Color desaturated

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Frederick Meyer
Posts: 8
Joined: 09.06.2019 00:14

Color desaturated

Post by Frederick Meyer »

Color is de-saturated and what is problematic is that simply sliding the saturation up in Photoshop isn't an answer, the color and tone is still off in a way that I haven't been able to correct using color balance or selective color etc. Color is fine Raw to DNG. But when I stack from Tiffs the problem arises. I'm using Phase One IQ3 100 Trichromatic and IQ4 150. There's no Raw to DNG support for the 150 and the RAW to DNG in the Trichro ditches the lens cast correction, so I'd really like to get the Tiff stacks working. My Helicon software is up to date. I wonder what's going on. I'm pretty new to stacking, by the way.


Bill
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Catherine
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Joined: 29.04.2019 22:38

Re: Color desaturated

Post by Catherine »

How do you get those TIFF files? Do they have correct color? Do I understand correctly that Helicon Focus alters the colors of the resulting image compared to the original TIFF files?
Does the result looks the same as the source images in Helicon Focus itself, or is the difference visible there already? In the latter case a screenshot would be nice, although we will probably need a couple of these source TIFF images eventually so that we could study them.
Frederick Meyer
Posts: 8
Joined: 09.06.2019 00:14

Re: Color desaturated

Post by Frederick Meyer »

Hi Catherine,

I can make the TIFF files either by using the Helicon plug-in with Capture One or by processing them in Capture One. When I process them with Capture One I can open the TIFFs in Photoshop and see that the color is good. But when I upload those same TIFFs to Helicon and render using method "A" and save the file as a TIFF, when I open it in Photoshop it is desaturated. This is what I have done just now with some files from the Phase One IQ4 150.

–– Bill
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Catherine
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Re: Color desaturated

Post by Catherine »

I tested if the color profile is saved properly to a TIFF file after rendering with method A, and found no problem there. Can you send us one of those source TIFF files that, after processing in Helicon Focus and saving, look de-saturated? You can mail it to heliconsoft@gmail.com or just upload to our cloud storage via this link: https://office.heliconsoft.com/cloud/index.php/s/xC8gsi8a2L8Zawn
But in the latter case, please make sure to use a long name for the file so that it's distinct from what other people may upload there.
Frederick Meyer
Posts: 8
Joined: 09.06.2019 00:14

Re: Color desaturated

Post by Frederick Meyer »

Catherine,

Hi, thanks. What I've done today is to re-install Helicon and it seems to work nicely now and I don't see a problem when I open the TIFF in Photoshop. But I'll try uploading one of the dark files so you can see what it was doing.

–– Bill
Frederick Meyer
Posts: 8
Joined: 09.06.2019 00:14

Re: Color desaturated

Post by Frederick Meyer »

I've uploaded a TIFF titled "Last Tower Stack" to https://office.heliconsoft.com/cloud/index.php/s/xC8gsi8a2L8Zawn
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Catherine
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Re: Color desaturated

Post by Catherine »

Thanks. I couldn't reproduce the problem on Windows, and I assume you've uploaded one of the original source files. If this is the resulting image saved by Helicon Focus, it won't help. But you no longer can reproduce the problem yourself, is that right?
Infrared8300
Posts: 1
Joined: 15.04.2021 00:47

Re: Color desaturated

Post by Infrared8300 »

Realize this is an old thread, but it's the first thing that I noticed when I tried Helicon Focus for the first time.

Created a 14-photo stack taken at f4, and exported all from Capture One as 16-bit .TIFFs
Created a single photo taken at f11 as a reference
Processed the stack the in the other focus stacking application: Pyramid method was a dud; Depth Map method was better ... but colors were desaturated & it was hazy (could have used PhotoLab's ClearView to fix)
Downloaded & installed Helicon Focus
Processed the stack again, using all 3 methods. None were bad, but Depth Map had an edge. As the other application, colors were desaturated, but not to the same degree ... but still unacceptable.
Using Helicon Focus again, exported the rendered photo as a .TIFF, instead of a .JPG.
Imported the .TIFF back into Capture One, using my normal preset (Landscape 2)
Set the exposure to zero & exported it a .JPG

Voila! The 14-photo shot that was stacked w. Helicon Focus, has the same rich color as my f11 photo of the same subject, but much sharper.

No delusions that the above will work every time, but is the best results that that ever got from focus stacking,

Niels
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