Totally confused by color management

L
Posted By
louise
Mar 15, 2007
Views
362
Replies
3
Status
Closed
I’m running Win XP, and Photoshop 7. I have a Sony CRT and I have the profile for the Sony Monitor. I have a Canon digital camera.

I just purchased an HP Photosmart 8250 (vivara inks – seven ink cartridges, etc). I am using the paper recommended for the printer.

I am totally confused as to how to organize the different color settings in PS.

The photos produced by the Canon have the standard embedded srgb ie66 etc. profile.
My working space is Monitor – RGB Sony Triniton etc.

So first I am asked if I wish to use the embedded profile or the working space. So I choose the working space because that is the monitor image from which I’ll be adjusting the photo – is this correct?

My plan is to make a print on my HP 8250.

So I go to image/mode/assign profile. Here I am given a choice of:
don’t color manage
working RGB – Sony Trinitron etc.
or…..a large dropdown list of many different printers, srgb settings etc. Should I choose the profile for my
HP 8250 with the paper I’ll be using?

If I choose the profile for the HP printer, the picture on the screen looks much less color accurate than it does if I choose the RGB Sony Triniton. So this is very confusing to me. Which should I choose and more importantly, why?

Then I adjust the levels, colors, brightness, etc. of the image on the screen and I’m ready to print.

I have a new set of options 🙂

The printer allows me to choose either
Colorsmart/srgb
Adobe RGB
Managed by application

Once again, which do I choose? Since I’ve told PS to use the printer and paper, should I choose managed by application?

My monitor also has a setting for sRGB. When I used this setting, all my prints had a very mild blue tint.

It seems that when I use Adobe RGB, the colors are vibrant but everything is a drop too red and this also sometimes happens with Colorsmart/sRGB.

Thanks to all who read this long post and as I’m sure is obvious by now, I don’t really understand the "art" of color management. I’ve tried several times to study the help menus in PS, but I can’t really understand much more when I’m done.

All help, clarifications, links to clarifications, greatly accepted.

TIA

Louise
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RG
Roy G
Mar 16, 2007
"louise" wrote in message
I’m running Win XP, and Photoshop 7. I have a Sony CRT and I have the profile for the Sony Monitor. I have a Canon digital camera.
Snipped>>>>>>>>>>>
All help, clarifications, links to clarifications, greatly accepted.
TIA

Louise

Hi.

Sorry, I don’t know anything about your printer, or how it handles Colour Management.

For a workflow which is well proved for Epson printers, have a look at www.ayrphoto.co.uk go to "Notices & Info" then to "How to Print for Accurate Colour".

You should be able to adapt this routine, all you need to do is ensure your HP Printer does NOT do any Colour Management, and that Ps is using the correct profile for your printer and paper.

Roy G
M
mirafiori
Mar 17, 2007
Your problem is that you don’t understand color management especially profiles and got confused. Profiles categorized into input (camera, scanner etc.), output (monitor, printer etc.) and abstract (working space). So choose the appropriate one to work with. If you shoot with a sRGB profile embedded, choose sRGB working space in Photoshop color setting (then no question will be asked because the color profile is the same) and always choose working with embedded profile if your working space is different. Don’t assign profile or convert profile unless you know what you are doing. But first of all you need to calibrate your monitor conforming to standard visual for consistent color. This can be done visually by Adobe Gamma (software) or the more precise colorimeter like GretagMacbeth EyeOne Display (hardware). For printing, you can choose to let Photoshop do the color management or the printer to do color management but not both. It is quite tricky here depending on printer software and Photoshop print setting to off either one of the printing color management. If you do it right, the print could match the display screen very close.

"louise" wrote in message
I’m running Win XP, and Photoshop 7. I have a Sony CRT and I have the profile for the Sony Monitor. I have a Canon digital camera.
I just purchased an HP Photosmart 8250 (vivara inks – seven ink cartridges, etc). I am using the paper recommended for the printer.
I am totally confused as to how to organize the different color settings in PS.

The photos produced by the Canon have the standard embedded srgb ie66 etc. profile.
My working space is Monitor – RGB Sony Triniton etc.

So first I am asked if I wish to use the embedded profile or the working space. So I choose the working space because that is the monitor image from which I’ll be adjusting the photo – is this correct?
My plan is to make a print on my HP 8250.

So I go to image/mode/assign profile. Here I am given a choice of: don’t color manage
working RGB – Sony Trinitron etc.
or…..a large dropdown list of many different printers, srgb settings etc. Should I choose the profile for my
HP 8250 with the paper I’ll be using?

