Sudden hypersaturation of colors upon saving in Painter 11

[v5planet]

Hi all,

I'm currently preparing a rather important document for an advertisement, and have been working in .psd format, moving back and forth between Painter11 and GIMP with the file.

After a recent save in Painter 11, I opened the file in GIMP to discover that all the colors had become highly saturated, blown out and flat in many places. This seems to have uniformly affected all the layers of the document and looks the same in Painter, GIMP and Photoshop. The curious thing is, when I open up Adjust Colors or other filters in Painter, the preview image (before I've adjusted any sliders) seems to remember what the image was SUPPOSE to look like (see linked photo at bottom). Moreover, if I do adjust the colors or use other filters, the preview image is dramatically incorrect, and the result remains much more saturated and blown out than it's suppose to be.

I'm wondering if anyone can help me figure out how to recover the original color depth and saturation that I was dealing with previously as I'd rather not have to start from scratch with this puppy. The filter preview clearly shows that the file knows what each layer is suppose to look like, so I know the information is in there somewhere.

Please advise:

http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz294/v56planet/colorsmessed.jpg?t=1264634338

(note that in the preview window you can clearly see much lower saturation, more color depth, etc. as compared to what the image currently looks like)

[fes]

I think you may have assigned an incorrect color profile to your document. I just tested it and if I assign a horrible RGB profile (I tested out using ProPhoto RGB) it gives a very similar overly red saturation similar to your image. But when I look at my image in the Adjust Color dialogue box is still looks how it did previously - same as your does.

What are your colour management settings like? Anyway to change a profile you can either go into the Color Management Settings in Painter (this is version 11 by the way) make sure your default RGB setting is correct and tick the Profile Mismatch Ask When Opening box, then reopen your document and if an incorrect profile has been applied a dialogue box will open and you can select your default profile (or which ever profile you want). I suggest this way, because if you ever have the same problem, you will know it as soon as you open the file.

Or, you can simply change the profile via Canvas/Assign Profile, then choose whatever your profile should be (usually either sRGB IEC61966-2.1 or Adobe RGB (1998 ) - whatever you use in other programs).

I don't suggest you just turn colour management off, because the profile may be embedded in the image, and if you send the image to someone else they will still have the wrong profile.

[v5planet]

That was one of the first things I checked and it did not appear to be the problem. I went back and made it from scratch in photoshop in about 1/4th the time and it looked better than the original so, teaches me not to use Painter for this type of thing. Such a temperamental program. :)