Colour Management Blues :'(

A

Andybilly

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Edit My Images
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Ok so I have been getting to grips with the dark art of Colour Management. So far I have managed to print from all applications to my Epson R2400 a convincing 'as shot' picture that I am very pleased with (Only had the printer 2 weeks and it is amazing, if a little catridge hungry). The next part of my quest is with configuration within Photoshop CS3. If I go to Edit-Colour settings, I have always had the Working space RGB set to 'sRGB IEC.........', so

  1. now I have a Gretag Macbeth i-one display, should I use the the monitor profile or stick with sRGB?

So as not to confuse the issue, once I have the answer to this I will ask the next question.

On a side issue, whoever runs this site deserves a medal, I have only been looking for a few days and it has answered so many questions :clap:.

Andy
 
Hi, & welcome

You should first calibrate the monitor, which will then give you true colour rendition on screen.

The colour space you then use for PP will depend on your choice. the calibration of the screen does not affect the colour space you are using in PP but defines the range of colours available


Graham
 
Hi Graham,

Thanks for the very quick reply. I am a little confused, Yes I have calibrated my screen, if I can re ask my question "should I use the the monitor profile (that I got from the calibration) or stick with sRGB?" for the 'Working Spaces RGB'.
 
Andy,

The monitor profile should be applied by the operating system, (windows or OSX) and that will apply to all applications then you will use a colour space SRGB or what ever in PS, when using RAW files i tend to use ProPhoto for a larger colour space and then convert to SRGB for the web.

Graham
 
Hi Graham,

Many thanks for your clarity of thought, I am now back on sRGB.

Andy
 
Andy

Don't forget to use the R2400 profiles in Photoshop. That should give you a good screen to print match, using your calibrated and profiled system.

If you need a bit more information on colour management ( and it's not all that difficult..Honest), have a read of Martin Evenings Photoshop for Photographers. The first chapter deals very simply with what colour management is and how to use it .

If you really want to have fun, Andrew Rodneys's book on Colour management is seen by many as the Photographers bible on the subject.
 
Hi Chappers,

are you suggesting that I use the printer/paper/ink profiles in place of the sRGB or Monitor profile and that should then match what I see in CS3 with what is printed on paper?

I think I am beginning to see the light here and that I may have made myself look a little stupid.

Andy
 
Each device (screen, printer, scanner, etc) has it's own profile that describes how it reproduces colours. Images "sit" in a working space (sRGB, AdobeRGB, etc). Colour managed s/w does the translation from the image's working space to the output device.

So you need the right profile for each device in order for the s/w to translate the colours correctly - use the wrong profile and you'll get duff results.

CS3 will automatically read the monitor profile from the system settings but when you come to print you need to specify what printer profile you want to use and this can vary depending on paper and ink choice. In CS3 if you select Print with Preview you'll get all the options for choosing a profile, etc. It's also very important that you tell the printer driver to use ICM mode but to turn OFF colour management (as the application is handling it).
 
hwy thanks for the link chappers :thumbs:
 
Nice link Chappers, I think I am there but still uncertain as to what edit-colour settings-working spaces-RGB should be set to, my monitor profile, .icc file, sRGB ......

thanks again to all for assistance.

Andy
 
As I said above, colour management is all about translation and to get it working you simply need to tell CS3 what "language" everything speaks. Working Colour Spaces such as sRGB, Adobe98, ProPhoto are used only for the image. CS3 will read the monitor profile from the system so it already knows what "language" that is speaking. Finally you need to tell CS3 about your printer's "language". Once it knows that CS3 can translate the image "language" to the screen "language" or printer "language" and the results will be consistent. So for Edit > Color Settings the working space should be sRGB as you'd already set it.
 
Pxl8, thanks for your patience, all now (reasonably) clear.

Andy
 
Andy
Don't try to take it all on at once, you'll get there

I tried to find a reprint of Martin Evenings excellent introduction to colour management.it's on the web somewhere . Try google to find it. Martin explains colour management in a concise but simple way
 
I am comming in late on this discussion.

Your calibrated profile should be applied to your screen. You need also to remember to disable the adobe rgb auto start. In photoshop, you should use Adobe RGB 1998 or prophoto RGB. This is your working colour space, and is not directly related to the monitor colour space.

When you are printing in photoshop, you should first do a soft proof. This allows you to see what the colours will look like on the paper you are about to print on. You can do this by going to 'view>proof setup>custom' and then selecting the ICC profile of the paper you are about to print on (assuming that you have a ICC profile setup for the paper). Always remember to select 'simulate paper colour' in the dialogue box that comes up.

Once you have done this, you will see the picture change. You can then tweek the picture to get the right print colours you want.

When printing form photoshop, you need to also select let photoshop manage colours, select the ICC profile you just soft proofed with, go into your print driver and DISABLE colour management in your print driver. If you have profiled everything correctly, the print should then match the screen EXACTLY.
 
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