Color conversion

[Jerry Smith]

You are correct. It gets read as sRGB by most computers, whatever. The problem is that it looks way too dark on most monitors. I need to somehow invert it. If you look at hollywoodreporter.com, you will see that their logo is a nice red. But my monitor, the one where this .mov was created, has hollywoodreporter.com’s logo looking very orange! I don’t need anything to be exact as this is very cartoonish. But I do need to somehow invert what I have.

[Jerry Smith]

Dave? Where’d you go?

Anybody?

[Walter Soyka]

[Jerry Smith] “I’ve got a .mov that is an animation, Miilions of Colors+ (Straight) and that was created without a working color space. It looks very good on my monitor. But the monitor has a screwy color profile. How do I convert it to sRGB? We have two color profiles in play: MonitorProfileI, and sRGB”

Since you’re not using Ae’s built-in color management system, you must do your color management manually.

Add the Color Profile Converter effect to your comp. Set the Input Profile to “MonitorProfileI” and set the Output Profile to “sRGB IEC61966-2.1.” This should look a bit messed up now until you correct your monitor profile.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Jerry Smith]

Hey Walter,

Thanks for showing up. I was wondering if you were around.

OK, I will try what you suggest and report back within the hour.

In the meantime, I wanted to put on the table two issues/questions:

1) In AE 2014, my .movs are sRGB and I can interpret them with all the different profiles, but nothing changes!

2) In AE 2015, my .movs are HDTV (Rec79) and I can’t even interpret them.

OK, off to try the effect!

[Jerry Smith]

Walter,

You are the only thing between me an insanity. Having read various color threads on the internets, I know I am not alone!

OK, let me just back up for a moment. MonitorProfileI on my monitor is where all my stuff looks right.

But, MonitorProfile is screwy. First of all, the reds come out too orange. So on hollywoodreporter.com, the logo looks too orange.

But that’s not even the worst of it. When I look at my display profiles, there are a whole bunch. And the sRGB looks darker but still too orange. So now I don’t even know how to sail towards sRGB.

I need to somehow get my stuff to look right on most computers. I’m pretty sure that if I can tame the red, the rest will follow.

I have the calibration stuff. I calibrated last year. But even if I calibrated, how would we proceed? Do you see a path out?

Here’s the BIG problem. There are MANY projects/.movs.

I may call you in tears soon.

Thanks!

[Tero Ahlfors]

Get an I/O device and a reference monitor. Then calibrate the monitor to a standard like rec709. Whatever you see on the reference monitor will be in rec709 and you don’t have to deal with what the OS or the GPU is probably doing to the colours under the hood.

There are different systems but I use Lightspace: https://www.lightillusion.com/lut_calibration_idiots_guide.html

[Jerry Smith]

Thanks Tero,

You’ve helped me in the past and I very much appreciate it.

At this point though, I want to hear what Walter recommends.

Too many cooks could really get in the way.

This is a very big deal for me. I hope you understand.

Thanks!

[Walter Soyka]

Tero’s advice is sound, especially if you’re working with video sources. If you’re working with imagery from a mix of color spaces (i.e., some sRGB, some Adobe RGB, etc.), then you would need to use color management in addition to the reference video monitoring.

If you are going to fix this problem in Ae without a reference monitor and I/O card, then you need an accurate profile of your monitor to use with Ae’s color management system. If there is something weird with your monitor, you will not be able to judge your work without color management.

I take it that using the Color Profile Converter as I recommended above did not work? Remember, you may need to turn off the profile now in the OS or on the monitor. If you’ve done that and the CPC effect didn’t work, that indicates to me that the previous profile you were using did not actually describe the monitor. If that’s the case, Job #1 is getting to a display that you can trust. Then we can work on adjusting the images you’ve made to be correct.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Jerry Smith]

The CPC effect was slight and seemed to be in the wrong direction. I tried a bunch of different things.

How do I turn off a profile in the OS? It seems I’m forced to choose some profile. Mac OS Sierra.

[Walter Soyka]

What monitor are you using? Is it wide-gamut? Can you render and post a frame or two that looks right on your monitor (but wrong elsewhere)?

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]