Hallo everybody,
this is my first post here. The site is gorgeous and I wanted to try the forum for a "beginner question" I have, and not a short one.
I have recently bought a scanner (Nikon SC 5000 ED) with which I am scanning slides to propose to stock agencies. I don't know yet who will get my pictures so I cannot talk to a person in particular now to ask him how should I setup my system. On the other hand I am doing the scanning work now and I would like not to do it several times.
My question regards color management for guys who, like me, are not going to print themselves but are going to give files to somebody for him to print.
I have found many detailed explanation (on internet and also on this site) but they all relate to CM for people who print their pictures themselves. My case is different as I give pictures to somebody who might eventually one day print them.
That should make things easier, I thought.
The ingredients of my recipe, which I have laid down, are as follows:
Agencies want color space "RGB Adobe 1998". OK that sounds easy.
I have used "Adobe Gamma" and obtained a profile file for my monitor (OK I should use a hardware device for optimal results, let's say for the moment I simply have this file, which we call "monitor profile").
I did not calibrate my scanner with a specific device, but I have a factory made "profile" file, which we call "scanner profile", written on disk at setup time, and for the time being this will also be acceptable.
My system (Windows XP) is instructed to use my monitor profile by loading Adobe Gamma at startup (and I can see it being loaded on startup, the appearance changes).
I now have to cook all this into my scanner program (Nikon Scan 4) and Photoshop CS2.
Let's see Nikon Scan first, which looks easier to configure.
In Preferences / Color Management I have ticked on "Use Nikon Color Management system". I have 3 sections to compile:
Monitor: I have chosen "Use custom monitor profile" and passed my monitor profile location;
RGB: Color space where I chose "Adobe RGB (1998)";
CMYK: I have left "Use factory default CMYK profile". As I have no intention to print myself, I suppose this option is irrelevant to me.
So far so good, I suppose operating system and Nikon Scan are configured properly (if we disregard the fact that the profile files are a bit approximated). Nowhere I am asked to indicate where the factory profile of the scanner is, or where should be a profile obtained with an hardware device.
Photoshop CS2 is the cause of some difficulties.
It gives me a menu item "Edit / Color settings" for the program itself. The Help was of No Great Help to me.
In Edit / Color settings I have, under "Monitor color", several parameters to configure.
Working Space:
RGB: I chose "Monitor RGB - Adobe RGB (1998)". I don't know how this would be different from "Adobe RGB (1998)" which is another alternative.
CMYK: I don't intend to print. I have inserted here US Web Coated (SWOP) v2. I though it was irrelevant. It is not, PS tries to simulate the printer rendering on screen ("softproof"). I scanned, worked on and saved many images with this setup. If I change it now, and load an image, PS complains and asks me what should it do. If I load another profile (e.g. Europe ISO coated...) colors on screen change. Aarrggh. Yes of course they do as PS is simulating on screen how would appear those colors on print. That is all what colour management is about. Nonetheless I am puzzled. I wonder whether I should be conscious about this setup. Ultimately I do base color corrections, levels etc. on what I see on screen! If this setup changes what I see on screen, than I should not just ignore it. The guys who will observe my images in his agency will have his system setup with some sort of "softproof". He will simulate something, some colorspace for printing, I guess. And so if we have two different profiles here, we see two different things.
I will ignore "Gray" and "Spot" and go to the next section:
Color Management Policies:
I have three "OFF" here, because I understand that if I use OFF PS uses the embedded profiles it finds on the images. I have "Profile mismatch: ask when opening" turned ON and in fact PS complains if I change setup in the section above, e.g. Working space - CMYK - US web coated...
Let's go to the third section
Conversion Options:
I suppose this is totally irrelevant to me because I am opening my scans, which Nikon Scans has already written in the RGB Adobe (1998) colorspace, so I should never do any color space conversion with my workflow, nor would people in the agency, everybody maintains the RGB Adobe (1998) colorspace (until maybe making a version optimized for the web).
If I now load a file in Photoshop, and choose the menu item: Edit / Assign profile for this image, I find already setup the third choice: Profile (from a menu it is chosen "Nikon Adobe RGB 4.0.0.3000"). What's this? Where does it come from? It is probably information extracted by the scanner profile. The other two options are: "Don't color manage this document" (which is not what I want) and "Working RGB: Adobe RGB (1998)". I am obviously in doubt. Should I find that "Adobe RGB (1998)" is the value to choose for this option?
So, for the generous who was patient enough to read until here, my questions are:
Considering I don't have to print but I have to give a "fully colour managed" image to agencies, and that they all work with "RGB Adobe (1998)":
What should I do with the Edit - Color settings - Working Space - CMYK value?
And what should I do with the Edit- Color settings - Working spaces - RGB?
Which is the difference between "Monitor RGB - RGB Adobe (1998)" and "RGB Adobe (1998)"?
Is the rest of my setup valid?
Should I find "Adobe RGB (1998)" on "Edit - Assign profile" when I open my files? In that case, how is it that I don't find it and find "Nikon Adobe RGB 4.0.0.3000" instead?
That looks like the profile in my scanner, not a colorspace (one of the configuration options in my scanner should be the colorspace, yes, but they are different things).
Lastly: should really Adobe Gamma be loaded on system startup? Or should I disactivate startup loading, as Photoshop is going to load the profile anyway, and so the colormanagement might be made "twice", correcting an already corrected appearance on screen?
Thanks for your patience and answer, if any
Fabrizio Ruggeri