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Photoshop Tips for Advanced Users
Last Changed 12/5/11 Tips
The ColorNeg/ColorPerfect family of Photoshop/Photoline plug-ins is available for both PC and Mac and the PC version is available for 64-bit CS4/CS5.
ColorPerfect - the new ColorNeg - is now in release 1.05! Version 1.05 provides the new and unique ColorPerfect Alpha Channel Feature. ColorPerfect is based on Complete Color Integrity and gives results we and our users think are amazing. (See ColorPerfect dialog and how it works.) Version 1.04 added the ability to operate directly on 8-bit/channel images, even from jpeg files, producing 8-bit/channel results. We still definitely encourage the use of 16-bit/channel images when at all possible, but we recognize that this can be an obstacle for some people. But be aware that in the case of negatives, 8-bit/channel scans will always produce noticably inferior results even with ColorPerfect. Some users were disappointed that ColorPerfect would not work directly with B&W negatives (monochrome) like ColorNeg does. The ability to work directly on monochrome images and produce monochrome results was added in Version 1.04. The ColorPerfect engine is very colorcentric, so internally the monochrome image is treated as RGB with color controls intact and even though the final result will be monochrome, the user is able to see in the preview if any beneficial toning would be obtained from completely treating the image as color. Version 1.04 also introduced a new algorithm for setting highlight detail and compression which was a definite improvement over the original. For a very informative treatment of how highlights work, see the Highlights page prepared by our German colleague (in English). We get questions about the best way of dealing with working spaces (like AdobeRGB) and our plug-ins, so in cooperation with our German colleague we have put together an explanation and analysis of Working Spaces that should be very helpful. Finally, ColorPerfect Version 1.05 includes a few bug fixes, a few new color negative films and the ColorPerfect Alpha Channel Feature, a major extension of the plug-in . The primary intent of this feature is to allow the user to "Photoshop" the image, using masks, adjustment layers, curves, levels, all things which destroy color integrity. When this is completed, the tonal (light/dark) values in the image are then entered into ColorPerfect along with the original image and the color is applied to these desired tonal values in a way that preserves the color integrity of the image. Of course this feature opens the door to many innovative possibilities as well.
The original ColorNeg, ColorPos, and GamSat also remain available and the keys that we have been issuing for these plug-ins since mid-2007 will also work with ColorPerfect. If you have a valid older PC key and send it to us along with sufficient identification for us to be certain you are the valid owner we will issue you a new PC key. Older PC keys are shorter, 18 characters. All Mac keys are the new version. The PC-based plug-ins work with Photoshop 6 and 7, Photoshop CS through CS5, Photoshop Elements 3 through 8. ColorPerfect is also available in a 64-bit version for PC that works with the both the Photoshop 64-bit version and Photoline 64-bit version 16 or later. The Mac versions of the plug-ins work natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs, with Photoshop version 7 and versions CS through CS4 on PowerPC and versions CS3 and CS4 on Intel. The Mac version also works on CS5, but only when Photoshop is called up in 32 bit mode. See comments and instructions on how to do this. Operation on CS5 in the Mac 64-bit mode will require about a 40% re-write of our code and as we expect Adobe may make significant revisions to the Mac 64-bit Photoshop, this will not happen very soon. For those of us who think Photoshop is too expensive and Elements is too hobbled, the plug-ins also work well with 32-bit Photoline, both the PC and the Mac versions. Our German colleague has an English-language page giving the complete story.
We do not list Corel Paintshop in the above because these plug-ins do not work in Paintshop. Corel Paintshop has recently introduced the ability to use 16-bit Photoshop plug-ins, but their implementation is only partial and many features of our plug-ins will not work. At this point we do not support Paintshop and our plug-in Keys will not be accepted in Paintshop.
