Basic Colour Management: C1 & PS

MattMatic · 2006-05-15T10:18:58+0100

In response to some other threads, I thought it appropriate to give a little guidance on the way you should set up a Windows machine for colour with Capture One and Photoshop. First of all, you need to decide on a colour space you are going to work with (as a rule). I suggest one of three: AdobeRGB: my preferred everyday choice. This can handle a good range of colours and is ideally suited for printing - both offset litho and modern inkjets (which have driver options for AdobeRGB) ProPhoto: an astonishingly wide colour gamut. This can cover almost any colour you can see. However, because it is so wide you should always work in 16-bit per pixel mode, otherwise you risk posterisation. If you want to eek out every ounce of colour detail, or have absolutely precise adjustments in colour, then this is a great colour space. sRGB: if you don't want to get bogged down in colour stuff, then sRGB is the choice for you! It's the gamut that the web uses, as well as most high-street and internet printing services. It's pretty cramped colour wise, but generally it will do fine (but this one is last on my list when it comes to editing images!). Calibrate your monitor An absolutely essential step! Preferably you should use something like a Spyder/Huey etc which will physically measure your screen and produce a profile. Failing that there's the free WiziWYG from www.praxisoft.com - which is available for both Mac and PC (95,98,XP). If you use WiziWYG, pick "Generic LCD" if you have an LCD monitor, and use D50 white point (but have very subdued lighting in the room), and 2.2 gamma. Once your monitor is calibrated Windows will always display through that profile - you never need to reference the monitor profile again (it is used by the video driver, and once setup should always use it). Setting up Capture One Go into the colour management settings and set "Output destination (working space)" to your chosen colour space. e.g. AdobeRGB Never should this be your monitor profile or anything else. Capture One will translate the CCD information, using the "Camera Profile" you choose (e.g. Pentax istD generic v2) into that working space. This working space should be a standard - i.e. one of the three I listed above. It's worth noting that you can try other "Camera Profiles" for your Pentax DSLR. Try any of the Nikon D100 profiles as they share the same sensor ;) Capture One provides a "Portrait" profile that has much more muted colours. By changing the camera profile C1 is assuming the DSLR has a slightly different response - but still it will convert into the "Working space" - which should be AdobeRGB (or one of the others). Setting up Photoshop Go into the "Color Settings" dialog and, under "Working Spaces", set RGB to your chosen colour space. e.g. AdobeRGB. The "Conversion Options" can be set as follows: Engine = Adobe (ACE) Intent = Relative Colormetric Use black point compression = checked Use dither (8-bit/channel images) = checked Under CS and CS2 there are "Soft Proof" options. For 99% of photographic work you should completely ignore this and not enable the Soft Proof! I'll can explain, but it's another huge chunk of info... Saving for Web If you are not using sRGB as your chosen colour space, then before you save for web you need to convert into the sRGB colour space. Photoshop provides the option to do this under the Image menu (and annoyingly CS/CS2 puts it in a different place compared to PS7 and before). I'll update this post with some more details later, but hopefully this should clear away some misunderstandings of colour!

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rodrigues rodrigues

13 posts
16 years

Posted 13/05/2010 - 20:10 Link

Hello,

Wow this is really very good information. i like this information and this will help me and also others a lot. so, thanks for sharing this information.

thanks

testbloke testbloke

177 posts
16 years

Posted 05/10/2010 - 13:16 Link

again, many thanks for this information, it is very helpfull.

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shyna shyna

1 posts
11 years

Posted 25/05/2015 - 14:46 Link

The ordinary technique of putting the subject somewhat off-centre, about a third of the way Melbourne Event Photography from either the left, right, upper or lower part of the photograph. Not for all time the best option, but generally can help a photograph's composition.

hwefaf hwefaf

2 posts
10 years

Posted 07/12/2015 - 02:32 Link

It likes reading a science paper to follow your links.

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nathalie484 nathalie484

3 posts
10 years

Posted 15/12/2015 - 06:09 Link

So great avis,i will try...

photographyax... photographyaxis

7 posts
7 years

Posted 13/09/2018 - 03:17 Link

Thanks, MattMattic for this useful guide. I use Data Color Spyder 4 for Calibrating my display monitor. I have kept sRGB as the default color space. , most of the printing facilities in my area support only sRGB. So, there is no use in keeping Prophoto as the color space.

Photographyaxis