Hello,
I have recently been looking at a bicycle on a small business bicycle manufacturer's website and wondered how the builder could choose such a "unique" paint color. The website coincidentally mentioned the Pantone code for the color so I had the chance to go to the Pantone site and see that their depiction of the color makes it seem much more familiar and pleasant than the depiction on the bicycle builder's website.
I downloaded the bicycle photograph and opened it in Photoshop and learned that its colorspace is untagged RGB and I suppose this must be the reason the color looks so unusual and differs from the hue shown at the Pantone site.
I thought that I might contact the owner and try to explain that I had been considering the product but was turned off by the prospect of the color and mention the idea of tagging the photos so people could what the item really looks like. I went to a major bicycle manufacturer's website and downloaded an example of a product image with the thought that it would surely be tagged, probably as sRGB, and I was surprised to learn that their product photos are not tagged either. I thought that a major online clothing vendor would have these matters well handled so I went and downloaded a photo of a stack of sweaters that is prominently displayed on a website splash page. It too was untagged. Finally I went to a Car Manufacturer's website and downloaded a photo of a car, and it was untagged.
What am I missing? Is it possible that a cottage industry vendor, and three huge vendors with huge advertising budgets are publishing photos with no color management or am I missing some aspect of how color management works? I expected all the photos to be tagged sRGB as they had all been prepared for web distribution. What other options does an advertising agency have when distributing photographic content for vendors?
Thank you.