Thursday, December 13

A Mess

AAARGH! Over two hours on the phone with Adobe. They do not know what is wrong with my Photoshop CS3! Same problems as yesterday.

1. Created a stack of layers on my G4. Some were adjustment layers, some not. Each had a mask. Of the six or so in the stack, five used blend modes. When I flattened them, I lost a significant amount of dynamic range. No matter what I did, if I flattened a blend mode layer onto something else it happened.
2. Moved thePSD file to my MacBookPro and opened CS3 on that. Same problem.
3. Imported the file into CS2 on the MacBookPro... same problem.
4. Opened the file in CS2 on my G4 - same problem.
5. Duplicated the file... same problem.
6. Rebooted all the machines.... Same problem.
7. Blend modes will not seem to flatten with other layers without BIG loss in dynamic range.

Cannot work in Photoshop tonight. No image. Bummer. Will work on this tomorrow. Probably no posting for a bit.

Adobe couldn't figure it out. They tried a vast number of things. Screwed up my G4. Will have to reset everything. They finally got disconnected and did not call back. Bummer.

I am off to read a book.

G'night.

4 comments:

Andreas said...

OK, let's try to diagnose this:

Does it happen only on that one file? I mean, this seems like something that you (and I) do all the time. Routine. So: if you open another file, one that was already finished weeks ago, and you flatten that, does it happen there as well?

I suppose not. If that is the case, if it only happens with this one file, then it must be something with the file, something that is probably due to a certain combination of layer attributes.

Do you simply flatten the image, or does this happen as part of an action? If so, then try flattening it directly from the menu on the layer palette.

Another thing you could try: Don't flatten the file, copy merged and paste. Command-A to select all, Shift-Command-C to copy merged, Command-D to de-select, Command-V to paste. Do you get the same result as with flattening, or is it now OK? If it is, I would probably leave it at that, and only come back to the problem when the problem comes back to me on another file.

OK, that's all I can think of at the moment.

Regarding the cause I could imagine that Photoshop - for whatever reason - feels obliged to perform a color space change. When you change from one of the RGB modes to Lab, all kinds of things can happen. Adjustment layers get discarded, the appearance of blending modes changes, etc. Normally Photoshop warns of those things though. That's the reason why I asked if it happens as part of an action.

That's all for the moment.

Andreas

Brian Bastinelli said...

Ted, sorry to hear about your woes. I know how frustrating this must be. I hope you get it resolved soon.

Did you get my email?

Take care.

Ted said...

Good suggestions Andreas, and I tried every one. I asked the techie at Adobe if it was a color space or color management phenomenon and he categorically rejected the idea. He had me going into the root and casting away all sorts of preferences. It took me a good half hour to simply put the pieces of my desktop back together afterward.

And yes it intermittently happens with other files. I have had this problem before but only with a blend of two layers, so I worked around it. This stack is five or six layers deep and yes, it is a routine operation.

In the words of Arthur C. Clarke (I think)... "A sufficiently sophisticated technology is indistinguishable from witchcraft." I am going to get a techie who knows how to apply incense and crystals. Sigh.....

Ted said...

(Brian) Gotcher email, the project rocks. It will be magnificent. You have the talent, the passion, and the lineage to make it so. Begin it and share as it progresses, we will all grow from your mission.