I’ve just stumbled across some strange behaviour of the colour picker tool (HSL) - and am wondering if I’m doing something wrong.
I took a photo of a colour chart with a Fuji X-S20 (using the film simulation ‘Astia’). In PL8, I have now set the OOC JPEG as the reference image and am displaying the RAW image next to it. The colour rendering is set to ‘Generic Rendering’ and the colour profile to ‘Out of camera: ASTIA’. (This profile is made by DXO with the help of Fujifilm to match the original film simulation)
The result: the colours and luminance of both images differ significantly from each other, which is a bit disappointing.
But: As soon as I click on the colour picker tool without changing any colour values in the HSL palette (or even clicking on anything at all), Photolab (8.11) refreshes the display of the reference image (in this case the OOC JPEG) – and both images look almost identical in terms of colour and luminance.
Have you encountered this phenomenon before, too? Is this how it’s supposed to be?
If you want to try for yourself, here you find the JPEG and the RAF files:
The result: the colours and luminance of both images differ significantly from each other, which is a bit disappointing.
I’d never use a JPEG as reference.
But: As soon as I click on the colour picker tool without changing any colour values in the HSL palette (or even clicking on anything at all), Photolab (8.11) refreshes the display of the reference image (in this case the OOC JPEG) – and both images look almost identical in terms of colour and luminance.
Best to see when you are in split compare mode (watching the RAW file and have the JPEG as reference file activated).
Now you click on the picker of the Raw White Balance / the HSL tool without further actions, the “R” disappears and instead of your referenced JPEG you see the unaltered version of your raw file.
→ to countercheck adjust WB or HSL temporarily
Click again on the picker and you are back to the comparison with the referenced file.
Hi @Wolfgang, thanks a lot. That explains the behavior I’ve encountered. Unfortunately it slows me down when editing and makes it harder to achieve what I’m looking for.
I should also have paid attention to the “compare” button in the top tool bar for the selection what to compare the raw file with. But no matter what I select, the moment I select the colour picker tool the compare mode always falls back to “all corrections but HSL”. Very unfortunate.
Is there a setting you are aware of to change this behavior?
I’m still on PL8: There is no “R” displayed in the “Customize” module. I do see the “R” for the referenced image in the image browser only. Is it displayed in PL9 while editing, too?
Well, you can change it, but it is the correct default.
The moment you select the picker you leave the ‘normal’ compare mode and you switch to the HSL (or WB) mode. You can’t have both at the same time.
As proposed, set your preview to the split mode to better visualize.
At the left side (where you have seen the referenced JPEG before you switched the presentation HSL / WB), you see the unaltered raw file.
At the right side you see the raw file with the changes you just made in the HSL / WB tool.
Click & hold Compare and it falls back to “All corrections except HSL/WB” = the unaltered raw file (like on the left side).
I’m still on PL8: There is no “R” displayed in the “Customize” module. I do see the “R” for the referenced image in the image browser only. Is it displayed in PL9 while editing, too?
In PL 8 / 9 Customize module you can see the “R” indicator in the Filmstrip below the preview (in Windows: Ctrl + F9), provided the image browser is not undocked (Ctrl + U).
You are right: The “R” is displayed in the filmstrip, which I don’t have displayed in “Customize” mode as it eats into the screen estate (I don’t have a second monitor available). But as the referenced image is always displayed on the left hand side I can manage without the “R” displayed.
That is a design decision by DXO I simply don’t like. When I compare two images (split view, set to “reference image”) I’d like to compare two images under all circumsdances. No matter which tool I have selected. That PL always replaces the referenced image on the left hand side with the currently edited (but without HSL adjustments) defeats the purpose of a comparision. Unfortunately there seems to be no option to force PL to stick to the referenced image no matter what.
