ACR Monochrome profile

[frankg_photos]

The ACR profile Adobe Monochrome (profile dropdown menu) isn't giving me neutral black & white from a color .DNG image i.e. equal RGB values.

I checked the B&W Mixer and Clor Gradients to make sure all are 0 & no saturation. 

Now here is the really confusing part - sometimes it does provide a neutral RGB /Black & white image. I don't know why it does sometimes and doesn't at other times?

I know there are other presets in ACR like Portraits B&W and Style B&W

Any ideas. What am I missing ?

Thanks

(apologies if this post appears more than once. I am not seeing it after hitting the post button)

[Jao vdL]

There are several other places that can introduce color to a black and white converted image. You could have some masks applied with a color defined. You might also have separate R,G,B tone curves. The B&W mixer won't cause this but the color grading panel definitely can.

[frankg_photos]

WQhich Masks? Like when using a brush or other selection tool ? Isn't that just black/white and shows as a red overlay. How do I check on this?

Separate RGB tone curves? Do you mean a separate curve for each channel? I never use these & only use the point curve or parametric curve where all 3 are adjusted the same

[Jao vdL]

ACR has extensive masking options (they used to be called brushes indeed) from AI based masks to brushed masks. You can use these masks to locally apply edits including colored overlays and much more all in the ACR stage. It is possible that you activated one by using a preset. 

[frankg_photos]

Thanks but I don't think that's my problem here.

When I use a selection mask in ACR it is on a localised area like a face or perhaps the sky. If there was a col in the mask it'd not be over the entire image.

In fact, the tint appears right away after selecting the Monochrome profile, before any editing with masks.

Hopefully there are other ideas out there?

[Jao vdL]

Just check the mask tab. You might have one that came in through a preset.

Does you histogram look like it has color to it or is it just one solid line with no separated colored areas? If it is one solid grey line with grey underneath but you still see color in the image, your display profile is bad. You need to recalibrate your screen. This should be done using calibration hardware.

If you see separate red, green and blue lines in the histogram, the display profile is probably not the cause of the problem. There are only a few possible causes in this case: you dialed in color grading, you  have a mask defined that has a color overlay, or you have separate R,G, and/or B curves. There really isn't any other option possible.

[frankg_photos]

I looked for a raw file that doesn't turn neutral (equal RGB) when selecting Monochrome profile. I say 'looked for' because as I've said, it isn't Always the case. Anyway I found a recent one and to answer your suggestions -

On this file

1. The histogram shows the 3 col channels

2. Mask tab? (not sure where to look for 'tab'. Mask tool doesn't show anything unusual.)

3. Display Calibration - yes, I use a hardware device

4. Grading - Shadows, Midtones & Highlights individually and all together. I dont see any Col settings or saturation

5. Curves - I dont adjust the separate individual RGB curves

I feel somewhat bewildered by this situation and I'm probably overlooking something obvious to others.

One setting I am not familiar with or clear about is the Calibration tab. Not sure what it is. It is set to Version 5 with a Shadows Tint slider and RGB sliders. I assume this is automatically set either when importing the Raw file or when the Monochrome profile is selected ?

Is this better than selecting Version 4, 3, 2 or 1 - and how should the sliders be set?