newbie needs advice on color management, color spaces, gamut, etc.

[rcloud]

Hi,
I've recently purchased a canon 9000 mk 2 to start doing my own prints.  I'm working on a 2011 iMac 27" which I hear is notoriously difficult to calibrate.  I have a few questions regarding managing colors.

First, I am using Lightroom and shoot RAW on my Canon; on my limited gamut display, which color space should I be using to edit my images? It seems to default to pro photo RGB which I understand is far above what my monitor can display.  Should I drop that down to srgb? 

Second, is it worthwhile buying monitor calibration hardware if you have a limited gamut display?  I will never be able to come close to viewing on the display all of the colors that the printer can produce. 

Third, is soft proofing worthwhile? what is the best workflow for this. I would have to edit in photoshop, and then there is the question of what color space to use in PS.  Same as in LR? Is the best practice to make all of the adjustments that you can, then create a copy, and softproof until it looks like the original? This is quite burdensome as my softproofing experience in Aperture gave me dramatically differently looking images from the original and making the tweaks necessary to match the original is perhaps impossible. 

Fourth, what color space should I send to the printer? If I edit in one color space and then print in another(I think PS defaults to Adobe RGB) will the output look quite different?

Are there any considerations that I am missing?

I've read some on these forums, but these ideas are still quite fuzzy in my mind.  I do very much appreciate any responses.

Kind Regards,
Rob

[Schewe]

First, if you are editing raw in Lightroom you are already using LR's internal color space for edits. Unless you export to Photoshop, you don't have a choice of editing spaces...

Second, unless you DO calibrate your display you'll have no idea what your images really look like. So, yes, get a calibration/profiling solution.

Third, yes, soft proofing allows you to predict what the image will look like in print. And currently that means Photoshop. As for the color space, you'll need to decide but I use ProPhoto RGB in 16 bits.

4th, if using LR to print, you either set the Print module to have the Printer Manage Color (not usually optimal) of LR managing color. If you have LR manage, you set the profile for the printer/paper you are using.

You still have a long way to go before you understand this stuff...maybe some reading or tutorials would help. The current Camera to Print & Screen here on LuLa would be a good place to start...(course, I might be biased since I was involved with making them).

[Mac Mahon]

Rob

+1 to what Jeff Schewe said

I have almost the identical setup to you.  The iMac can be calibrated and you get pretty damn good screen-print matching afterwards.  You are right, the screen can't display all the colours in ProPhoto RGB, and neither can the printer.  The key is to ensure those they can display are as correct as possible.  (Fortunately most of the colours in most images are inside the common gamut of both devices or we'd be up the proverbial creek)

I do not routinely soft-proof:  not because I wouldn't want to or don't see the value, but because here in NZ the price of Photoshop is out of reach.  (I've got my fingers crossed for soft-proofing in LR4)  However, even without it, given good display profiling and good print profiles I've not had many disappointments.

Jeff and Michael Reichmann's videos are very helpful on colour management.  For a 101 level introduction might I also suggest www.fromcameratoprint.com

Tim

[rcloud]

Thanks for the suggestions, I have purchased the video set and a colormunki display and will report back with any successful results!

[Ellis Vener]

I'm working on a 2011 iMac 27" which I hear is notoriously difficult to calibrate.  I have a few questions regarding managing colors.

Not sure where you got that idea. I have a similar 27" iMac and it profiles beautifully with the ColorMunki Photo kit and i1 Pro which use a photospectrometer, and even better (although not hugely different) with the ColorMunki Display and i1 Display Pro colorimeters. The gamut is overall larger than sRGB and in some color values the 2010 and 2011 27" iMac gamuts exceed Adobe RGB(1998) although not uniformly. Still the white LED backlit iMacs are good displays for photo and video work. There are of course better high end NeC and Eizo displays  if you are willing to pay for one.

I also recommend the latest set of Schewe-Reichmann video tutorials.