COLOR MANAGEMENT WORKFLOW

Nathaniel TubbCVCC Education Committee

www.nathanieltubb.ca

Color Management Workflow 2

The Goal of Color Management To process a digital image from capture to

final presentation state as efficiently and accurately as possible

Note that color management may appear as CM throughout this presentation.

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A Bit of Background “… color management as a solution rather

than a meaningless punishment.” The Scenario: your final print doesn’t match

what you see on your display

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Light, and How it is Displayed Red, Green, Blue Values

R + G + B = White > (255, 255, 255)

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow Values C + M + Y = Black-ish + K = Black

Displaying Color Monitors are Backlit Prints are Reflective

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Light, and How it is Displayed

“Different scanners and cameras will produce different RGB values when… confronted with the same original or scene.”

Likewise, different monitors will produce different colors when given the same RGB values.

Scanners and cameras use different filter sets just as displays use different LEDs to produce the color.

Notice the problem???

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1st Purpose for CM Render ambiguous RGB values

unambiguous By associating them with a specific color as perceived by

humans, color appearance

CM achieves this by assigning a profile to the image.

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Typical Image Profile Color Gamuts

ProPhoto RGB, Adobe RGB (1998), sRGB

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Camera Capture Digital cameras* are not limited to sRGB

capture Camera sensors are often capable of

capturing colors outside Adobe RGB *Some compact point ‘n’ shoot cameras

may only support saving as sRGB

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2nd Purpose of CM Match the specific color

appearance throughout the workflow Camera > Monitor > Print or

the Web Characterize (profile the

devices) > Standardize (a controlled constant) > Translate

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CM Setup CM begins with

Your Monitor Calibrating and

profiling the display Colorimeter/

Spectrophotometer vs. The Human Eye

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Calibration/Profiling Devices X-Rite

i1 Photo Pro 2 $1300 ColorMunki Design $500 ColorMunki Photo $400 ColorMunki Display $170

Pantone Huey Pro $100

Datacolor Spyder Studio $560 Spyder 4 Elite $250 Spyder 4 Pro $170 Spyder 4 Express $120 Spyder Print $350

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The Working Environment Tips to keeping a consistent viewing area:

Monitors work best in low light Avoid automatic dimming D5000 (daylight balanced) light bulbs Avoid direct light sources falling on your monitor Remove colorful or other distracting objects from around

the workstation

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Settings for Photoshop CS Edit > Color Settings North American Prepress 2

Defaults Gray Working Space = Gamma of your

RGB working space Convert To Working Spaces Deselect > Profile Mismatches: Ask

When Opening Deselect > Profile Mismatches: Ask

When Pasting Select > Missing Profiles: Ask When

Opening

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Settings for Ps Elements Edit > Color

Settings Not as much

control Optimise for

Printing Adobe RGB

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Previewing Prints WYSIWYG; sorry, not entirely possible No printing technology* can reproduce the bright,

saturated colors like your monitor displays Equally, monitors cannot display metallics, fluorescents,

nor dark saturated colors as can print *Brands such as Epson have developed proprietary inks

that are capable of a much boarder color gamut than traditional CMYK inks.

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Previewing Prints in Photoshop CS

aka. Soft Proofing View > Proof Setup

Printer + Paper ICC Profiles

Check > Use Black Point Compensation

Printing to Canvas? > Paper White and Black Ink

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Previewing Prints in Ps Elements

Does not natively support Soft Proofing

PsE Requires Add-ons Elements+ QImage

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Adjusting the Soft Proof Duplicate the image and display side-by-side

Image > Duplicate, Window > Arrange (PsE) File > Duplicate

Use Adjustment Layers such as Brightness/Contrast, Curves or Levels, or Vibrance/Saturation

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Finally to Print Photoshop

Manages Color Printer + Paper

Profile Relative

Colorimetric or Perceptual

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PsE Print Dialog

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Publishing to the Web Monitor Majority Rules

Very few people calibrate their monitors

Tagged (profile assigned) vs. Untagged Do your images have embedded profiles (sRGB or Adobe RGB)?

Not all web browsers are color-managed Many browsers ignore embedded color profiles or ignore your monitor profile

Keep your working Adobe RGB images for editing/printing but upload sRGB images for now, until more browsers are on board

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Resources Adobe Color-Managed RAW Workflow

Find link on my site…

The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers, by Scott Kelby kelbytraining.com/books

London Drugs Photo Lab ICC Profiles http://www.londondrugs.com/PhotoLab/content.aspx?id=3012167b-1b04-495

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