Aperture for this to be a widespread and non-resolveable issue.

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Answer 6

m::se Author

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Jun 10, 2007 12:06 PM in response to Adam Weinberg

I see the problem in effectively every color channel, but it is more pronounced with red.
It does not affect the actual files, since I have checked on my Windows machine and the files are displayed fine, which is a good point, meaning that is is only an OSX display issue, and Apple can easily fix it. The problem occurs with RAW and JPEG files, coming from different cameras (EOS300D, D80, ixus 400 and ixus 60).
I'd like to try and see if the problem remains on older versions of OSX/Quicktime, so I'm going to try and install 10.4.0 on an external hard disk and see if the issue is present, then update the system step by step to try and nail what version causes the issue.
I'll post my findings here.

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Answer 7

Jun 10, 2007 3:20 PM in response to m::se

Given the other facts you uncovered, it sounds more like corrupt color profiles to me.

I assume you are set to gamma 2.2 and have calibrated the monitor. Higher gamma's and low color temp can give rise to warm bias and over-sat colors. It may be that even though you calibrated, the profile itself got corrupted.

G.

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Answer 8

m::se Author

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10 points

Jun 10, 2007 11:26 PM in response to David G Chapman

I don't see how it could be a profile problem, since other people (see post above) have the same problem with their pictures. Also, I did some shots over the week-end, including a girl in a bright red dress and the dress shows the same oversaturated red blotches. The image was taken in RAW with my Nikon D80, I didn't do any changes in Aperture, and I reset the colorsync profile of the MacBookPro and DELL 24" screens to their factory defaults.
And when I display the fullscreen image in Aperture, I can see for a split second the CORRECT image, then it does some "color magic" and the details goes down the drain.
Plus, if you look at this image ( http://oroux.com/trucs/red/testrouge/10-4-9qt7-1-6/comparaison.png, it's big, 2MB) showing screen captures of a detail of a photo in six different OSX apps, you'll see that not two display it in the same way, which is a real problem.

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