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Noel Carboni
Noel Carboni
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Dec 23, 2006
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Bug:  Histogram Does Not Update when Using Painting Tools

Sep 10, 2012 8:36 AM

I was investigating something else, and I saw something not working...  I'm under the distinct impression that the Histogram panel should automatically update after every operation.  Having the Histogram panel displayed full-time on the screen, it should always be up to date.

 

However, when I Dodge or Burn or even paint color on an image, the Histogram is not updating. 

 

If I select one of the History states I've just created, it updates.

 

Consider this simple sequence of operations:

 

http://Noel.ProDigitalSoftware.com/ForumPosts/HistoryStateUpdateProblem.gif

 

I'm able to reproduce this failure in Photoshop CS5 as well, BUT NOT IN CS4 (it updates in Photoshop CS4 after every painting operation), so clearly it's not a new bug, though somehow I've managed not to notice it in my years of using Photoshop CS5.

 

Is it broken like this for everyone in Photoshop CS5 and 6?

 

Could this be some twisted attempt to try to optimize painting performance?  If so, why isn't there an option to allow a user to request it to update on every operation on a fast computer with cores out the wazoo?

 

-Noel

1449 Views   25 Replies   Latest reply: station_two, Sep 12, 2012 12:22 PM
 
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  • conroy
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    1. conroy,
    Sep 10, 2012 9:10 AM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    .

    Same lack of update with 13.0.1 on OS X 10.6.8.

    A double-click in histogram produces an update.

     
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  • Noel Carboni
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    2. Noel Carboni,
    Sep 10, 2012 10:01 AM   in reply to conroy
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    Thanks for the verification, conroy.

     

    Yes, the double click works for me too, and there's a refresh icon, but these are not acceptable workarounds.

     

    For completeness, I'm running Photoshop CS6 13.0.1 on Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, SP1, everything updated.  The problem occurs in all GPU modes and even with the GPU disabled.

     

    -Noel

     
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  • conroy
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    3. conroy,
    Sep 10, 2012 10:01 AM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    Oh yes, I agree that workarounds are unacceptable and was only adding to the info in the thread. I don't even get a refresh icon as a warning that the histogram is not current when painting or D&Bing.

     
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  • Noel Carboni
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    4. Noel Carboni,
    Sep 10, 2012 10:59 AM   in reply to conroy
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    Just making sure ADOBE knows that the workaround isn't the fix. 

     

    And I can confirm in return that the little triangular warning symbol isn't tracking either here.

     

    I'm now left to wonder how many times I've glanced over at the Histogram after a Dodge operation and felt falsely confident that I hadn't blown anything out.

     

    -Noel

     
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  • Paulo Skylar
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    5. Paulo Skylar,
    Sep 10, 2012 3:10 PM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    I can confirm the behavior you report in both CS6 and CS4 Windows versions.

    I guess I got use to hitting the refresh icon and never thought the histogram was failing to update automatically when it should.

     

    Paulo

     
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  • station_two
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    6. station_two,
    Sep 10, 2012 3:15 PM   in reply to Paulo Skylar
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    FWIW, I can confirm the bug in the Mac versions of CS4 and CS6.  Running under Tiger 10.4.11 and Snow Leopard 10.6.8 respectively.

     
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  • Noel Carboni
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    7. Noel Carboni,
    Sep 10, 2012 3:28 PM   in reply to Paulo Skylar
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    Wow, that's interesting, guys, because my copy of Photoshop CS4 (64 bit) is actually behaving properly.  The mystery deepens!

     

     

    -Noel

     
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  • station_two
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    8. station_two,
    Sep 10, 2012 3:33 PM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    What happens with the Histogram set to show RGB rather than individual color channels?

     

    Also, do the options in the drop down menu have any effect?

     
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  • Noel Carboni
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    9. Noel Carboni,
    Sep 10, 2012 3:38 PM   in reply to station_two
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    I tried all that in Photoshop CS6 without effect.

     

    I'll see if any of the options affect CS4...

     

    -Noel

     
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  • Noel Carboni
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    10. Noel Carboni,
    Sep 10, 2012 3:44 PM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    In Photoshop CS4 there's no combination of display modes or settings I've been able to find to stop it working properly.

     

    Just the opposite in the two newer versions.

     

    I'm highly intrigued that others see the problem in Photoshop CS4 and I don't.  That gives me hope that maybe the problem can be worked around in Photoshop CS6, though I don't yet have a clue how that might happen.  I'm going to scout around to see if I ever tweaked the registry entries for Ps CS4...  At this point I don't recall...

     

    -Noel

     
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  • Noel Carboni
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    11. Noel Carboni,
    Sep 10, 2012 3:51 PM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    Nope, no special secret registry tweaks.

     

    -Noel

     
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  • Noel Carboni
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    12. Noel Carboni,
    Sep 10, 2012 4:28 PM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    More info:

     

    Just poking around in Photoshop CS6 to see what, if anything would make the Histogram display update...

