Image Viewer display / exported files not the same

[Whiskey]

Hi All!

I haven't used Lightwave with any regulararity since the late 90's, even tho I've kept my upgrades current. I'm working on a project that needs a little 3D right now for some interactive interface elements and am trying to get back up to speed with LW7.5c.

The challenge is this; when I use the Image Viewer to do test renders to get things just like I want before the final render, the images look rich and excellent. BUT! When I save out those images in pretty much any bitmap format (.psd, .tga, .bmp, etc) and open them up in Photoshop 7 they look all washed out and very plain.

This happens when I export the images from the Image Viewer and also when they're exported from a F10 render, (I also tried the PSD Export effect processing plugin that was mentioned in a video tutorial I found mentioned in one of the other threads... exact same end results). Oh, and yes, I'm viewing the files on the same machine that rendered them.

Could someone tell me the stupid thing I'm forgetting or can't find in the manual? Earlier versions didn't work this way.

Just so you'll know, this is a box stock installation with no 3rd party plugins installed. In fact this is pretty much the very first thing I've built since installing LW7.5.

Thank you very much for any insight you may be able to lend.

Whiskey

[Aegis]

Are you by any chance adjusting the rendered images using ImageViewer FP's Image Controls? If so you'll need to "Save Exposed" to get the adjusted version of your image...

[WizCraker]

I had this problem when I saved out in Cineon .cin. Looked perfect in LW but PS overly washed it out. Auto Level made it look like the image viewer in LW. The strange thing is DFX+ opened it without any problems.

[Whiskey]

Thanks for the replies, Aegis and WizCraker, but I didn't touch the FP's image controls. This is just a straight render and save. Nothing special about it at all. Just a very few objects and no special filters or plugins.

I tried auto level in PS, but the colors were way off from LW. I could mess with hue and saturation in PS and get it close, but that's plan B. I really just wanted to render and cut up the interface like I used to.

In fact, as a test, I did a simple print screen with the Image Viewer showing on one monitor and the opened version of the same render in PS on the other monitor (Planar 17" LCDs), and then opened that screengrab in Photoshop. The colors were still washed out on the image from the Image Viewer (on both monitors). Strange.

I've been around computers for a long time and I've always been able to get a 1:1 pixel match doing a print screen. Makes me wonder if it could be something happening with the Image Viewer... like some of the buffers aren't making their way into the bitmaps for some reason.

I'm going to try rendering on one of my other workstations and see if the problem is repeatable. Try to narrow things down.

Have you guys ever heard of a problem like this before? I couldn't find anything where it was really discussed, so that usually points to a local problem (operator headspace error on my part). And most of the time it's easily solved. I've never even had to think about this with LW in the past. It was always very stable and dependable.

Thanks for the help. Much appreciated.

Whiskey

[RUdiger]

Photoshop often likes to apply its own gamma and color profile to images. Try viewing the images in a more neutral application.

[sfriedberg]

You might check your color management in PS. If you have been doing print work and have PS set to display colors in the reduced CMYK gamut, that would affect all images, not just jobs intended for print.

You might also double check the images in another application, such as a web browser, the OS native cheap-and-cheerful paint program, etc. If necessary, save as JPEG for this double check.

[Whiskey]

sfriedberg and RUdiger,

You guys nailed it. I've narrowed it down in researching the problem yesterday to a combination of color management in Photoshop and my LCD monitor settings. I was able to look at the screencapture in Windows Paint and the result exactly matched what I was seeing in the LW Image Viewer. So that pointed to a problem most likely being in Photoshop (v7).

I took that same screengrab over to two other workstations and looked at it in Photoshop on those machines. I had to use Auto Levels, but the screengrab was a near perfect match to what I was seeing in LW.

So I'm closing in on the solution in Photoshop and things should be back to normal later today. I bought a hardware monitor calibrator and am getting up to speed with the way Photoshop handles Color Spaces.

Thanks to all for the help and insight! Much appreciated.

Whiskey