Profile Crash Course?

[robfo0]

Hi Everyone,

I know there is a lot of posts about this, but there is so much, I have no idea where to start. Does someone know a good website to give me a rundown?

My equipment is as follows:
Canon 10D
Olympus P-400 sub-dye printer
photoshop 7

I have been shooting with my 10D set to Adobe RGB, and then set my photoshop color space to Adobe RGB, and they tried sRGB and tried printing. From what I gather thus far, using the Adobe RGB profile should give me a wider range of colors which my 10D captured (is this right?). Now what do I do when I print? Do I need to convert to a different profile? I noticed that if I use Adobe RGB instead of sRGB in photoshop, my pictures from the 10D look much flatter. The same is true when I print. If printed from photoshop when the Adobe profile is selected, prints look horrible. When do I use which profiles in photoshop is my question I guess.

I'd appreciate any help.

Thanks!

Rob

[dtrayers]

Start here. Roger maintains an excellent web site and is a frequent contributor to these forums.

http://www.rogercavanagh.com/helpinfo/27_gamuts.htm

http://www.rogercavanagh.com/helpinfo/10_colourmanagement.htm

[Roger_Cavanagh]

dtrayers wrote:
Start here. Roger maintains an excellent web site...


Thanks, Dave.

One more link on the site for you, Rob:

http://www.rogercavanagh.com/helpinfo/33_cmsjoe.htm

Regards,

[Jesper]

Here's another website that explains color management etc. quite well:

http://www.normankoren.com/color_management.html

[Marky UK]

Hello Rob,

I am a beginner with profiles, but have been trying.....

If the printout is bad, then have you installed any printer profiles for photoshop?

Open an image, do a 'print with preview', there is a check box 'show more options', tick the box. change 'output' to 'color management'
Can you see a profile for your printer and paper in the 'print space- profile' drop down box?

On my PC there is a profile 'EPSON Stylus photo 890 Premium glossy photo paper' if I remember to use this with my 890 printer and the epson paper, prints are great.

If there are no print profiles for your printer and paper, photoshop will not know how to get the best from the printer and paper.

Not sure how you install profiles, think I found it on Normankoren website ?

I dont know what the 'intent' options do, not played with that yet ?


Hope that helps a bit, I am a profile newbie, so I might be wrong :) but works for me.

Mark.

[scottbergerphoto]

I suggest you read this thread. It gives step by step instructions how to do this:
http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=17773

Good luck,
Scott

[robfo0]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the replies. I have been doing a LOT of reading on this subject, and am still at a loss :(

Let me explain what I'm doing and maybe someone can help:

1. Downloaded an icc profile from the internet for my printer (from qimage site http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/plugins/
(only icc for my printer i could find)

2. copied it to the color directory, and then under properties -> color management for my printer, i clicked manual and added this profile (only options are manual or automatic).

3. I shoot my photos on my 10d in adobeRGB 1998 colorspace, so i set that as my color workspace in photoshop 7 before i open anything.

4. Open my photo, do my editing, then bring up the print preview window, in which i do the following:

5. Select color management from the dropdown menu.
leave source space as "document" which is adobeRGB 1998

6. By print space Profile: i select the same profile i downloaded from the internet (Olympus p-400), intent: is set at Relative colorimetric, and Use black point compensation is checked.

7. Print the picture


The result seems to have poor contrast, missing colors, and yellows run together (no contrast at all). although skin tones look pretty good, i also notice certain colors, such as pinks and reds look much better than when i print with my other method (see below).

I tried, instead of the above, with the following changes:
- Using automatic color management under print properties
-set color workspace to sRGB in photoshop
-converted docuements colors to working colorspace when i opened my photos ( i assume this changed them to sRGB color becuase they have adobe RGB 1998 embedded from my camera)
-printed the photo

The result from this is FAR better, truer colors, better contrast, and fairly close match, but less saturations in certain areas. Should i just keep doing this since it looks good? but whats the point of having adobe RGB on my camera if im converting to srgb after?

I realize that there is one large variable: the profile i downloaded could be totally bad. If this is the case, is there another default profile i can try to see if i get better results? OR am I totally missing something and doing something wrong?

If you need more information, please let me know.

Help!! and thanks to everyone :)

Rob

[Evanrich]

robfo0 wrote:
Hi Everyone,

I know there is a lot of posts about this, but there is so much, I have no idea where to start. Does someone know a good website to give me a rundown?

My equipment is as follows:
Canon 10D
Olympus P-400 sub-dye printer
photoshop 7

I have been shooting with my 10D set to Adobe RGB, and then set my photoshop color space to Adobe RGB, and they tried sRGB and tried printing. From what I gather thus far, using the Adobe RGB profile should give me a wider range of colors which my 10D captured (is this right?). Now what do I do when I print? Do I need to convert to a different profile? I noticed that if I use Adobe RGB instead of sRGB in photoshop, my pictures from the 10D look much flatter. The same is true when I print. If printed from photoshop when the Adobe profile is selected, prints look horrible. When do I use which profiles in photoshop is my question I guess.

I'd appreciate any help.

Thanks!

Rob


Your first mistake was to profile to sRGB before you printed it... I used to have a p400, and while it's quality is decent, DO NOT use an srgb profile for it, get a custom profile for it. sRGB is only for web usage, and while it may work on the printer and give decent results, I wouldn't recommend doing it. If you want to get consistant results always, get a hardware profiler for your monitor, and then profile your p400, that way you will guarentee what you see.

[robfo0]

Evanrich,

Thats part of what I'm confused about. Like I said I did find a (ONE on the whole net!) profile for my printer (olympus P-400) and the results aren't very good at all, but sRGB does give quite exceptional results. Do you know anywhere I can find profiles? Olympus doesn't have any.

Also, does my process look correct? Am I doing something totally wrong? Someone please let me know!

Thanks again!

Rob

[Evanrich]

your process appears to look correct. You may want to look into getting a hardware profiler for your monitor, and I highly recommend you do. As for the p400 profile, try looking at profilecity.com for ways how to get a custom one. I gave my p400 to my partner, in favor of printing off of a lightjet 5000 machine. I will ask him what he uses for a printing profile.