The tips presented here are for the advanced Photoshop user working with
photographic images. There is a 16-Bits/Channel Highlight Detail Secret tip with a surprising demonstration of 16-Bits/Channel power. If you have been having trouble with blown highlights in digital images this may be the secret you've been looking for. We have become known for our Photoshop plug-ins, including ColorPerfect, ColorNeg and ColorPos, which deal with getting superior and more accurate color from color negatives, color slides, and digital camera images and we describe these below. So, either continue to read about Complete Color Integrity and ColorPerfect or:
Go directly to plug-in downloads
Go directly to Photoshop tips
A Note to Fans of ColorPerfect: ColorPerfect version 1.10 is due out "soon." Back in August and September I was expecting to be able to release it in October or early November. I mentioned this in e-mails to a few users. However, a few facts and events have conspired to delay it. First, this release has newly developed and very important technology which needed to be thoroughly checked out before release to insure we get it completely right and there will be no need for backtracking in the future. Second, a personal opportunity came up which has enabled a major improvement in my real life and this has required much of my attention for a couple of months. But things are calming down now and the new technology has been checked out. This technology has been developed jointly with my German colleague and we are in the process of finalizing how it is incorporated into ColorPerfect. We expect to release version 1.10 sometime around the end of 2011 or the beginning of 2012. (Note within the note: There have been more unexpected delays but we are still expecting to release 1.10 "soon". Thank you for your patience.)
The new technology deals primarily with handling digital camera RAW images, but in this release it also can be used beneficially in dealing with any digital positive image: scanned images, digital camera jpegs, etc. Extending the new technology to color negative images is also possible, but is more complicated and will be done in a future release. Of course Version 1.10 still will deal with color negatives very nicely, just as ColorPerfect has been doing, and with a few improvements, especially in the control of BPoint.
In the past we have been relatively silent regarding digital cameras, dealing only with the best way we had found to get something usable from Adobe Camera RAW. The silence has been because as we delved farther and farther into the way camera manufacturers, Adobe, and others were dealing with digital camera sensor data it became more and more evident how thoroughly messed up the treatment has become. This was so incredible that we believed that surely we must have missed the point somewhere along the line and we were reluctant to comment on it until we were absolutely certain.
Eventually we sorted out what apparently happened. The treatment of digital camera sensor images rests on a base of color technology from the CIE and the ICC which was and is basically sound. However, right from the start of producing a standard for the treatment of image data from digital sensors the developers actually misidentified the basic nature of the phenomenon they were working with. That misidentification formed the basis for the rest of the treatment. They proceeded to use formal methods and techniques which might have been appropriate if their identification had been correct, but since it was not, these methods and techniques led to disarray. Rather than going back to see if they could find the cause of the confusion, manufacturers, Adobe, and others apparently plunged blindly on, trying everything they could think of to patch their way out of the mess and pouncing on anything which seemed to improve the results. Without exaggeration, the final result can resemble sorcery more than it does science or technology. My favorite concise example of this is where the Adobe standard treatment requires "linear interpolation (of matrices!) using inverse correlated color temperature." There is no scientific basis for any part of that very official-scientific-sounding "requirement." It was grabbed from a hat. There are plenty of other examples, some of which are worse.
One consequence of this prevailing incorrect treatment of digital camera sensor images is the considerable and rather random variation in the quality of the color in digital camera images. In some cases the color quality produced from very expensive cameras is inferior to much less expensive cameras, in some cases there is considerable variation among different models from the same manufacturer, and the quality very often depends upon the nature of the scene itself. As it turns out, I was late in recognizing how extensive and serious the problem was because the standard treatments that are applied to the digital cameras that I personally use happen to behave better than most on the subject matter that is typical in my photography. My German colleague, whose experience with his cameras was less satisfactory, demonstrated that there was a serious systemic problem.
By identifying the true nature of what the developers of the digital camera sensor treatment standard had misidentified, we have developed a method of working with digital camera RAW images that generally produces truer, more natural colors, is easy to use, and also provides a flexibility in playing with the natural colors that is completely unavailable elsewhere. If you have been puzzled by what you have been seeing in digital camera images, give ColorPerfect 1.10 a try when it is released. Depending upon your camera and model, the difference can be amazing. While the method requires RAW camera images to work best, it can also benefit jpegs and scanned images.
Who uses ColorPerfect and ColorNeg? There are users of our plug-ins in 46 states and the District of Columbia in the USA, seven provinces in Canada, six states and the ACT in Australia, and in about 50 other countries around the world. A very informal estimate based on user e-mail and our visits to user websites is that many of our users - approaching half of them - are active professional photographers, quite a few of them large format photographers. But we have at least as many amateurs from beginners to advanced, quite a few who have found themselves with a large or important stack of film negatives or positives to deal with in the digital world. Other users are students, college professors, libraries, digital camera users trying to get better results, and a few people who have developed quite unique applications. We do not advertise at all beyond having these web pages, so most of the users arrive here from word of mouth (or blog) from other users while the rest simply chance upon our spot.
