B&W looks not neutral in PL6 but exported images are

Hello friends,

Did someone noticed that the black and white images in PL6 look colder than in other programs like PS or C1? The RGB numbers are not identical like 202/202/202 they have different values like 202/200/203.
I took a screenshot and increased the saturation in PS extremly. I could see only the big image in the big window is effekted, the small one on the left side not. The B&W images have a purple tint.
The exported TIFF images look fine, there is not a color problem. But they look different to the not exported images in PL6.

Hi @Wosse

how did you convert to B&W? By setting saturation and vibrancy to 0? That way I can’t reproduce it on my Mac:

But I can see the purple tint in your image. Perhaps a Fuji thingy? If you’re willing to share a RAF file, I could try it on my machines (Mac and Windows)?

Thank you for your test. I converted it just by setting the film simulation to Fuji/Acros and later I set the saturation to -100 too. But it is the same.

Here is a download link for my Fuji RAW file:

https://daten-transport.de/?id=x7XNH3uTewDV

Ah, I can’t fully test that as I don’t have FilmPack (yet)…

But just desaturating your image looks fine on my machine. Do you also see the purple tint without setting the film simulation?

I just noticed I have that tint even if I open a downloaded JPG file from dpreview. I downloaded the first sample of the Leica Q2 Monochrom Camera (it is a picture of a cat).

I set the color space of my monitor to sRGB but it is the same. What is wrong? Why is the small picture in the left side not effected?

I noticed PL6 can’t read out the right color profil of the downloades sRGB JPG.

Does somebody use a Mac mini M1 too?

Got an M1 MBA and could test later today. Can you also add the .dop file to your share please?

Here is the dop file. https://daten-transport.de/?id=wJHtE7cxpJ2y

I created a new TIFF image in PS and filled it with the same color (RGB 200/200/200 Adobe RGB). I opened it in PL6 with the same color problem. Here is the TIFF file:

https://daten-transport.de/?id=GfWc8k5qYX8N

It is the same problem if I use my old Photolab 4 version on the same Mac Mini M1.

There are a few things that you appear to have done

  1. You have used the Colour Wheel to desaturate…

    Colour Wheel

    … this is totally unnecessary for the FilmPack preset you have selected.

  2. You have chosen the Fuji Acros Digital Film rendering…

    Rendering

    I tend to use the more specialised Acros 100 film from the B&W films category…

    Capture d’écran 2022-10-21 à 11.55.24

    But I also notice that the category is labelled as “Digitalfilme - DxO FilmPack 6 Ess…”, which would seem to indicate that you have an “essentials” version of either PL6 or FP6. And yet the selected rendering contains “Elite”

    Rendering

    Have you created a custom preset or something, or is this just a localisation glitch fro DxO?

  3. Even before you posted your DOP file, I had noticed from the history listing that you are using Soft Proofing…

History

Once I got the DOP file I could see that you had tried to use the “EPSON Standard RGB - Gamma 1.8” profile.

Capture d’écran 2022-10-21 à 12.09.13

On my screen, which is an Apple P3 Display, the RGB values are normal and equal.

It is my suggestion that using soft proofing with this profile may have had an affect on what you see in the main image, since this is a preview of how the image would look on a screen calibrated to this profile.

The whole soft proofing thing seems to be very poorly documented and there have been a couple of lively discussions here as to whether it is even necessary for monitor proofing. It is also incomplete, awaiting a future update to include paper matching.

You might like to try changing the profile to something like sRGB, which is the norm for exporting for web posting and see if that makes any difference?

What monitor are you using?

Thanx for your answer. I use a trial version of PL6 elite with trial version of FP6 elite and I have the same problem with PL4 elite.
I my screenshot I do not use a softproof. I tested just before if I can see a difference.

I used the desaturation in the color wheel just additional to see if there is something different.
My monitor is a LG 880P. It is hardware calibrated.
I do not use a preset. Please notice the color in the small image on the left side is ok.

I now test it with an image in one color (aRGB 200/200/200) created in PS. And it is the same. And it is the same in PL4.

Now I started my old Windows 10 computer with the old PL4 version. Everthing is fine. There is no color problem in Windows 10. I used the same monitor for Windows as for Mac Mini M1.

The thing that irritates me in this case is, that output is different from preview, no matter if SP is used or not. While minor shifts of saturated colours occurr, it should not happen with something as fundamental as B&W, where R=G=B. This issue looks like display and export exit the processing highway in different places…

Well, according to the DOP file you posted the soft proofing was active ,and set to the profile I quoted.

I notice that you have now changed the DOP file on the file server and it is wrongly named.

Renaming it, deleting the PL6 database and looking at the image with the new DOP shows that you have chosen a colour positive film and then desaturated the image using the saturation slider. This is not something one would normally do.

I have just seen @platypus post and concur that what you are seeing is not “normal”.

I am certainly not seeing differences in RGB values, no matter how I achieve a B&W image.

Dear Joanna,

Please forget all settings for the raw file. I have the same problem with a simple TIF file in one color.

https://daten-transport.de/?id=GfWc8k5qYX8N

I opend this file in PL6 and PL4 with my Mac Mini M1 and the color is not grey (except in the small picture on the left side).

If I open it in PL4 with my old Win10 computer (same monitor) it is grey.

So what goes wrong?

You can see right under the histogram that the small soft proof icon is not swiched on.

If I export the TIF file with the originaly RGB 200/200/200 numbers as a TIF file again and open it in PS, it has the RGB numbers 200/200/200 again. So just displaying in PL6/PL4 on my Mac Mini M1 is wrong. And only in the big window, not in the small one on the left side.

The RGB numbers in PL6/PL4 Mac Mini M1 are 201/199/202. Preset deactivated.

So it is not only a black and white problem. It is an all color problem.