I'm new to digital photography, especially printing. I'd like help with a few topics around color management. As the subject line says, I'm taking pictures with a Canon A10, touching up in Photoshop 7, then printing on a Canon i850. A few questions:
1) sRGB and EXIF data on the A10: A Photoshop plug-in called Ignore EXIF Color Space came out a few months ago. Apparently many cameras attach an ICC profile for sRGB to files, but the profile is too generic. (a) Is that the case with the A10? (b) If it is, what policy ought I follow when opening files in Photoshop 7? For example, presently my working space is Adobe RGB 1998. Consequently files open up with a dialogue informing me of a color space conflict. Should I use the embedded profile (sRGB 2.1) or convert to the working space? Anything else I ought to do vis-a-vis embedded profiles when opening a file?
2) Soft proofing: I calibrated my monitor in OS X and created a profile for it. Would I use that in Proof Setup or create a custom profile based on the printer, an i850? The trouble with the latter is that there's no profile for it. Among the many choices I found BJ Color Printer Profile 2000, but is that an appropriate choice? It's unclear to me if I create a proof---a simulation on the monitor of what will come out of the printer, right?---using a monitor or a printer profile. Can anyone straighten me out on that?
3) Is all this necessary? Don't laugh! The goal is to get reliable, accurate color from the camera to the printer via the screen. Does Canon driver or browser software take care of that without recourse to color management gymnastics?
Sorry for the long post and embedded questions! And thanks for your help.
