RAW images suddenly appearing red in Bridge & Photoshop

[Edward286783812ct3]

I've been using Bridge/Photoshop to edit RAW images on a MacBook Pro for years without issue.

Beginning yesterday, every image I attempt to open in Bridge and/or Photoshop appears to have a heavy red tint.  Images I've previously opened & edited in the days leading up to this (which all looked fine), are now also appearing with the red tint.

Any idea what I can do to solve this issue?

[D Fosse]

There is no such thing as an un-processed, "original" file from a camera. The sensor raw data have to be processed in some way to produce a viewable "normal" image. Every raw processor will have its own algorithms and produce different results from the same sensor data.They will all look different.

That's normal. You just have a very unusual case here, where two different processing engines produce very different results. All the variables and factors came together here, it seems.

What you see on the camera screen is the camera-processed jpeg, processed according to fixed algorithms in the camera firmware. This is also what Mac Preview displays. Preview is not a raw processor; it just fetches the embedded jpeg.

Here's the thing: While the camera processing aims for a "pleasing" result - that's what sells cameras - the ACR defaults are intentionally conservative. The primary aim is to conserve as much information as possible. The rest is up to you! You're really not supposed to just accept the default settings in ACR. The sliders are there for a reason - use them!

And then there's the camera profiles in ACR, which are intended to give you a range of different starting points. Among these should be profiles that closely match the camera rendering. Try those. This is Lightroom, but ACR is the same:

[Edward286783812ct3]

I guess I should have been more detailed in my post.

1.  Other images from this photo session were opened, processed & saved in Bridge/Photoshop without the red tint issue before yesterday.  Every single image in the folder looked nomal in both the camera's LCD screen & the thumbnail layout in Bridge (and those looked exactly like the "preview" images viewed via my laptop's "quick look" preview software).  

2.  Images taken before/after the one shown in my original post did not have the red tint when I processed them two days ago.  They DO have the red tint when I open them today.  

3.  The RAW files open without the red tint on my Windows desktop computer... even though they continue to show the red tint on my MacBook Pro. 

Although I haven't had any updates, I'm guessing there is some sort of conflict between the MAC OS and Adobe causing this.

Ed

[D Fosse]

OK. Can you post screenshots from both Windows and Mac, so that we can compare them?

Mind you, if you have "prefer embedded previews" set in Bridge, you would see the camera version there too.

[Edward286783812ct3]

Also:  Original JPG images from my backup card open normally in Bridge/Photoshop on my laptop, but their RAW counterparts show the red tint, so it is only RAW files that are having the problem.

[Edward286783812ct3]

[D Fosse · Accepted solution]

There's a smoking gun here: the histograms aren't identical. So somewhere there's a preset, camera profile or slider setting that is different. But I can't make out anything from those screenshots because you've scaled them down.

EDIT: hang on. There's a camera profile in the red one "Artistic 01". I can't make out the other one, but it looks like the standard profile "Adobe Color".

That's what it is.

[Edward286783812ct3]

WOW, just WOW!  That was it!  So glad you asked for the screen shots.  Thank you for solving this mystery for me.

Ed

[D Fosse]

Yes, a screenshot can reveal a lot - and once again, the histogram proved to be an indispensable diagnostic tool. That was the red flag.

Can I take off the Hercule Poirot mustache and bowler hat now? 😄

[Edward286783812ct3]

LOL, you'll have to keep the mustache & hat... but I'd add a magnifying glass for dealing with folks like me who don't offer decent screen grabs for your review!  Thank you again for the quick replies!

[InterSynergy]

WOW, very cool feature