Working Color Space

[Trevor]

I would like to get responses from as many people as possible regarding working color spaces in Photoshop.

I have recently been doing a lot of research (trial and error, web, forums, books) to determine what the best space is for print work, and it seems that Adobe1998 is widely regarded as an excellent working space to edit photos for print.

sRGB, on the other hand, seems to be the web standard.

So I'd like to get everyone's take on this, since it seems to be partly determined by end-use, personal opinion, or equipment. For awhile, I worked in the ColorMatch RGB space and have recently switched to Adobe1998 for all print work. It has the widest, most realistic color gamut that makes it possible to edit and correct a wide range of colors, and then have very accurate control at later conversion stages to work that wide color gamut down to smaller ones, like sRGB or CMYK.

Thanks
Trevor

[Pekka]

I work in Photoshop 6 with color management off, in 32 bit color display with 16-bit TIFF's. I use AdobeRGB if I need extra "snap" to colors (but sometimes it's just too "Fuji" like). If I export to web I convert to sRGB, if I export for printing service I convert to their ICC profile.

Pekka

[Dick]

I utilize Adobe RGB. I import RAW files via Breeze Browser utilizing normal tiff, not linear tiff. I assign the files on opening to Adobe RGB. If I export to the web I convert the file to sRGB. If I print I leave the file in Adobe RGB and utilize the ICM control on my Epson 890 printer.

[dizzynoodle]

pekka, what print service do u use ? Fuji Frontier ? do u use any specific ICC for that ?

dizzynoodle

[Pekka]

dizzynoodle wrote:
pekka, what print service do u use ? Fuji Frontier ? do u use any specific ICC for that ?

I use http://www.ifi.fi "onlinephoto" service and they use a 254 dpi continuous tone RGB laser printer (equal to 3000dpi in CMYK) on Afga photographic paper (so the prints are actually genuine 'photographs' which last forever). I don't know the brand of the printer.

They provide an ICC profile for their printer on their website. The profile is tested and VERY accurate, so what you see is what you get. Another company specialized in color profiling calibrates the printers every 2 hours (!), that too keeps the colors spot on.

[Trevor]

ok, so far so good. Here's another wrinkle to the original question: how many of you are calibrating your monitors on a regular (say monthly) basis to generate an accurate profile for it?

Pekka- what do you feel is the advantage of working in PS6.0 with color management turned off? Is it mainly because you are in an easily controlled closed environment (ie: one computer, one monitor, and icc profiles for press)?

Thanks for the responses so far. I'm trying to get a good idea of average or basic color setups as I get my home system up to standards, and then venture into getting the computers at my job up to the same standards. All of your responses help!

[Dick]

I calibrate my monitor (IBMG96 19" ) at least monthly using ProveIt and a Chroma4 colorimeter.

I find that my work flow produces color prints that are accurate in terms of color and what I see on my monitor is what I get from my printer(Epson 890).

When I print (via PS6) I select "Printer Color Management" as the print profile. In the setup I utilize Advanced and Custom to select ICM for Color Management. I print at 1440dpi on photo paper. I typically use 360dpi for the image files.

[Trevor]

Dick wrote:
When I print (via PS6) I select "Printer Color Management" as the print profile.
I was surprised when I found that "Printer Color Management" led to the best results from my Epson also. I had always thought that it was a bad thing to do to your print file, but apparently not.

I'm a Mac user, and I'm looking at using ColorVision software and hardware to calibrate my monitor. Anyone have any experience with that product?