PS E3 Color Management Questions

[RJay]

Hello. I'm new to user forums so please bear with me if my etiquette is not quite right!

I've got a Dell Dimension 8300 running XP SP2, the MS color applet, PS Elements 3, and Monaco calibrator software. My monitor is profiled and I've checked images in PS E3 to convince myself the monitor profile and color management is set correctly (thank you to Norman Koren's website, looked at an sRGB vs ARBG GretagMacBeth color checker). I've been working with images for about a year with this set-up and want to understand color management better. I've done a bit of reading, books and posts, and have a list of questions I'm hoping someone can answer or point me in the right direction.

Here we go:

1. In non color management (cm) option, what working space profile does PSE3 use? Default windows system profile, default monitor profile, or something else?

2. In limited cm option, how does PSE3 handle embedded profiles? Does it clip or compress? Can you embed a color space or printer profile in the edited file?

3. In full cm option, does PSE3 re-map gamut of tagged input files? What is that little asterisk by the RGB/8* in the header of the files when viewed in the editor?

4. What working space does the RAW converter use? Does it maintain profiles, if they are assigned?

My concern is which editing space to use - I have some files in RAW untagged RGB, some ARGB, some sRGB, some others. My current understanding leads me to want to use full color management since it maintains profiles and then I can choose my output color space depending on my output device. Pure sRGB input to edit to output is straightforward, but I don't always have an sRGB input, and I don't understand what the "limited cm" does to files.

Thank you.

[Jodi Frye]

I have a link that contains quite a bit of info that should help with most of your questions.

http://www.gballard.net/psd/cmstheory.html

[RJay]

Thanks Jodi. The link you suggested had an interesting perspective I hadn't considered: that Photoshop uses the monitor profile to "proof" to the screen.

I also found a link in EarthboundLight:

http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/elements-color-management.html

[Jodi Frye]

Yes :) I have that link here too.....I saved it in case I ever needed that profile converter freebie that's at the bottom of the page. What printer are you using ?

[RJay]

I have a hp deskjet 920C at home - my first experience trying to print to it put me at the start of the color management path. For the rare times I print to it, I just let the printer handle the management since that's good enough. Having prints made by consumer labs really started me down the color management path. I wanted to make nice photo booklets of my new daughter for the relatives, but wasn't too pleased with the regular prints. Seemed crazy to spend quite a bit of time color balancing with Elements 3.0 on my monitor when there was no real color management workflow! My local higher end consumer lab is claiming their new Kodak machine will read embedded tags and that they will provide a printer profile, but that hasn't yet happened. Since the on-line Kodak service doesn't provide (as I last checked) printer profiles, I'm considering moving to SmugMug. Any recommendations for on-line labs?

[Jodi Frye]

Here's a link that should help;

http://drycreekphoto.com/Frontier/index.html

As far as prining with HP's...I'm not familiar enough with the driver to give you some direct hints. Tho reading through past threads over time I have found that HP's usually do best with their own color management system.

[RJay]

Thanks! I'll give Costco a try.

[RJay]

Jodi,

Just figured out that I can only assign a printer profile if I "print" to a printer directly! The print dialog gives the output ICC profile option but I can't save to a jpeg, only print.

The link http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/elements-color-management.html has a way to convert Adobe RGB space to sRBG space.
But since I can't add the output device profile I'm still not following the complete color managed workflow. I think I may try Qimage.

Then I'll give Costco a try; one near me is listed on the DryCreekPhoto site.

This learning process is slow.

Rebecca