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“ESTABLISHING A COLOUR MANAGED WORKFLOW” by MICHAEL SMYTH
WHAT IS COLOUR MANAGEMENT AND WHY DO WE NEED IT ?
The goal of any photographer in the Digital age is to capture, process and print images with consistent
and accurate results. In addition, you may also want to have your images presented on a website,
projected at a camera club on a data projector, or publish a book through a third party publisher. In
each case you will want to ensure that colours are represented accurately no matter where or how they
are viewed.
Therefore a system of managing and controlling colour both within your working environment and across
all other devices is of paramount importance. This is what a Colour Managed Workflow seeks to achieve.
Tip: If you do not have a colour managed workflow setup you will need to make constant corrections to
each device to try to achieve a result that looks something like the initial image captured on your
camera. If you change any of the components in your setup you will have to start all over again.
The digital imaging process involves several steps over several devices and each can influence how the
colours will appear in your final image. The only way to achieve consistent and accurate results is to
have all of these devices colour managed and working to known standards of colour:
THE COMPONENTS IN A COLOUR MANAGED WORKFLOW
There are three components to a colour management system.
The first is a Colour Space. The colour space defines the colours that can be represented within that
space or “Gamut”.
Colour spaces have been designed for specific uses and devices. Common colour spaces are Adobe
RGB and sRGB. The colour space represents the range of colours that can be displayed or output from
within that space. For example, sRGB was designed to represent the colours that can be displayed on a
monitor and is useful for images that will be only viewed on the web or on a computer monitor (This
space was designed over a decade ago as a “lowest common denominator” that would work on
almost all devices of the time. Things have progressed since that time and many devices are capable of
displaying colours well outside the sRGB space).
Adobe RGB is a closer representation of the colour gamut of an inkjet printer, however the newer 8 colour
inkjet printers in particular can print colours that are even outside the gamut of RGB. As a standard,
photographers should work with Adobe RGB as a starting point.
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The second component is the calibration and creation of Colour Profiles for the devices used in a system.
This allows accurate representation of the colours from device to device. Profiles are referred to as ICC
(International Colour Consortium) profiles as they comply with a known standard (ICC standards for
colour).
Thirdly, you need to instruct your computer system on how to use these profiles in the image processing
workflow. This is managed as part of the Colour Settings and Rendering Intents setup in Photoshop.
Colour spaces are specific to the device that records or outputs the colour, The calibration process
creates a profile for each device and these profiles are used in the data translation process. Devices like
digital cameras and scanners have embedded colour profiles (for JPEG capture), computer monitors
need to be calibrated on a regular basis and a profile created for the monitor used to display the image.
Printer software comes with standard colour profiles for each different type of paper, or you can create
your own using specialist tools.
Tip: Despite each device having a different colour space and profile, when correctly set up in
Photoshop the handling of this colour information from camera to computer and to printer works almost
seamlessly in the background.
Let’s look at each device in the chain in turn and establish the preferred settings:
CAMERA SETUP
If you are shooting RAW, (and you should be for optimum quality), the selection of colour space on the
camera is irrelevant, as the colour space is not applied until processing in the RAW converter. You will
have the choice of up to 4 colour spaces in Adobe Camera RAW.
If you are shooting JPEG, you will probably have the option of Adobe RGB or sRGB colour space. The
choice of colour space will depend on your final use for the image, however if you use sRGB at capture
you will lose significant colour Gamut that cannot be recovered later.
Tip: We recommend using Adobe RGB at capture (if shooting JPEGs) to maximise quality. Images can
be easily converted to the smaller sRGB colour space later, if required.
PHOTOSHOP SETUP
This is the most critical area as images brought into your computer will be handled by Photoshop all the
way to the printer.
To set Photoshop to work in the appropriate colour space and control other options, go to Edit>Colour
Settings. You will see a dialog box like the one below.
Adjust your settings per the following as recommended by Adobe (these are NOT the default settings
when Photoshop is installed on your computer :
For more detail, see the white paper from Adobe at:
www.adobe.com/digitalimag/pdfs/phscs2ip_colormgraw.pdf
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Working spaces:
RGB: set to Adobe RGB 1998
CMYK: ignore (not relevant for printing)
Gray: set to Gray Gamma 2.2
In Colour Management Policies:
RGB: Set to Preserve embedded profiles
CMYK: Set to Preserve embedded profiles
Gray: Set to Preserve embedded profiles
Profile Mismatches: Tick only the box for
“Missing Profiles, otherwise leave unchecked.
