proof profile in CS2

What do you guys have this set to. I am trying to understand color profiles and such but I am having a hard time with it.

Mine is on convert to CMYK.

What I understand so far is that you download the color profile from where ever you get your stuff printed at (like adorama), then you edit your picture in the profile right?

BUT there is a second step to right, your monitor showing the right colors. I was considering getting my pictures done at mpix and they sent me a disk and a picture to calibrate my monitor to theirs, and I did not understand that either.

Can someone try to explain this to me a little

Michelle K

Hi Michelle
Once your monitor is calibrated , in the Photoshop proof settings select custom and scroll through all the profiles installed on your machine , the one mpix sent you should be there if you installed it .

What Proofing does is gives you a PS best guess interpretation of what your current image will look like printed on a particular paper which is the profile you selected , when you select Ctrl Y , you will get a look at the image in that profile , now adjust your colors in this Proof view to the way you want the image to look , Ctrl Y again to return to your color space view .
On a calibrated system Proofing works quite good .

Rod

Andrew Rodney (Digital Dog, colour guru), says if a printer sends you a sample and says "calibrate to this", then run a mile. That is not correct colour management practice.
The first part of your post was correct. Yes, the printer should provide you with a profile.
However, if you're converting to CMYK, then no, you shouldn't edit in the provided CMYK profile. CMYK is a dodgy colour space for editing. Better to do all your editing in the original RGB, and convert to CMYK as your last step.

There are a lot of links in the lin from my sig
Including a few on soft proofing.