Yet another workflow question

[Peter Galbavy]

I have read a number of the threads here (and elsewhere) about how other people are doing this but I would very much like some advice and a sanity check.

Background:

I understand the basics of colour gamuts and conversion between colour spaces etc. I've even read the occasional real paper book on the subject way back when.

I have been using DSLRs since the Canon D30 and been printing on Epson 1280 (1290) and Canon S9000s for some time. I have generally used BreezeBrowser/BB Pro for raw conversion but I have been playing (and I do mean playing) with Canon's DPP recently. (I have a real problem with Adobe & Apple products so please don't suggest I change my lifestyle, buy a Mac an install CS4 ) Anyhow, I stopped for a while - real world, work, money all conspired against me.

I recently got myself a Canon PIXMA Pro9500 and then a new Dell PC (Vista 64 with a cheap Dell 2409 monitor). Finally got bored with Mk 1 Eyeball based colour matching and bought a rather excellent ColorMunki earlier this week. With very little effort my monitor is much nicer to play with but I have not yet started on calibrating the printer. That's this w/e.

My existing workflow has been very manual - fire up BBPro, fiddle with sliders until it looks "right", staying with defaults (sRGB etc.) and then seeing what come out the other end. On the printing side I will do much the same, fiddle with printer settings and selecting a good colour profile for the paper I have and iterating until the results look good to my eye.

The main confusion I have is around what to do and when. I want to end up with images on paper, on the web and potentially on DVD.

If my general steps come down tracking files through the system, I am hoping that I can get away with one CRW and one converted JPEG (in AdobeRGB) ?

How then do I get this onto the web - let's be real primtive and say a facebook upload for now - do I then proof it to the right size *and* convert the colour space from AdobeRGB to sRGB at this point ?

If I want to distribute full sized printable JPEGs should I do this in AdobeRGB ? Can I assume that online and booth printing services will know a JPEG tagged in AdobeRGB ? Should I provide and sRGB copy of the file too and how do I communicate this to (even dumber than me) end users ?

Can you see the confusion here ?

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

....If my general steps come down tracking files through the system, I am hoping that I can get away with one CRW and one converted JPEG (in AdobeRGB) ?

How then do I get this onto the web - let's be real primtive and say a facebook upload for now - do I then proof it to the right size *and* convert the colour space from AdobeRGB to sRGB at this point ?

If I want to distribute full sized printable JPEGs should I do this in AdobeRGB ? Can I assume that online and booth printing services will know a JPEG tagged in AdobeRGB ? Should I provide and sRGB copy of the file too and how do I communicate this to (even dumber than me) end users ?

Can you see the confusion here ?

Just some quick answers.
1) RAW files: colour space is not applicable until it is converted into tif or jpg or imported into your image processing program.
2) I use the prophoto colour space for my raw conversions. Adobe RGB is fine too. Even sRGb would be ok, but I would not recommend it since the chances are you may lose some of the colour gamut of your pictures by doing so at an early stage (before the post processing steps).
3) When an image gets to the stage to be uploaded to web to to be sent to an external printer, convert it to sRGB and tag it with that profile. Do not assume that the external party will be able to infer the AdobeRGB profile with which you tag the jpg file. In short, all that you give to somebody else should be converted to and tagged with sRGB unless you know for 100% that the party works in a colour managed environment.

HTH,

 

[Asher Kelman]

I have a real problem with Adobe & Apple products so please don't suggest I change my lifestyle, buy a Mac an install CS4

Peter,

I use Macs but it's nonsense to change over unless you are in the market for a faster computer and an upgrade of PS anyway. I think there's no need to be beyond Photoshop 7 except that in CS2 one has the shadow-highlight tool which is such an advantage. I'd imagine that Bibble gives you that now but I haven't checked.

It's great to get this Mac/PC debate out of the way!

The main confusion I have is around what to do and when. I want to end up with images on paper, on the web and potentially on DVD.

If my general steps come down tracking files through the system, I am hoping that I can get away with one CRW and one converted JPEG (in AdobeRGB) ?

How then do I get this onto the web - let's be real primtive and say a facebook upload for now - do I then proof it to the right size *and* convert the colour space from AdobeRGB to sRGB at this point ?

First for distribution, Cem's ideas are so right! Let me add to that:

Who knows this? You give your jpgs to a designer for a pamphlet/poster. They use PDF files! They embed your jpgs in in the PDF to send to the printer. Now what happens them, I don't know? Does the PDF tell the printer it has an sRGB or Adobe RGB profile? Again not being in sRGB might cause a problem!

Next, my custom is to store the processed file as a TIFF or Photoshop file in 16BIT so that at any time one can make the right size and sharpening for that size and then convert, NOT assign to sRGB. Why store as a jpg if we don't know what size or color space is needed?

After all, you may decide to print it yourself or send it to a professional printer. So I only convert to 8BIT jpg sRGB when sending it off to someone else or for the web.

Asher

 

[Peter Galbavy]

Thanks both of you - you are confirming what I suspected. I will take what you have said onboard and cogitate for a while (while calibrating and playing this weekend) and try to come up with a better workflow and archiving process.