Complete Color Integrity
ColorPerfect is the result of a surprising new discovery for handling an old problem: Several years ago in these web pages I began to explore the matter of color integrity in digital imaging. This came about because like most people, when I started into digital photography I was hypnotized by the marvelous things that are possible – even easy. Then the marvel began to wear off when I started to realize that something was wrong with the color in many digital images. Not all digital images, but in so many of them; not only in snapshots, but in professional photographs, even in the highest quality magazines. Worst of all, I found this disturbing color effect in some of my own photos.
I did have success in finding the main cause of this lack of color integrity but there was a serious problem in that my early work was mathematical and difficult for most people to appreciate. Very recently I have had a real breakthrough that has so greatly expanded my understanding of color integrity that now I can explain it in simple terms and without using mathematics. In fact, after seeing this explanation you may find it difficult to believe that it is not already a core element of digital imaging. Yet, clearly it is not. The tools for maintaining color integrity prove to be very basic and very simple indeed, yet you will not readily find them in Photoshop. As this is being written popular tutorials and common practice both emphasize tools that actually destroy color integrity instead. That is why the problem is so pervasive even in professional work.
I feel very fortunate to have made this breakthrough. It is a real rarity to have several lines of study of a complex topic converge so beautifully into such a simple explanation. Join us on our Complete Color Integrity page to learn the full story − also available as a PDF document (1.25 MB PDF).
Our ColorNeg and ColorPerfect plug-ins for dealing with color negatives in Photoshop have over 230 manufacturer's film type calibrations representing 7 film manufacturers: Kodak, Fuji, Agfa, Konica, Ferrania, Rollei, and China Lucky. Fuji recently introduced new color negative films and Kodak has released new films including a new Ektar. Our colleague in Germany located and assembled all this new film data - doubling our number of built-in films - and as he searched for data on these new films he also turned up a lot of data on older films as well. Two notations are frequently used in the film list: codes in square brackets [ ] are expected to be found on the film edge, while codes in curly brackets { } relate to processing, the date the film was introduced, or other special knowledge about the film. For example, in 2008 Kodak introduced new films (with new characteristics) that retained old names and these can be distinguished by the appended {2008}.
For serious users ColorNeg and ColorPerfect have advanced features for dealing with color balance, dealing with problem negatives, dealing with rolls of similar negatives and there are several ways to calibrate your system for the ultimate results. See our Color Negative FAQ for more information about digitizing color negative images.
ColorPos and the ColorPos Mode of ColorPerfect have extended these same techniques for use in dealing with positive scans and RAW-based images from digital cameras. ColorPos is intended to maintain color integrity while making the initial, largest corrections to a positive image. The concept of FilmType as a means of estimating calibration data for unknown films was introduced in the 1.02 versions of ColorNeg and ColorPos. ColorPerfect has substantially refined the FilmType mechanism. This breakthough makes dealing with old films and problem images very much easier. Our colleague in Germany has prepared a nice illustration of this, available in English. ColorPerfect deals with color balance in several different ways directly involving CC (Color Compensation) filter values, including the CC "ring around" that has been a mainstay of color photograph printers for decades. The CC concept is central to understanding and working with three-primary color photography systems, which, after all, is what you are working with whether you use film or a digital camera. Your images may contain "millions of colors" but every single one of those millions of colors is a mixture of just red, green, and blue.
The road to ColorPerfect started with our tips Color Balancing Color Negatives (now obsolete) and Color Integrity in Digital Images, and the more recent Complete Color Integrity page, using the physics and mathematics discussed in our CFS-243 Color Integrity, CFS-244 Negative to Positive, and CFS-276 Complete Color Integrity PDF documents. The ColorNeg plug-in and the ColorNeg Mode in ColorPerfect invert color negatives correctly (Photoshop and many scanner software packages do this completely incorrectly) and the ColorPos plug-in and the ColorPos Mode of ColorPerfect operate on photographic images from positive sources including scanned slides and digital camera images, providing for calibration and making the initial, often large image adjustments while preserving color integrity, which can be very difficult to do using standard Photoshop approaches.
