Photoshop CS5: Setup and Color Management

- In this video tutorial we will cover setting up camera raw and photoshop so our color spaces and profiles match. This set-up process is incredible important for proper color management, so please check it out!! This is geared towards beginners, but if you have color management issues, you may want to check this out as well.

http://www.jhpvideotut​orials.com …-color-management-part-1/

Best,
Jay

Why not use ProPhoto as a color space?

I did a bit more research and I have re-done the video using the prophoto rgb for the best possible quality. I'll have it updated asap!

Thanks!

Couple of points:

• There's nothing inherently "better" about ProPhotoRGB... It's a larger colorspace, that's it.
  
• It should however only be used in 16bpc.
  
• The default working space in PS color settings is only used if you create a new document or an image doesn't have an embedded profile. As long as you use "preserve embedded profiles", there won't be a problem.
  
• Converting an AdobeRGB image to ProPhotoRGB gains you nothing.
  
• ProPhotoRGB really should not be used in 8bpc.
  

Thanks for your thoughts and comments

Why in particular should ProPhotoRGB only be used in 16-bit? I understand 16-bit preserves the tonal detail better, but why would it be a bad thin in 8-bit? Worse than say adobe 1998 or sRGB? Also why would using a larger color gamut in PS not be an advantage in some cases when it comes to printing? That being said, how is having a larger color gamut not "better" ? Bigger is always better

I was under the impression that if your using a lot of layers and doing hard core color editing such as Artist reproduction for example the added color gamut would be a good thing if the printer can handle it?

Thanks again for your comments I really appreciate it!!

Best,
Jay

The "steps" between each color are way bigger in ProPhotoRGB (8bpc = 256 possible levels for R, G or B, yet the gamut of ProPhotoRGB is much bigger > each step is bigger).

A small curves adjustment on an 8bpc ProPhotoRGB image can very easily cause banding.

Ideally, you'd want to use the smallest possible working space that can contain all colors in the image.

Provided those extra colors that ProPhoto can encompass really do exist in your subject. A portrait or nude, for instance, has no colors that can't be rendered in narrow old sRGB. In ProPhoto large areas of the gamut would be empty, all those numbers that would have been used for brighter colors if it had been necessary. But because ProPhoto has bigger steps between adjacent tones, the portrait is actually rendered in fewer tones than it would have received in sRGB. The downside of a big gamut is a loss of color resolution, so bigger is not better unless you really need bigger.

And how does one determine this number?
But you bring up an interesting thought, if you convert to B&W, what color space should be used?

chauncey wrote in post #11369128
And how does one determine this number?

If you don't get a clipping warning in sRGB, and you're not planning to bring up saturation in PS for instance, sRGB is fine.

chauncey wrote in post #11369128
But you bring up an interesting thought, if you convert to B&W, what color space should be used?

I use sRGB. Don't think it matters much, since R=G=B, and I don't think one color space has a deeper black or brighter white then the other.
But there are probably differences in midtone spacing, since the gamma used is different. So medium gray is not the same value in sRGB then in ProPhotoRGB...

Whats really weird is Adobe lightroom engineers defaulted the external editing to ProPhoto RGB ? However photoshop cs5 is defaulted to sRGB?

Thanks for all the comments and input everybody

Jay

jason324 wrote in post #11369588
Whats really weird is Adobe lightroom engineers defaulted the external editing to ProPhoto RGB ? However photoshop cs5 is defaulted to sRGB?

Thanks for all the comments and input everybody

Jay

Well, Lightroom only uses ProPhotoRGB. Some of us wish it actually had a way of "proofing" the different color spaces -- Camera Raw and DPP allow you to switch working color spaces on the fly which can show you things especially on the histogram that can have meaning when working with saturated spaces.

Bun, in actuality, the Raw processor has to keep the Raw data in "pristine" condition and unaltered by "shrinking" that data, so Camera Raw, Lightroom and DPP will retain data even if it is outside of the "working" color space. When you convert the image you will of course convert to/apply a color space. In Lightroom without that "proofing" capability you want to bear that in mind because saturated colors may get clipped if you don't know how to deal with them. Out-of-camera Raw contains a pretty wide "gamut"!

jason324 wrote in post #11369588
However photoshop cs5 is defaulted to sRGB?

Photoshop will use whatever the images colorspace is if you choose "perserve embedded profile".

It uses Lab under the hood AFAIK.

LR uses "MelissaRGB" under the hood, but it outputs sRGB for web, or whatever you tell it to in the prefs / export dialog

tonylong wrote in post #11370260
Well, Lightroom only uses ProPhotoRGB. Some of us wish it actually had a way of "proofing" the different color spaces -- Camera Raw and DPP allow you to switch working color spaces on the fly which can show you things especially on the histogram that can have meaning when working with saturated spaces.

Bun, in actuality, the Raw processor has to keep the Raw data in "pristine" condition and unaltered by "shrinking" that data, so Camera Raw, Lightroom and DPP will retain data even if it is outside of the "working" color space. When you convert the image you will of course convert to/apply a color space. In Lightroom without that "proofing" capability you want to bear that in mind because saturated colors may get clipped if you don't know how to deal with them. Out-of-camera Raw contains a pretty wide "gamut"!

I got it now, I found a great link on all this stuff and read it all. Thank you again for your help and info on this!! I'm re-rendering the video now with all the new information discussed here as well as in the artical linked below.

http://www.adobe.com/d​igitalimag/pdf...p_col​space.pdf

René Damkot wrote in post #11370324
Photoshop will use whatever the images colorspace is if you choose "perserve embedded profile".

It uses Lab under the hood AFAIK.

LR uses "MelissaRGB" under the hood, but it outputs sRGB for web, or whatever you tell it to in the prefs / export dialog

Right-on Thank you for the info!! I thought Lightroom used PhotoProRGB for the colorspace? Or is the MellissaRGB and exaggerated version or something?

Thanks again,
Jay

René is correct that the proper name is MelissaRGB. It's some kind of derivative of ProPhotoRGB but I don't know all the details. I just used ProPhotoRGB because it's more of a "common" name -- sorry if I confused you.

MelissaRGB is ProPhotoRGB gamut, with a different tone response curve.