Color Management?

MR
Posted By
Mike Russell
Feb 16, 2008
Views
344
Replies
3
Status
Closed
"Idahoe" wrote in message
Is color management necessary?

I am a casual photographer and like to have quality prints. I normally get very good color from Ofoto. However, I did have the experience of having a photo returned from Ofoto developing that printed white snow on my monitor as purple on the print.

Open the image, and look at the numbers. We all make many subjective judgements when adjusting color. The question of whether something is gray or not is a quantative, not a subjective, question. In normal working spaces (sRGB, Adobe RGB, etc) if something is gray, the RGB values will be equal. Use Photoshop’s info palette to determine whether this is the case or not. It will be a more reliable indicator than your eyes, and is a better first reference, even if your monitor is carefully calibrated.

I mainly want to avoid these large errors in developing. Is color management necessary for this? I have read:

Yes: http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/monitor_calibration.htm http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/soft-proofing.sh tml http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/acd-profile.shtm l

These are all good folks, well worth listening to.

No: http://kenrockwell.com/tech/color-management/is-for-wimps.ht m
Entertaining reading, indeed. I would treat it as such. Unfortunately, I have to wince at the bombastic way that he presents things that are basically true. It makes me want to keep my distance, if you know what I mean.

I am uncertain about how profiling works in my setting. I have no printer and want to use a profile for my monitor from a developing company (calypso for example)? I think I need to download a profile from Calypso into my computer for the type of monitor/type of developing I want.
Is this the correct approach?

No – calibrate your monitor independently of your printer, perhaps using Photoshop’s soft proofing feature to preview the image, and look for out of gamut colors. I say "perhaps" because I think the benefits of using profiles, say, for a specific Fuji Frontier, are very limited. If you would like to experiment with this, send them images that you have "soft previewed" in Photoshop, using the profile for that printer, and convert the images to the printer’s profile. Be sure to get in touch with the printer first to make sure they print the images "flat" – any slip in the pipeline and you will be worse off than just sending sRGB. Drycreekphoto has very good instructions for how to do this, and what you should say to the printer.

Is any of this necessary really?

No. It is not. If you are using a CRT, calibrate your monitor carefully with Adobe Gamma. If you are using an LCD monitor, which is the norm these days, you may still be able to calibrate by eye, but it is more difficult because Adobe Gamma does not work with an LCD. Consider getting a monitor calibration device such as the i1 display 2, or the Spyder pro. I recommend that you use sRGB as your working space, and send the sRGB images directly the printer.

Mike Russell – www.curvemeister.com

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I
Idahoe
Feb 16, 2008
Is color management necessary?

I am a casual photographer and like to have quality prints. I normally get very good color from Ofoto. However, I did have the experience of having a photo returned from Ofoto developing that printed white snow on my monitor as purple on the print.

I mainly want to avoid these large errors in developing. Is color management necessary for this? I have read:

Yes: http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/monitor_calibration.htm http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/soft-proofing.sh tml http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/acd-profile.shtm l

No: http://kenrockwell.com/tech/color-management/is-for-wimps.ht m

I am uncertain about how profiling works in my setting. I have no printer and want to use a profile for my monitor from a developing company (calypso for example)? I think I need to download a profile from Calypso into my computer for the type of monitor/type of developing I want.

Is this the correct approach?
Is any of this necessary really?
B
babaloo
Feb 16, 2008
Monitor calibration will help if you use these commercial printers but still not guarantee color will likely be as correct as it would be if you printed yourself in a color managed workflow. I fully understand why most casual shooters would not want to do that.
Commercial printers have different ways they automatically and arbitrarily set a white/grey/black point so that images are likely to print with reasonably correct color. Most snapshooters do not know what they are looking at anyway.
You would have to contact whatever printing company you use to find out how to optimize your image files for their printing processes.
K
KatWoman
Feb 17, 2008
"flambe" wrote in message
Monitor calibration will help if you use these commercial printers but still not guarantee color will likely be as correct as it would be if you printed yourself in a color managed workflow. I fully understand why most casual shooters would not want to do that.
Commercial printers have different ways they automatically and arbitrarily set a white/grey/black point so that images are likely to print with reasonably correct color. Most snapshooters do not know what they are looking at anyway.
You would have to contact whatever printing company you use to find out how to optimize your image files for their printing processes.

yes it is highly likely these are not custom (human made) prints and that an automated process is giving an AUTO level or curves before printing

meaning whatever manipulations you use to get it prefect at home will be adjusted to whatever the computer says

OR you can contact the print shop and ask what color profiles they require and download them

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