We have worked with our colleague in Germany to produce German language versions of our plug-ins and manuals: Wir sind eine Kooperation mit einem deutschen Kollegen eingegangen, um eine deutsche Version unserer Plug-ins und Handbücher zu veröffentlichen. Diese sind von nun an auf der Webseite http://www.colorneg.de verfügbar. Dort finden Sie außerdem einige der Materialen dieser Webseite auf deutsch sowie interessante neue Artikel.
For an overview of the what and why of color integrity, color negative inversion and these plug-ins click here.
The downloadable ColorPerfect, ColorNeg and ColorPos demo versions impose a fine gridwork pattern on the images they produce, unobtrusive enough to allow evaluation and in fact we expect there will be some people for whom the trial version is sufficient, gridwork and all. A thirty-day trial version of the GamSat plug-in is available for download. When you get a paid registration key, the same key is valid for ColorPerfect, ColorNeg, ColorPos and GamSat, removing the time limit or the gridwork of the trial versions. Different paid registration keys are required for the Mac and PC packages, however.
Download the ColorPerfect for PC zip file -- this includes the 64-bit version of ColorPerfect -- View ColorPerfect for PC ReadMe -- See ColorPerfect and how it works.
ColorPerfect is the new ColorNeg, and includes ColorPos and GamSat as well. ColorPerfect also has an extensive built-in Help system.
Download the ColorPerfect for Mac zip archive file -- View ColorPerfect for Mac ReadMe -- See ColorPerfect and how it works.
ColorPerfect is the new ColorNeg, and includes ColorPos and GamSat as well. ColorPerfect also has an extensive built-in Help system .
The original ColorNeg, ColorPos, and GamSat plug-ins also remain available for download but please be aware the new version of these plug-ins is ColorPerfect (just above). ColorPerfect has replaced these plug-ins and the old plug-ins will not undergo further development.
Download the ColorNeg for PC zip file -- View ColorNeg for PC ReadMe
The ColorNeg for PC Manual (1.7 MB PDF) has a Descriptive Table of Contents, merely descriptive here but within the PDF manual it is linked to give a guided tour.
Download the ColorNeg for Mac zip archive file -- View ColorNeg for Mac ReadMe
The ColorNeg Manual for Mac (700 KB PDF). This manual has a Descriptive Table of Contents similar to the one above for the PC version.
Download the ColorPos zip file for PC -- View ColorPos ReadMe
The ColorPos Manual (1.6 MB PDF) has a Descriptive Table of Contents, merely descriptive here but within the PDF manual it is linked to give a guided tour.
Download the ColorPos for Mac zip archive file -- View ColorPos for Mac ReadMe
The ColorNeg for Mac Manual is not ready yet.
Download the GamSat zip file for PC -- View GamSat ReadMe -- View GamSat for PC Manual (800 KB PDF).
Download the GamSat zip file for Mac -- View GamSat ReadMe -- View GamSat for Mac Manual (800 KB PDF).
Purchase ColorPerfect, ColorNeg, ColorPos and GamSat for PC from a secure website. When purchasing "ColorNeg family for PC" from our site which provides secure data entry, you will receive a Key via e-mail which will remove the time limit or gridwork from the demo versions downloaded from this site. This same registration Key is valid for the PC versions of ColorPerfect, ColorNeg, ColorPos and GamSat, including the 64-bit version of ColorPerfect.
Purchase ColorPerfect, ColorNeg, ColorPos and GamSat for Mac from a secure website. When purchasing "ColorNeg family for Mac" from our site which provides secure data entry, you will receive a Key via e-mail which will remove the time limit or gridwork from the demo versions downloaded from this site. This same registration Key is valid for the Mac versions of ColorPerfect, ColorNeg, ColorPos and GamSat.
Users confirm that ColorPerfect,ColorNeg and ColorPos work very well indeed when given a properly scanned negative or positive but that figuring out how to make a scanner deliver a good, clean 16-bit linear scan - helpful for positives but actually necessary for the best results with negatives - can be quite tricky to do. It appears that scanner software writers often feel it necessary to gild the lily, intentionally distorting color in hopes of impressing the user. Others misleadingly label settings or controls for reasons known only to themselves. Some users have volunteered helpful instructions on how to deal with this for various scanners and systems and we have a web page devoted to Getting a Good Linear 16-bit Scan. Our German colleague has recently set up an even better page on linear scanning in an English language version! Anyone having difficulty getting ColorPerfect, ColorNeg and ColorPos to perform well should visit these pages.