If I choose the profile for the HP printer, the picture on the screen looks much less color accurate than it does if I choose the RGB Sony Triniton. So this is very confusing to me. Which should I choose and more importantly, why?

Then I adjust the levels, colors, brightness, etc. of the image on the screen and I’m ready to print.

I have a new set of options 🙂

The printer allows me to choose either
Colorsmart/srgb
Adobe RGB
Managed by application

Once again, which do I choose? Since I’ve told PS to use the printer and paper, should I choose managed by application?

My monitor also has a setting for sRGB. When I used this setting, all my prints had a very mild blue tint.

It seems that when I use Adobe RGB, the colors are vibrant but everything is a drop too red and this also sometimes happens with Colorsmart/sRGB.
Thanks to all who read this long post and as I’m sure is obvious by now, I don’t really understand the "art" of color management. I’ve tried several times to study the help menus in PS, but I can’t really understand much more when I’m done.

All help, clarifications, links to clarifications, greatly accepted.
TIA

Louise

T
Talker
Mar 18, 2007
On Thu, 15 Mar 2007 00:22:45 -0400, louise
wrote:

I’m running Win XP, and Photoshop 7. I have a Sony CRT and I have the profile for the Sony Monitor. I have a Canon digital camera.

I just purchased an HP Photosmart 8250 (vivara inks – seven ink cartridges, etc). I am using the paper recommended for the printer.

I am totally confused as to how to organize the different color settings in PS.

The photos produced by the Canon have the standard embedded srgb ie66 etc. profile.
My working space is Monitor – RGB Sony Triniton etc.

So first I am asked if I wish to use the embedded profile or the working space. So I choose the working space because that is the monitor image from which I’ll be adjusting the photo – is this correct?

My plan is to make a print on my HP 8250.

So I go to image/mode/assign profile. Here I am given a choice of:
don’t color manage
working RGB – Sony Trinitron etc.
or…..a large dropdown list of many different printers, srgb settings etc. Should I choose the profile for my
HP 8250 with the paper I’ll be using?

If I choose the profile for the HP printer, the picture on the screen looks much less color accurate than it does if I choose the RGB Sony Triniton. So this is very confusing to me. Which should I choose and more importantly, why?

Then I adjust the levels, colors, brightness, etc. of the image on the screen and I’m ready to print.

I have a new set of options 🙂

The printer allows me to choose either
Colorsmart/srgb
Adobe RGB
Managed by application

Once again, which do I choose? Since I’ve told PS to use the printer and paper, should I choose managed by application?
My monitor also has a setting for sRGB. When I used this setting, all my prints had a very mild blue tint.

It seems that when I use Adobe RGB, the colors are vibrant but everything is a drop too red and this also sometimes happens with Colorsmart/sRGB.

Thanks to all who read this long post and as I’m sure is obvious by now, I don’t really understand the "art" of color management. I’ve tried several times to study the help menus in PS, but I can’t really understand much more when I’m done.

All help, clarifications, links to clarifications, greatly accepted.

TIA

Louise

Hi there Louise. Well, first, it’s not all that difficult. I have an HP 7550 printer, so I know the software that comes with HP printers.
The first thing you need to do is to calibrate your monitor. You can do a rough calibration using Adobe’s color calibration feature that’s built into PhotoShop, but you’re better off getting a calibration package like Pantone or Monaco. These packages come with software and a colorimeter. A colorimeter is a sensor that attaches to your monitor, and takes an accurate measurement of the colors as the calibration software is running. They are easy to use and only take a few minutes.
Once you have your monitor calibrated, you need to calibrate your printer. They do make packages to do that, but they are expensive, so you’re better off using one of the online companies that do this. I’ve used Cathy’s Profiles numerous times with good success, and she only charges $40 per profile. ( http://www.cathysprofiles.com/ ) The first thing that you need to do when printing is to turn off all of the automatic settings in the printer’s software. To do this, when you go to print, you have a window that pops up that says Print, and has a button that says "Properties". Click on Properties and you will see another window that has numerous tabs at the top (Quality, Layout, Features, etc.). Click on the "Quality" tab and you will see a button that says, "HP Digital Photography"…click on it. You will see numerous "auto" features like Contrast Enhancement, Digital Flash, etc. Make sure all of these boxes are unchecked, and the Smart Focus is turned off. Every time you try to print at "Best" quality, these boxes will always be checked, so you need to uncheck them each time you open PhotoShop.
When you calibrate your printer, you will need a profile for each type of paper that you are going to use, so you might want to get a profile for the paper you use the most first, just to see if you’re satisfied with the profile.

Talker

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