Adobe Photoshop Plug-Ins Page
The ColorNeg family of Photoshop plug-ins is available for both PC and Mac.
Version 1.02c of ColorNeg doubles the number of built-in film types from 115 to over 230, including new 2007 and 2008 films from Kodak and Fuji. The release of Version 1.02 of ColorNeg and ColorPos has introduced a major breakthrough in handling color in old films and problem photographic images and a progression of major improvements in the handling of normal films and digital camera images as well. Version 1.02a introduced scrolling and direct entry of CC (Color Compensation) filters for fine-tuning color balance. Version 1.02a of GamSat introduced a new refinement in color accuracy which we call Ambiance and GamSat now also will work as a Photoshop CS3 Smart Filter. Version 1.02b of all three plug-ins allows the use of L* in place of Gamma C. We also have a selection of dialog sizes for each plug-in to better accommodate larger displays. And with version 1.02b, ColorPos has improved the handling of extremes in scrolling.
The PC-based plug-ins work with Photoshop 6, Photoshop 7, Photoshop CS, Photoshop CS2, Photoshop CS3, Photoshop 3, 4, 5, and 6. The Mac versions of ColorNeg, ColorPos and GamSat work natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs, with Photoshop versions 7 through CS3. The ColorNeg Mac Manual (700 KB PDF) is available and there is a Notes file for the Mac release. The ColorPos Mac manual is still not ready, but there is a Notes file. The GamSat Mac Manual (800 KB PDF) is available and there is a Notes file for the Mac release.
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We have 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).
For the past several months I have told some of you that this would appear on the web site "soon." I apologize that it has taken this long. The new concepts are so fundamental that they touch upon many areas of digital imaging in significant ways and it has taken a long time to tie the loose ends satisfactorily.
Our ColorNeg plug-in for dealing with color negatives in Photoshop is now in version 1.02c. In version 1.02c we have doubled the number of manufacturer's film types from 115 to over 230, and increased to 7 manufacturers: Kodak, Fuji, Agfa, Konica, Ferrania, Rollei, and China Lucky. To make this huge list less overwhelming we have a technique for making those few films that you use easily accessible. 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 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 new 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 has 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 is also in Version 1.02c and is intended to maintain color integrity while making the initial, largest corrections to a positive image, such as a scanned image of a color slide or a print, or an image from a digital camera. ColorPos is very similar to ColorNeg in its layout and functionality. The 1.01 versions of ColorNeg and ColorPos added an improved Undo and easier handling of B&W negatives. Version 1.02 introduced a breakthough method that 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. Version 1.02a introduced the ability to adjust color balance by directly scrolling CC (Color Compensation) filter values or even by typing in CC filter values. The CC concept is central to understanding 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. Version 1.02c has improved the initial guess that ColorPos makes at color balance and has made it easier to adjust this initial guess. (See notes regarding current versions of ColorNeg and ColorPos.)
GamSat is now in Version 1.02b and is intended to adjust the saturation, gamma, hue, shadow, and highlight of an image while maintaining color integrity as much as is possible. Version 1.02 is a significant improvement over previous versions of GamSat. In addition to being about five times faster than previous versions for most adjustments, we have added the ability to independently adjust both sides of full feathered selections, a complete Undo facility, and several other new features. Recently our colleague in Germany has done some interesting work showing the difference between the way GamSat handles saturation and hue and the way those adjustments are normally made using Photoshop tools. This work led to our collaborating on the concept of Ambiance, which gives even greater color accuracy in GamSat. GamSat version 1.02a introduced Ambiance and also is our first plug-in to fully implement the Photoshop CS3 Smart Filters concept.
This is a further extension of a system of Photoshop plug-ins that compliment our tips Color Balancing Color Negatives and Color Integrity in Digital Images, using the physics and mathematics discussed in our CFS-243 Color Integrity and CFS-244 Negative to Positive PDF documents. The ColorNeg plug-in inverts color negatives correctly (Photoshop and many scanner software packages do this completely incorrectly) and the ColorPos plug-in operates on photographic images from positive sources including scanned slides and digital camera images, making the initial, often large image adjustments while preserving color integrity; those major changes where the errors introduced by standard Photoshop adjustments cause the most distortion of color. We have very enthusiastic users of our plug-ins.
The downloadable 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 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 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).
Users confirm that 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 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 now have a web page devoted to Getting a Good Linear 16-bit Scan. Anyone having difficulty getting ColorNeg and ColorPos to perform well should visit this page.
Purchase 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 ColorNeg, ColorPos and GamSat.
Purchase 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. As well as ColorNeg for Mac, this same registration Key is valid for the Mac version of ColorPos and the Mac Version of GamSat.
