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Phocus + Eizo CG monitor calibration issue

bdp

Member
Bit of a long shot here that anyone can help, but I have noticed some clipping to black of the very dark tones in Phocus recently. Don't know when exactly it started happening, but it seems anything below about 10,10,10 RGB will clip to black, making previews look more contrasty than the exported tiff when opened in Photoshop. This is at any magnification. Quite obvious side by side, with the exported image open in Photoshop next to the preview in Phocus.

So it looks like I have a monitor profiling issue. The monitor is an Eizo CG243W, which uses a hardware calibration using a Colormunki device. Even though the calibration is hardware, i.e. it produces LUTs in the monitor as opposed to translating colours through software (as far as I understand), the Eizo calibration software also produces an icc file in my profiles folder, which Phocus seems to use. I know this because I trashed it and the colours went haywire in Phocus. So I re-profiled, and a new icc file was created, but the very dark tones are still clipped in Phocus.

Does anyone else see this issue? Why does Phocus seem to use the software icc file but Photoshop doesn't, allowing the monitor's hardware profile to be used? Am I not understanding it properly? Is it a bug, with either Phocus, the Eizo software or somewhere else?

Hardware is a 2009 Mac Pro, running OS X 10.8, using Phocus 2.8.

Any help appreciated.
Thanks,
Ben
 
Bumping this question. I have recently started having this issue.

Hardware is 2015 Mac Pro trash can running OS X 10.11.1

When I calibrate the monitor through iOne Display, unchecking hardware calibration, it works fine, but obviously I'd rather use ColorNavigator and the hardware calibration.

Thoughts?

Bit of a long shot here that anyone can help, but I have noticed some clipping to black of the very dark tones in Phocus recently. Don't know when exactly it started happening, but it seems anything below about 10,10,10 RGB will clip to black, making previews look more contrasty than the exported tiff when opened in Photoshop. This is at any magnification. Quite obvious side by side, with the exported image open in Photoshop next to the preview in Phocus.

So it looks like I have a monitor profiling issue. The monitor is an Eizo CG243W, which uses a hardware calibration using a Colormunki device. Even though the calibration is hardware, i.e. it produces LUTs in the monitor as opposed to translating colours through software (as far as I understand), the Eizo calibration software also produces an icc file in my profiles folder, which Phocus seems to use. I know this because I trashed it and the colours went haywire in Phocus. So I re-profiled, and a new icc file was created, but the very dark tones are still clipped in Phocus.

Does anyone else see this issue? Why does Phocus seem to use the software icc file but Photoshop doesn't, allowing the monitor's hardware profile to be used? Am I not understanding it properly? Is it a bug, with either Phocus, the Eizo software or somewhere else?

Hardware is a 2009 Mac Pro, running OS X 10.8, using Phocus 2.8.

Any help appreciated.
Thanks,
Ben
 

bdp

Member
Hi,

This problem resolved itself for me a long time ago. I assume either a OS update, or a Phocus update, or a Colornavigator update fixed it. It was hard to know who to report the bug to at the time, so not sure who you could contact for support. I'm concerned to hear it's back.... Hasn't affected me yet afaik. Keep us updated if you discover a solution.

Have you tried calibrating the monitor through Phocus? Doesn't it have some sort of Eizo calibration option in the preferences if an Eizo monitor is connected?

Ben
 

Isaksson

New member
Hi,

I have the exact same problem. Using a Mac Pro 2013 with OSX 10.11.2 and Phocus 9.2.2 and a Eizo Color Edge CG243W.

The preview in Phocus is way too contrasty and clips the shadows compared to the exported tiff that I open in PS CC2015. This only happens when I look at Phocus on the hardware calibrated CG243. When drawing both PS and Phocus over to another cheaper monitor (Eizo Flexscan) it looks the same. It also looks the same in both programs when comparing it on my laptop (macbook Pro Retina).
So, I guess you are right about how it can´t read the right profile from the Eizo CG monitor.

I got an answer from Hasselblad here in Sweden and they told me Phocus renders the previews with something called Apple Core Image Service, which Photoshop does´t. They are waiting for Apple to update the OSX to 10.11.3 which hopefully adress the issue with Apple Core Image Service. So I guess we´ll just have to wait for that and hope they will solve the problem as soon as possible.

Stefan
 

Attachments

bdp

Member
I'm remember a workaround I used to get by when I had this problem, maybe it still works.

Basically I unchecked an option in the advanced settings of Colornavigator that mentioned something like 'Reflect black point in profile'. I can't quite remember where it is, but will have a look when I get into my studio today.

Ben
 

bdp

Member
OK, found it. Try this:

When creating a new profile, there is the option to Customize Profile (see screen shot)

Once you click there you can uncheck the option 'Reflect black level in tone curve'.

Once you create a profile like this Phocus may match the correct black level of the hardware profile more closely. Let me know your results.

Ben
 

Attachments

Isaksson

New member
Hi Ben,

Well I tried and it seems to work. Thanks!:D
It still feels like an unofficial workaround though and I´m not really sure what it does. Most photographers out there will probably not do this so I hope it will be an update soon.
//Stefan
 

bdp

Member
Hi Stefan,

That's great. I'm not sure why it works either, but the problem will probably go away when either the OS or Phocus or Colornavigator gets updated.

Ben
 
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