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Colour data missing?

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Gareth-G

New Member
Joined
May 29, 2018
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15
Lightroom Experience
Intermediate
Lightroom Version
Lightroom Version Number
Classic 10.2
Operating System
  1. macOS 11 Big Sur
Hi all - recently, I have been having some problems printing accurate colours; specifically blue, which prints very purple. Whilst trying to figure out what is going wrong (I think I have eliminated any issues with the new computer/OS and LR itself and now thinking it is the printer) I noticed something very odd with the image itself.
When using the HSL panel, I noticed that specific areas of the image didn't seem to have any colour data associated. That is, when I moved the HSL Targeted Adjustment Tool over the image, no corresponding colour slider lit-up in the HSL panel. All other areas of the image are fine, just this one area of the sea. I have noticed this with other images, on occasion, but dismissed it as a glitch. But now, as the area in question is also the area whose colour I can not get to print properly, I am wondering if this is more serious and is, in fact, responsible for the printer fail. Any ideas?
Cheers, Gareth
 
For differences between print and screen. I have to know if you have properly calibrated your monitor. This is essential to get good color rendition using the print module. Also it is necessary to soft proof to mimic the print/paper charistics in a light transmitting media.
when I moved the HSL Targeted Adjustment Tool over the image, no corresponding colour slider lit-up in the HSL panel.
This is as expected. The area with equal RGB values (or Black) will not favor one color over another, While moving the TAT, look at the RGB values as they change under the Histogram. When you get no hit on a color slider, the RGB values will be the same or nearly so.
 
Hi Cletus - thanks for the quick response. My screen (iMac 27" 5k) is regularly calibrated with a SpyderX (though I am also having issues with this - it wants a really bright screen); I am printing with a Canon 100s, via the USB (as I am too far away from the wifi router for wireless). I soft proof in Lightroom and manage to get the SP copy (pretty much) identical to the original on the screen. There's no general colour cast and all other colours render fine. It's just the blue, printing purple, which is particularly annoying as I shoot a lot of seascapes.
Thanks also for the RGB tip and I can see the logic behind the solution. However, when I do as you suggest, the values between the colours do not change significantly from those o neighbouring areas which are showing in HSL; and the values aren't that close to each other - but this could be a precision response. Could this narrowing of the RGB values be casing the mis-read by the printer and, if so, what to do about it? As an aside, when going through the processing history of the image, the point at which the HSL panel ceases to respond to the colour coincides with a custom WB adjustment.
 
As an aside, when going through the processing history of the image, the point at which the HSL panel ceases to respond to the colour coincides with a custom WB adjustment.
This is interesting but I have no explanation. It does seem significant. Are these RAW files or JPEGs? What is the custom WB setting value and what is the setting value when using one of the presets or Auto? "As Shot" uses the WB setting as recorded in the camera metadata. "Auto" reads the pixel data looking for white to balance.
 
These are RAW files (CR2 converted to DNG). The original WB is 6,350 which I changed to 5,850 - so not a huge difference. I just tried setting the WB back to its original value and, hey presto, HSL reads all colours again. Setting it to Auto warms it up too much but retains the RGB spread. I also noticed that the custom WB did cause the histogram to compress in the middle values quite al to (if that's the right way to describe it) which fits with what you said about the eRGB values becoming to close to each other.
 
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