     

    • Even though the Refresh icon is disabled (and the "Uncached Refresh" entry in the fly-out menu is grayed-out), double-clicking in the topmost histogram display will force it to update (as described above by Conroy in post #1 above).

     

    • If I change the selection Channel field in the Histogram panel, mostly it does not update, but when I change between some of the settings - for example between RGB and Luminosity - the graphs update.  Amazingly they revert back to the un-updated state if I switch the channel BACK to what it was!

     

    • Making a selection DOES cause it to update.  

     

    • Choosing Select - Color Range (just starting the function) DOES cause it to update.

     

    • Hitting the quick mask mode button DOES cause it to update. Notably Edit in Quick Mask Mode is in the Select menu.  Could an association with Select be a clue?

     

     

    This bug is easy to reproduce, is shown to be a problem across multiple versions and multiple OSs, and in at least one case (Photoshop CS4 x64 on Windows 7 x64 here) it can be shown to work properly, so the code is probably not far off being right.  Seems to me this should be the kind of thing a junior engineer could find and fix so someone, say,  at Chris Cox's level could have it done before 5 today... 

     

    -Noel

     
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  • Paulo Skylar
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    13. Paulo Skylar,
    Sep 10, 2012 5:52 PM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    " Wow, that's interesting, guys, because my copy of Photoshop CS4 (64 bit) is actually behaving properly. "

     

    Noel,

     

    I was being precise in my comment, though perhaps not clear. I found exactly what you did : A problem in CS6 no problem in CS4.

     

    Paulo

     
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  • Noel Carboni
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    14. Noel Carboni,
    Sep 10, 2012 6:18 PM   in reply to Paulo Skylar
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    Oops, thanks for clarifying that, Paulo!  I read it too quickly I guess.

     

    -Noel

     
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  • station_two
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    15. station_two,
    Sep 10, 2012 8:25 PM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    ...and in the case of my report, it was plain user error to say the bug is in CS4 too.  Sorry, my bad.

     

    What happened was that I neglected to hit the input toggle switch on my second monitor,  which is where I keep my palettes (now "panels"), after testing for the bug in CS6, so that I was indeed working in CS4 on my main monitor afterwards but looking at the totally static CS6 Histogram on my second monitor. 

     

    So, the bug is only in CS6. 

     
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  • Paulo Skylar
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    16. Paulo Skylar,
    Sep 11, 2012 6:18 AM   in reply to station_two
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    For completeness, the bug exists in the 32- and 64-bit versions of CS6.

    It was not present in CS3, CS4 and CS5 .

     

    Paulo

     
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  • Noel Carboni
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    17. Noel Carboni,
    Sep 11, 2012 6:25 AM   in reply to Paulo Skylar
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    For me the bug exists in Photoshop CS6 AND CS5, 32 and 64 bit variants.

     

    -Noel

     
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  • Noel Carboni
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    18. Noel Carboni,
    Sep 11, 2012 8:34 AM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    24 hours after reporting an obvious, reproducible regression bug, plenty of corroboration, and no acknowledgement from Adobe so far.

     

    But I am confident someone at Adobe cares enough to not allow their flagship product to turn to complete mush.

     

    -Noel

     
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  • John Waller
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    19. John Waller,
    Sep 11, 2012 8:43 AM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    Have you reported it via the Feedback site?

    http://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family#problem

     
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  • Noel Carboni
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    20. Noel Carboni,
    Sep 11, 2012 8:47 AM   in reply to John Waller
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    That site is a joke.  It's even more irritating to use than this one.

     

    -Noel

     
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  • John Waller
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    21. John Waller,
    Sep 11, 2012 8:58 AM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    I don't disagree. Annoying as hell.

     

    But it's currently Adobe's official feedback channel for bug reports AFAIK - until they provide something more usable and professional.

     
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  • Noel Carboni
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    22. Noel Carboni,
    Sep 12, 2012 11:41 AM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    Another day without Photoshop CS6 functionality working properly has passed, and we still don't have the knowledge that Adobe has logged it as a bug.

     

    Maybe I should stop providing Adobe thousands of dollars worth of free customer support out of the goodness of my heart until it's acknowledged.

     

    C'mon, people, how hard is it to say "thanks, we're looking into it"?

     

    -Noel

     
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  • Chris Cox
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    23. Chris Cox,
    Sep 12, 2012 11:47 AM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    Or maybe we're busy working on other things that you don't know about?

     

    Geez, give us some time to catch up and investigate.

     
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  • Noel Carboni
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    24. Noel Carboni,
    Sep 12, 2012 12:00 PM   in reply to Chris Cox
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    Sorry for putting you on the spot, but you've been on the forum over the past two days.

     

    If you don't have the staff to keep up, that's not your users' fault.  Users keep sending Adobe a lot of money.

     

    -Noel

     
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  • station_two
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    25. station_two,
    Sep 12, 2012 12:22 PM   in reply to Paulo Skylar
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    Paulo Skylar wrote:

     

    For completeness, the bug exists in the 32- and 64-bit versions of CS6…

     

    I'll gladly take your word for it, Paulo.  There's only a 64-bit version for the Mac. 

     
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