CS3 Colour Settings

Well honestly, I thought you were being a little pretentious.

But I dont want any arguments here. I'm here to learn and improve - and if I have it all wrong (the CM), I want to know so I can fix it.

I'm no pro - so sometimes I may sound a little confused, and ask questions that all you seasoned guys get sick of hearing - maybe thats why you all sound grumpy and snappy.

sans2012 wrote in post #3139388
Well honestly, I thought you were being a little pretentious.

But I dont want any arguments here. I'm here to learn and improve - and if I have it all wrong (the CM), I want to know so I can fix it.

I'm no pro - so sometimes I may sound a little confused, and ask questions that all you seasoned guys get sick of hearing - maybe thats why you all sound grumpy and snappy.

Ah, the internet at work. It seems that there is always conflict on the message boards due to the lack of verbal ques and hand gestures.

The reason we all "sound" grumpy and snappy is because most of us are, Tim especially. Color management is a very diffficult topic, one that I said earlier comes up 3-5 times per week. We try to answer everyone's questions with simple, honest, and correct answers. Take this topic for example. The OP was told that the way he was doing color management (or lack thereof) wasn't recommended (and that was the polite way of saying it). But he is going to continue the method anyway. He was looking for a simple answer, but color management isn't simple. So he chose to stick with what works for him. Until it doesn't work anymore, then he will be back for more.

Rene created a great thread on color management. Have you read it? What about Bruce Fraser's book Real World Color Management?

... And from that thread (link in my sig):

sRGB or Adobe RGB. Why sRGB might be a better choice sometimes.
Another link about sRGB vs. Adobe, with some 'real life' examples.
sRGB or Adobe RGB. Same story, also about 8 vs. 16 bit.

chainz wrote in post #3139282
I think I'll just stick to how I've been doing it

Works a treat.

No it doesn't "work a treat". Your images when viewed by a person who has a nicely calibrated monitor and who uses a colour managed viewer will see wacky colours. Not only that, but ANYONE else who uses the internet or prints for you (a lab) will see something different than you.

Accurate colour is the key to photography. What you do from there with the image is up to you. But if you want to show a nicely edited and "pushed" image to all of us here where you have a certain colour cast, we won't see it as you do. Neither will anyone you email it to or get to print it for you.

Sadly, I don't think you'll comprehend the difference here and will just soldier on as such.

sans2012 wrote in post #3138446
Playing with fire is a bit dramatic

Switching everything to Adobe RBG in PS and in the Camera gives you more data in the image - and control of that data when using curves etc...

If you dont have a custom profile, why would it matter if you used Adobe RGB over sRBG?

Cheers

Adobe RGB doesn't give you more data, it can represent more colors but the tradeoff is you get less color graduations in the standard range. There's a debate over whether output devices can print anything outside sRgb anyway.

I'm not a color expert, all I know is what I read in the 600 or so page color book I have, plus a couple of years experience with a color managed workflow. What I do know is if people don't understand color and start playing with color profiles they usually mess something up at some point. If they leave everything as sRgb then it's far more difficult to mess it up.

Yes my posts are blunt, I try to help but people seem unable to use the search, plus i'm busy with albums and proofs.

tim wrote in post #3141829
There's a debate over whether output devices can print anything outside sRgb anyway.

Must have missed that : To the best of my knowledge a decent (inkjet) printer is capable of quite a bit bigger gamut then sRGB... The Fuji Frontier surpasses it only a tiny bit, so if that's what you use, sRGB makes sense...
Link

The way I have been doing it works fine for now..Until I understand colour and all that more I will keep doing it the way I have been.

René Damkot wrote in post #3141280
... And from that thread (link in my sig):

sRGB or Adobe RGB. Why sRGB might be a better choice sometimes.
Another link about sRGB vs. Adobe, with some 'real life' examples.
sRGB or Adobe RGB. Same story, also about 8 vs. 16 bit.

Well I read all the info in your links (cheers) and I'm still a bit up-in-the-air so to speak - about the pros & cons for both colour spaces. From what I gather (which is relevant to me), because I dont print a lot of photos, sRGB would be better used in situation where you want to emphasize greens - in foliage for example and for web. Maybe thats a little to take away from all that info, but it all seems to go around in circles describing which (profile) is the correct choice when it comes to Adobe RGB & sRGB.

How ironic, I joined this topic to try to give someone an answer, and come away questioning my own workflow, confused more than ever.

The general consensus here seems to be in-line with sRGB. And I know its a fact that all you guys far outweigh my technical knowledge. So maybe I will go back to using sRGB for a while and then compare my results over time, and make a personal choice for what profile to use.

To Clear the air:
In2Photos: no hard feelings I hope we can be friendly in the future
Tim: Your too busy - thanks for your info and replies.


Thanks to everyone for being so patient (well sort off) and all the info+links And apologies to chainz for riding his thread off the tracks

Cheers!

-Michael