color management

[Kenneth]

Hi, new here, only posted a couple of times, Iam very confused on how to set color management in PS 6, I have it set best for computer screen, and srgb color, Have read the help file and the missing manual for PS 6, and it seems like I get conflicting information, or maybe its my 70 year old brain, My main problem is skin tones, always seems like it is to Reddish.
My question is what do others use and what is the best, srgb or adobe 1998?

Nvidia 7600 gt card with latest drivers
Printer is HP C5180 all in one set to srgb

Thanks for any info you can give me

[Codebreaker]

Kenneth....

Indeed a tricky subject and you are not alone. I'll trot out my usual advice here....:)

Firstly you must setup your monitor correctly. There is really only one way to do this and that means investing in a device like a Huey, Eye-one or Spyder. These devices will accurately calibrate and profile your monitor so you know you are seeing the image rendered correcly.

Secondly, the choice of Colour Settings in Elements basically effects images being created from scratch within Elements. The setting to avoid is No Colour Management. After that if you are using a Digital Camera then it doesn't really matter which one you choose. This is because the colour space will be that set by the camera.

If you want a recommendation I'd go for using sRGB until you get more familiar with CM.

I'll wait for more questions - if you have any - before getting any deeper.

:-)

Colin

[Kenneth]

Codebreaker, thanks for your reply, going to invest in a monitor calibrateon device. Again thanks for your answer and Iam looking forward to learning PSE with the help of the forum

Kenneth

[jlwilm]

Hi Kenneth,

Another thing to consider is where are you going to print/display your photos.

If you are displaying on screen/web, then SRGB is the choice. If you are sending out to a commercial/external printer - most are also set up for SRGB. The higher end ones will know what you are talking about if you ask about color management and tell wou whaty they prefer or can handle.

If you are printing your own, Adobe RGB 1998 may be a better choice, especially of your camera can shoort in Adobe RGB color space - again, the higher end ones have the ability to change the color space.

[Codebreaker]

John.....

I wouldn't go quite so far as saying - 'if you print your own AdobeRGB may be a better choice'. This is so dependent on the printer and a good many just don't have that colour range.

Colin

[jlwilm]

Colin,

Agreed, which is why I kind of weasled with "may be a better choice".

From the investigations I have done, Epson, then Canon are the most likely printers to be compliant - and not all Canon printers. You can get a feeling about which ones will if you go to an inkjet paper supplier - Red River, Dry Creek, Ilford and see if they have available ICC color profiles for your printer. Or if you are considering purchasing a new printer, see if it is supported by these suppliers.

If it does, you are not free and clear as there are configuration issues aplenty, but a lot of these suppliers also provide support on how to configure Photoshop/Elements to get this.

[Codebreaker]

John....

An interesting free tool from MS is their Color Applet. This provides a visualisation of the Colour Gamut. What I've seen is that printers that claim to be AdobeRGB do not in fact cover the whole of that Gamut. They include colours outside some of the sRGB range but then miss others.

You can download it for free from MS.

Colin

[jlwilm]

Colin,

I have seen that and installed it on one of my systems.

It is an interesting tool, but I am not sure what it is really saying. I assumed it was showing the ICC color profile space, not exactly the printer color space?

In any event, Color management is one of the elusive targets of Digital Cameras and processing. I have downloaded, tested and compared different profiles, papers and the whole gamut of this and frankly the difference is pretty small, or my ability to differentiate the colors is not as great as it needs to be to make the call.

My DW would heartilty endorse the last part of the above sentence. :p:p

[Codebreaker]

John....

With it you can compare the difference between colour spaces. Which is quite an eye-opener in some cases. So you can compare sRGB with a specific printer profile. You'll need to use the Zoom view to do that.

As for telling the difference - well I here some experts saying that one is better than the other but I not sure I could. All I know is I get what I like :)

Colin

[jlwilm]

Colin,

Ditto!

John

[Kenneth]

Thank you all for your replies, calibrated my monitor, all is well, Ifound that with my hp printer srgb is working just fine for me, Again thanks for helping this 70 year old codger, and Iam looking forward to using this forum and all its helpful people in the future.
Kenneth