I realize this is not ideal but I'm trying to make the best out of it. When I soft proof, probably about 90% of the time I end up making a very subtle S curve with a slight bump up in the lower highlights/upper midtones range and a slight bump down in the lower darks/upper shadows range. When I looked at these images with the blurb profile, in soft proof they looked better, as do most of my images, when I add this curve in soft proofing.
I know it is somewhat of a crap shoot but do you think I should hold my breath and just go ahead and add this curve where it seems to be doing the trick in this less than ideal situation or would you just send them the original files untweaked by any soft proof corrections? Also, don't know to what extent this would influence your opinion, but I have the book laid out all against a black background so that might create an optical illusion making the images look brighter than they would on a white or light background.
Appreciate your thoughts.
Regards,
Cynthia