Reference for Beginning Color Management

[tcadwall]

There is a plethora of information out there on color management. If one is trying to self-learn, it all needs to be digested, and for some repeatedly. While this article is not in-depth, it does provide some starting points, and does summarize the basics.

There is a new article (http://www.bythom.com/qadcolor.htm)on Thom Hogan's site (yesterday - 1/14/2008).

Again, this is a starting point that may help those that are starting to see the need for color management, as well as for those that have no idea whether they need it.

- This is probably a good thread for people to post their favorite online Color Management references.

[tfa8rva]

Thanks for the link. :)

[erichlund]

Of course, what Thom doesn't mention, is that CaptureNX has a set number of colorspaces that you can use, and I don't think the one he recommends is among them (ProPhotoRGB). It may be that it's basically covered by one of the other options, but the CaptureNX documentation is very limited concerning support of colorspaces.

Basically, Nikon expects most users to use sRGB or AdobeRGB (preferred for RAW shooters). I've been using AdobeRGB, but it would be nice if CaptureNX supported one of the really wide gamuts. I guess I'll have to spend the time figuring out what's the best available among the cryptic options.

Paint Shop Pro is equally obscure about colorspaces. It's handled under Color Management, and it's possible to use a wider colorspace, but the options do not include one called ProPhotoRGB. The default (and recommended!!! :eek: ) is sRGB. That's fine for the web based user or someone only sending photos to a lab for printing, but my printer has a wider gamut available, and I would like to be able to take advantage of it.

[tcadwall]

LOL -

I don't use Capture NX, Bibble does have it. Any editing that I do outside of Bibble is in PSP XI, and I am hoping that X2 has better CM. In XI I get the default and - errr - the default. A dropdown list that has nothing in it.

But that reminds me that I have a question regarding PSP in case anyone has the answer. I would like PSP to have the profile for my EPSON inkjet as the proofing profile for printing, but I can't figure out where to change it, and it is just showing my HP Color Laserjet. (which I doubt has near the color space)

BTW other apps do see all printers, this is a PSP thing... Of course I don't know if it is a result of running on 64-bit Vista... but I think you are running the same platform erich (if I remember correctly)

[erichlund]

LOL -

I don't use Capture NX, Bibble does have it. Any editing that I do outside of Bibble is in PSP XI, and I am hoping that X2 has better CM. In XI I get the default and - errr - the default. A dropdown list that has nothing in it.

But that reminds me that I have a question regarding PSP in case anyone has the answer. I would like PSP to have the profile for my EPSON inkjet as the proofing profile for printing, but I can't figure out where to change it, and it is just showing my HP Color Laserjet. (which I doubt has near the color space)

BTW other apps do see all printers, this is a PSP thing... Of course I don't know if it is a result of running on 64-bit Vista... but I think you are running the same platform erich (if I remember correctly)

I went from PSP X to PSP X2 (they can't even get Roman numerals right!? :rolleyes:) and it's better. There are options for colorspaces, but the options are not very straight forward. I'm going to have to run a web search on each of them to figure out what each one represents. There are several versions of AdobeRGB, for instance. What they should do is allow you to compare the available colorspace charts. It should not be too hard to provide that, but it seems like they don't feel it's very important.

Basically, I will end up using the widest color gamut that is available in both CaptureNX and PSP, which is probably some form of AdobeRGB. So, in the end, I expect I'll be doing what I've always done.

BTW: For most work, this really is making a mountain out of a mole hill. The only time it comes into play is when you have a critical need for that extra colorspace.

[e_dawg]

My favourite colour management link:

Cambridge in Colour - 3 part article
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/color-management1.htm

There was a thread on JPEG vs RAW here earlier that had some deeper discussion on colour space, gamut width, bit depth, relative precision, and when to use what:

http://www.dcresource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34855&highlight=sRGB&page=2

IMO, using wider colour gamuts like ProPhoto RGB are overrated unless you know you are going to use those extreme (i.e., super saturated... think "Ken Rockwell", not natural looking portraits) colours that aren't captured by Adobe RGB. This applies doubly if you're shooting in JPEG. At 8 bpp precision, you don't even have enough precision available to describe sRGB properly, let alone Adobe RGB or the ridiculously wide ProPhoto RGB.

But what's wrong with using a wider gamut just in case, i hear some asking? There's no free lunch. Whenever you increase the gamut width, don't forget that you also reduce the in-gamut precision. If you don't have enough precision, you risk banding and poor transitions between different shades of colours.

[Prospero]

Interesting article, Tracey. Makes the topic a bit more understandable.

I don't really do a lot of colourmanagement at the moment, but I might do a bit more with it in the future. The lab I use for printing has the profiles of its printer available, so that allows me to get exactly what I want (provided I calibrated my screen).