Strange colors...and I don't know what to change.

[Arnstein Bjone]

Strange colors...and I don't know what to change.

See various info on the collage below.
I have photographed these minerals before with quite good results. I am "revisiting" them now that I have a microscope objective.

I wouldn't mind upgrading to prosumer edition, especially if that gives me more control of color management in ZS, but actually, I don't want ZS to do anything about the colors.
This is pure hobby so I'm a little hesitant to spend 100 USD on an upgrade. But, on the same time, it must be a lot more features for that price difference...
I believe I have seen all the "Pro"-remarks, but I'm not sure I would need many of them..? (Convince me :-) )

I do initial color adjustments in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) one image, and sync to the others, and export as 16-bit TIFF.
I export from ZS in the same format and finish editing/color adjustments in PS/ACR.

[JKT]

I suspect that ZS is not doing anything to the colors. It just doesn't know how to modify the colors to match the monitor profile. Or the colors could be wrong and ZS shows them correctly, but a program that doesn't handle profiles well shows them wrong in such a way that the colors look good. In any case this is most likely about color profiles, monitor profiles and their implementation in programs.

[rjlittlefield]

In ZS, go to Options > Preferences > Alignment, and remove the checkmark on Brightness.

Then stack with PMax, which is intrinsically robust against changes in brightness.

Typically problems like this are caused by Zerene Stacker having to apply a strong increase in brightness to a frame in which there are dark but highly saturated colors, which then turn into brighter and still highly saturated colors.

--Rik (aka support@zerenesystems.com)

[rjlittlefield]

On second look at this, I notice also that you've selected the output option "Do not manage color", as opposed to "Copy profile from input".

That's an unusual setting, particularly when the source images are coming from ACR. "Do not manage color" means that your output images will not be tagged as having any particular profile. This opens an opportunity for changes in appearance of the output images as shown by other programs.

But I'm assuming that it's a setting you have not changed, since when you got good results. Also it would not affect the appearance of images on-screen inside Zerene Stacker. So I'm still betting on brightness adjustment as being the main problem.

One more thought... I've been casually assuming that your "C" image is showing the input "As adjusted". If that's showing the image as read by Zerene Stacker (that is, with no checkmark on "As adjusted"), then the problem must be a matter of either source image profile or monitor profile. I have not seen differences that look like this due to either of those reasons, but it's always a possibility.

--Rik

[Arnstein Bjone]

Thanks a lot. I don't have a full understanding of all this, so I will need to do some experimenting ("What happens if I check this /chose this instead / ++....?"). I will post info when I have some, for future reference.