Version Notes: The current download version for both ColorNeg and ColorPos is 1.02c. This version of ColorNeg and ColorPos allows the user to immediately see the results of changing the initialization H% and S% values. Two bugs were fixed in the handling of selections, one dealing with a problem where the wrong blackpoint value was sometimes used and the other dealing with a problem where the "new feather" method sometimes allowed the image to oversaturate. Version 1.02c doubles the number of film types built into ColorNeg from 115 to over 230. In ColorPos 1.02c the initial guess at color balance was improved to deal with saturation that so often occurs in digital cameras and the limit placed on initial color correction was made user adjustable. In addition, top level pushbutton control was added for changing from linear to gamma-adjusted input image mode. Version 1.02b of ColorPos and ColorNeg altered the scrolling of shadows so that the selected color increases as the thumb button is moved upward and fixed some minor problems in scrolling to extreme values. Version 1.02b of ColorPos had a major change in the scrolling of lightness, greatly improving the response at both extreme ends of scrolling. Version 1.02a introduced the ability to adjust color balance by directly scrolling CC (Color Compensation) filter values or even by typing in CC filter values, and also introduces an improved processing of feathered areas between selections. The Auto Color feature in ColorPos has been changed to be more consistent with the default initial color balance. The Mac version of ColorNeg had a serious bug in the handling of film types and film files, where some code was left out in adapting the PC version to the Mac. The Mac version of ColorPos had a serious bug relating to the adjustment of Shadow, also a problem in adapting the PC version to the Mac, although the default shadow setting behaved properly. Version 1.02a also fixed a bug in both ColorPos and ColorNeg where the color letter was left off the CC display. In version 1.02 we made what we expected to be a minor improvement in the little-used FilmData scrollbar control. To our surprise, this proved to be a major improvement - a real breakthrough in dealing with old films and films with other color problems. We also added the ability to recognize 8-bits/channel images and issue instructions for dealing with them. For use with ColorNeg we have added a new plug-in, Scantique, intended to help users through some of the problems they encounter in dealing with scanners. Finally, in 1.02 we fixed a couple of bugs that were so obscure we doubt they bothered anyone and we think we more or less fixed the About boxes in the Mac versions. In the Mac ColorNeg version 1.01c the default initial value of "Gamma C" has been changed to 2.2 to better agree with typical Mac Photoshop usage - this change is so trivial the version is designated 1.01c2. The real changes are in the manual. Current users are advised to download the revised manual (PC users as well as Mac) and follow up on item 4 in the new notes file or read-me. We are aware that the "About" box in some Mac plug-in versions is odd. This will be fixed when we get an Intel Mac for our own testing. The primary changes in the PC 1.01c versions have been to maximize code compatibility between the PC and Mac versions and to provide for the possibility of languages other than English. There is one fix involving the fine control of the scrollbar which will be important to most users and ColorPos adds a button which allows starting with no CC correction. In Version 1.01b of both ColorNeg and ColorPos there were also some cosmetic changes, but the real reason for the release was to fix a bug in saving CC files that originated in version 1.01a. In Version 1.01a of both ColorNeg and ColorPos the Undo function was completely revised to work more as would be expected and the handling of B&W (grayscale) has been made easier to do. ColorNeg expanded the list of built-in film types from around 80 to around 115 including 4 films of Ferrania. The sheer number of choices has started to make selecting a film more annoying than it should be and to aid against this we included a "MyFilms" list, where the user can save the most frequently used films. ColorPos fixed a particularly embarrassing bug, whereby the CC value for one of the color channels (R, G, B) would be displayed as zero rather than its correct value. We do not know how or when that bug crept in or how it escaped our attention. Version 1.00d removed possible confusion over which user grayscale is in use in Known calibrations. Version 1.00c of ColorNeg corrected a problem with repeating (Control-F) and scripting and further improved handling of highlight and shadow in selections. ColorPos version 1.00c corrected a problem with highlighting, a problem with extreme cases, and problems with the scrollbar control present in the earlier releases. The 1.00c versions of ColorPos and ColorNeg also corrected a problem in dealing with selections that resulted from my tacitly assuming something very logical which turned out not to be true.
The current download version of GamSat is 1.02b. Version 1.02b introduces the ability to use L* in place of Gamma C, speeded up the proxy view in all three plug-ins, and also makes available larger dialogs for different displays. Version 1.02a introduced the concept of Ambiance, which gives even greater color accuracy in GamSat. That version also made GamSat our first plug-in fully compatible with Photoshop CS3 Smart Filters. (We are evaluating how [and whether] to make ColorNeg and ColorPos compatible with Smart Filters, as we find Adobe's implementation of this concept to be weak.)
Dialog Size: The preview image for 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 have 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 all three plug-ins (ColorNeg, ColorPos, and GamSat) in eight different sizes of dialog. 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, 4, 5, and 6. 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.
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