Focalblade and PSP X3

[AndyBell]

I'm using FocalBlade 2 and PSP X3 and am getting some image corruption. This does not occur using PSE 9 or the standalone Focalblade app.

Is this a Focalblade problem or a PSP problem.

Notice the speckles in the clouds - this is after apply FocalBlade 3 Pass Capture for DSLR, everything on Medium. It seems to only occur in burnt out areas of the image...

Any advice would be appreciated.

Andy

[AndyBell]

I'm beginning to think this is a PSP issue - plugins from other vendors (Topaz, etc) have the same issues in PSP but not in Photoshop...

Andy

[HaraldHeim]

I just tested in PSP X2 and found no problem. Will download X3 and test again.

[HaraldHeim]

I now tested in PSP X3 and also found no problem. I suspect that you have some color management setting active that causes this. Please save the processed image and open it in Photoshop. Do you still see the yellow spots? If not, please change your color management settings or deactivate color management.

[AndyBell]

Hi

I tried disabling Color Management but it made no difference.

However, what I have discovered is that if I reduce the color depth to RGB 8 bits per channel then Focalblade is fine.

(The downloaded trial version needs to be patched to the latest version before it will allow 16 bits per channel images to be Focalbladed).

So, it seems it is the support for 16 bit images + plugins that is the problem...

Andy

[HaraldHeim]

I see you mean PSP X3 Service Pack 3. So it lets you apply FocalBlade to 16-bit/channel images? Great to hear that! I have waited for that feature for years.

I suspect that PSP X3 uses 65536 values for 16-bit images whereas Photoshop only uses 32768 and PSP does not do an internal conversion to compensate for the problem. It should be possible to adjust our plugins to this special case.

Unfortunately when I apply the Service Pack patch to the PSP X3 trial version, it does not run anymore. Seems I have to get the full version first.

[AndyBell]

Harald

Yes - I think PSP is using 64K values because if I save to Photoshop format it says it will have to convert the values to 32K...

If you could adjust your plugins that would be great... From what I read on the PSP forums, Corel aren't exactly rushing to fix this, and other issues, caused by the 16 bit support.

As a workaround, I'm able to use the standalone FocalBlade with a workflow as follows:

RAW conversion to 16 Bit Tif using DXO
Focalblade standalone in batch mode (individual settings) to do Capture sharpening.
Edits in PSP saving to 16 bit tif
Focalblade standalone in batch mode (individual settings) to do Creative sharpening.
PSP convert to 8 bit, resize to screen/web dimesions, Focalblade plugin to do output sharpening, export to JPEG.

It's actually not a bad workflow...

Andy

[HaraldHeim]

After fighting around with installing, patching and reinstalling PSP X3 for several hours under Windows XP, I gave up after PSP X3 did not want to install anymore. I tried it under Vista and patching worked instantly. Seems that PSP X3 really has problems under Windows XP. What a nuisance!

Anyway, the problem is that PSP X3 uses a value range of 0 to 32767 instead of 0 to 32768. As result pixel values of 32768 (pure white) are converted wrongly to yellow/green when converting back to the 0 to 65535 range. So after delaying this simple feature for many years, the Corel programmers even manage to do implement it incorrectly. Unbelievable!

Anyway, the problem is quite easily solved. I just sent you a fixed version of FocalBlade 2.

[AndyBell]

Thank you!!

Are you planning to implement this fix in your other plugins? I have ColorWasher and B+W Styler and am very tempted by Lightbox and Contrast Master...

Andy

[HaraldHeim]

I sent you fixed prerelease versions of the plugins by email. I will release official updates of all plugins with this fix soon. Thanks a lot for letting me know about this issue!