I do mini color management presentations for a couple of local camera clubs from time to time. One of the most fun parts for me is when, toward the end of the discussion about working color spaces and the the impact on prints, using modern printers with good papers and quality ICC profiles, I show four prints. I have a really lovely fall color photo that a friend created and allows me to use for this exercise. The photo was ingested as raw, into LR and processed to taste. First, in ColorThink Pro I show the plot of the image and then superimpose sRGB, Adobe RGB, and ProPhoto RGB color space wireframes. Lots of oohs and ahhhs from the audience. The image plot easily exceeds even the Adobe RGB wireframe. Then I show the plot for the printer/paper I printed with (one of the good Baryta papers) using a custom ICC profile made for me by Andrew Rodney. It clearly shows that I can print colors (colors that are “in” the image file!) that exceed Adobe RGB! (That takes care of the “You don’t need anything larger than Adobe RGB as a working color space crowd). I bring an easel with Solux 4700k lighting and a nice neutral gray magnetic panel to “pin” the prints on. Then I show them a nice print that was made from the file after converting to sRGB in Photoshop. Decent looking print. Then I show them a print from the file after conversion to Adobe RGB... better looking print! Way more tonal separation in the variety of leaf colors. Then the print made directly from the ProPhoto RGB file. A noticeably better print! It has a greater sense of depth and even more subtle tonal transitions in the leaves. The easel is large enough to have them all up together. The last print I put up is the ProPhoto version, carefully soft proofed for the printer/paper. An even nicer print with more of what I call “presence.” One of the take-always that I try to leave the groups with, that I’ve learned vicariously from Andrew Rodney and Jeff Schewe, is “Why leave any image quality on the table?” when it isn’t any big deal to work in an optimal way once you have some basic understanding?
So, does it matter? Depends on who the audience is. There seems to be a penchant today for uber-saturated, high contrast abominations printed on high gloss aluminum panels. For folk who are drawn to this genre, it probably makes no difference at all, since regardless of your work flow, as long as you end up yanking the saturation controls until your eyes bleed, you’re golden.
But for some it does matter. It matters in a way that can be seen and appreciated. Excellence for its own sake is a worthwhile pursuit - even if the audience isn’t sophisticated. You’ve presented your images in the best possible way available to you. Anything less, is... well “less.” It might be “good enough” - but you know it’s “less.”
Rand