Posted: Sat May 07, 2005 3:16 pm Post subject: Color settings
I have just recently switched my color settings to “Adobe RGB (1998)”, from the default, which I have used for several years of “sRGB IEC61966-2.1”, with the idea that scanning and editing in the larger Adobe RGB gamut is better for printing, and then switching or converting to sRGB is better for the web.
Here is a jpeg from a high res. (54 meg, 16 bit) scan, with no editing done on it so far.
If you could open this image in Photoshop and go to edit > color settings, and then toggle between Adobe RGB, and sRGB via the "preview" button, you will see how more shadow detail in the trees, for example, shows in sRGB but not in Adobe RGB, which seems to be more contrasty, although with more saturated colors. I don’t want to lose any shadow detail though.
So, I guess my question would be, is this good? Is this bad? Is this just the nature of these color spaces?
Steve,
The reason you are seeing differences is because you are previewing a file that is not color-managed. You are seeing changes as various spaces are ASSIGNED to your “mystery meat” document. The RGB numbers are not changing, you are just telling Photoshop how to display them as various color spaces.
Back the language analogy, you are viewing the word “once” not knowing the origin. If you preview in Spanish, the definition becomes “eleven”, preview in English and the definition becomes “one-time”. But the letters O_N_C_E don’t change.
So my point is: this is not a good test to show the true differences among the many RGB spaces. Apples to Oranges. You are essentially asking: what is a better definition of Once- “eleven” or “one-time”? It’s meaningless out-of-context.
Set your Color Settings to US Prepress Default. Have a glass of wine and crack open Bruce Fraser’s Real World Color Management book. (and skip over all the CMYK stuff, a mode photographers should stay far away from)
Also, Ben Willmore’s “Photoshop for Photography” might touch on this as well.
[quote="cbadland"]Have a glass of wine and crack open Bruce Fraser’s Real World Color Management book.[/quote]
I will be going to the bookstore later today, and will be looking for particular book, so I just might take you up on that glass of wine, or beer, as the case may be.
I have also been doing extensive research on the web, (the biggest book store of all) on this subject.
I pretty much get all the basics of color management in the Photoshop environment, and the relationship it has to editing, printing, and preparing images for the web.
I set my scanner to Adobe RGB, and set the color setting in Photoshop to Adobe RGB, so this was the first batch of scans in that color environment.
I did notice the difference a wider color gamut provides.
Yes cbadland, I was a long time Napa resident, but currently live in Sacramento. But even living down the road from all those great wineries, some of them famous throughout the world, didn't stop me from developing a taste for a cold glass of beer.
Before, my color settings were set at "off" for "Color Management Policies" which means Photoshop only gets involved when a file is tagged, and at opening would then ask if I want to discard, convert to working space, or preserve embedded profile. Of course, I would preserve embedded profile.
I will change that to the "US Prepress Default" and accept the "Preserve Embedded Profiles" instead of "Off" in that category.
So my question is, do you think it would be best, at opening, to "Assign working RGB" or "Leave as is, (don't color manage)" to images that are untagged?
If I am working in the Adobe RGB color space, and the image is never going to leave my computer, except to the inkjet, then maybe later to the web, (after converting to sRGB) is their any advantage to tagging it with the Adobe RGB profile?
It would depend from where you are getting the image.
I would guess 99% of files coming to you untagged would want to assume an sRGB space. (It’s not the best, but it is prevalent.)
I would probably assign sRGB, then, if I’m going to be working on it more, convert to ARGB (or some other wide gamut space.)
If you assign ARGB to an untagged (mystery meat) file, that was assumed originally to be sRGB,, you can get some unwanted color changes.
You may want to post some of your questions in the Adobe Forums (Photoshop, Photography, or Color Management Forums.) There are a few color management gurus lurking over there who can answer your queries better than I.
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