Hi All,
Hoping for advice/feedback from those with experience with the View-> Color Proofing command in Photoshop.
I've been a professional photographer for about 10 years now but am getting more and more concerned with how images are being treated by clients - especially as clients cut out color separation labs, etc.. to save cost and go directly to print.
I've got three color-balanced monitors in our office but notice about 50% of the images I've had printed recently (in the past few years - since going digital) - from Billboards to magazine features, have a washed-out look that does not look like the files we sent out. This is over a large gamut of clients.
Over that time, I've also had the occassional client ask for files to have more saturation, contrast and the like.
I've begun using the "Proofing preview" while color-balancing files - baseing the preview on the client's platform - Mac for Mac-based users and Windows for PC users. BUT - I have no idea if this is an accurate way to balance images.
I've always read - "balance on a corrected monitor - use Adobe RGB - and a client opening the file on another balanced monitor in Adobe RGB will get the same image". This does NOT seem to be the case though as if it were, we'd have more consistent results and the "proofing" tool wouldn't be in PS, would it?
I'll get a file to look beautiful on-screen - only to have it wash out completely when I select the "Proof" option. Balancing to the "proofed" look makes colors look absolutely too saturated, etc... when the file is reopened and "proof" is off. What to do!?
Any wisdom/links/training out there on how to get accurate files to clients - based on the thousands of files we're sending out - what we see and what gets printed seems to be a total crap shoot.
Thanks,
Brent
www.madisonimages.com