Dialog Size: The preview image for ColorPerfect, ColorPos and ColorNeg is designed to fit within the constraints of Photoshop running on a system with a 1024 x 768 display. Users running higher resolutions expressed a desire for a resizeable dialog box so the preview image could be larger, or an arrangement where the changes are shown in the original image window. Photoshop prohibits the latter for third-party plug-ins and makes the former either impossible or very difficult to achieve reliably. To meet this need we have a Plug-In Sizes page where users can download a set of the three plug-ins (ColorNeg, ColorPos, and GamSat) in eight different sizes of dialog or a zip archive of the ColorPerfect plug in in sixteen dialog sizes including wide screen versions. New users need to install and try the standard downloads above before trying to install one of larger dialog versions.
Photoshop Elements: These plug-ins will work with Photoshop Elements and have been tested with PC versions 3 through 8. They may work with other versions and with Mac versions but we have not tested them. Since Photoshop Elements is often sold as part of a package with a scanner, a digital camera, or a digitizer, this can be an inexpensive alternative for persons who do not already own a copy of Photoshop. On the downside, users should be aware that setting up to work with selections is not as convenient in Photoshop Elements as in full Photoshop. On the upside, the plug-ins provide Photoshop Elements with a lot of 16-bit/channel functionality that it does not have otherwise.
L*: Some new standards have started using L* rather than a gamma value (Gamma C in our nomenclature) to "gamma correct" images for storage in image files. L* is a formula representing the human eye's response to light and has been used in standards for many years. While it is not hard to show that the claimed advantages of using L* in place of Gamma C are really vapor, it is also true that there is no harm in using L* in this way. So, we have provided this capability in the plug-ins. We note that the same new standards which use L* also use the D50 illuminant rather than D65 and this we believe to be a long overdue major improvement.
We have some comments about Photoshop RAW image input and how to work around it to produce properly calibrated images, a novel method of sharpening photographic images, comments on precision and accuracy in digital photography, several answers to "Where are the color density filters?", a novel perspective on routine color balancing, a strange but effective way to rough color balance difficult cases, a method for coloring B&W photos, and avoiding loss of detail. There is a tip on color balancing color negatives that fully explains what is involved and why and another tip for B&W photographers who want to achieve an accurate tonal scale.
These tips are original with us and are not likely to be found elsewhere. You are welcome to use these tips in articles, courses, or books, but please credit C F Systems and www.c-f-systems.com when
you do. E-mail us (cfs.cfs@c-f-systems.com) if you wish. Please see NOTICE in the paragraph below.
It may be inspiring to know that these novel tips were developed by a member of the older generation. Having made my first color print at age fifteen, I have over fifty years experience in printing color photographs as a hobby. Adding to this is more than forty-five years experience dealing with computers, mathematics, and numerical methods. This gave me a unique perspective when I started using Photoshop several years ago. The tips on this page will mostly avoid the mathematics, to make them useful to more people. If you are curious about the origin of a tip and you indicate your level of understanding in mathematics when you e-mail us (cfs.cfs@c-f-systems.com) , we will try to respond accordingly. We try to respond to all legitimate e-mails that we receive. If you do not get a response, please see the NOTICE on our Privacy Policy Page.
A
Better Method of Sharpening Pictures in Photoshop
The Simply Amazing Complete Color Integrity
A 16-Bits/Channel Highlight Detail Secret
Color Integrity in Digital Images
Color Balance, White Balance, Calibration, and Color Temperature
How to Work Around Photoshop RAW Image Input to get Color Integrity
Color Negative FAQ
Color Density Filters in Photoshop
Routine Color Balancing?
Color Balancing Difficult Cases
Color Balancing Color Negatives
Getting a Proper Tonal Scale in Black and White Photography
Dunthorn Calibration - Check and fix color integrity of image entry systems
Matching Colors in Photoshop
Preventing Banding and Stair-Step in Photoshop Images
Accuracy and Precision in Digital Photography
Coloring B&W Photos
Brightness, Contrast and Loss of Detail
Silver-Based Gamma, Video Gamma and Levels
Processing Old Color Films
Although it has nothing to do with Photoshop, our monograph on the problem of highlight and shadow detail in digital photography may also be of interest. Go to Highlight/Shadow Page
As used in the context of this page, "Adobe" and "Photoshop" are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