You don’t know if you want to convert from
another profile until you can see it on the
monitor. You can then easily go to Edit>
Convert to Profile and convert to your working
space (Adobe RGB).
Under Conversion Options:
Engine: Set to Adobe ACE
Intent: set to Perceptual or Relative Colorimetric
Tick the two boxes below.
Leave the other advanced controls
unchecked.
When done you can save these settings. I have called them “Adobe recommended Settings” (as shown
in the settings title above).
In Photoshop Elements, go to Edit>Colour settings and choose “Full Colour Management” for Adobe RGB
or “limited Colour Management” for sRGB. You don’t have any other options to set in Elements.
ADOBE CONVERSION ENGINE AND RENDERING INTENTS – THE HEART OF THE SYSTEM
As each file or image is handled from one device to another (camera to Photoshop, Photoshop to
printer) the colour information is translated into the new profile and space.
This is handled in Photoshop behind the scenes by the Adobe Conversion Engine (ACE) and how this is
handled is determined by setting the Rendering intent. This is a critical setting and is invaluable in
translating the colour information into the monitor profile as well as sending the information to the printer.
Choices for the Rendering intent are Perceptual or Relative Colorimetric. We recommend using
Perceptual as outlined above.
Tip: Use Adobe RGB as your working colour space if you are printing your own images as this closely
matches the available printer gamut for an inkjet printer. Note: it is a fallacy that inkjet printers work in
sRGB colour space, they have considerably wider gamut in some areas than sRGB, depending on the
paper and printer in use. If you are only using images on the web or screen only, then convert to sRGB.
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CONVERTING PROFILES
There will be times when you want to change an image’s colour profile to suit a particular purpose, for
example, in converting an image for use on a web page you may want to change the profile from
Adobe RGB to sRGB.
To convert an existing image, go to Edit>Convert to Profile. (Do NOT use assign profile).
You will see a dialog box as shown below:
Choose the destination space and the rendering
intent. Make sure you save the file with a new name
so you know the colour profile has changed.
MONITOR SETUP
Your monitor is one of the most variable links in the imaging chain and it must be accurately calibrated
and the profile saved. As monitors change over time it is also recommended to recalibrate on a regular
basis.
There are several monitor calibration devices available
such as the ColorMatch Spyder, Eye One and
Pantone Huey. They all work by using a colorimeter
attached to the monitor to read the colour values
displayed by the monitor.
When you have completed the calibration process
you will be asked to save the profile with a file name.
You can check that this profile is being used in
Photoshop by going to the colour settings panel
(Edit>Colour Settings) and clicking on the drop down
tab next to the RGB working space.
Scroll down to check that the monitor profile appears
in the list BUT DO NOT SELECT IT ! Just make sure it is in
the list. This way you can be sure that it is being used
to render the colours on your screen.
PRINTER SETUP
When you are going to make a print, Photoshop translates the colour information into the profiles
associated with your printer and paper choice. These profiles are loaded with your printer software
You can check to see if the profiles have been installed with your printer driver by going to View>Proof
Setup>Custom in Photoshop.
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By scrolling
s dow
wn all of the profiles store
ed you should find printe
er profiles. Th
hese are for an Epson R1
1800:
Youu should findd profiles for the differen nt types of paper
tha
at your printe er can hand dle. If theree are no proofiles
storred in this liist, you will need to go o to your prrinter
maanufacturer’ss website and dow wn load the
apppropriate priinter driver and
a profiles.
You u can get ana approximate idea of how the im mage
will look when n printed by y choosing the approp priate
prin
nter and paperp commbination and ticking the
Pre
eview button n. Try ticking
g and un tic
cking to see
e the
diffference betw ween the display
d and print, as we
ell as
tryinng different types of pap
per.
u will notice
You e A big diffe
erence betwween glossy and
maatte paper, both
b in the colours and the blacks.
e setup and sizing for printing
The p will be
b covered in a
sep
parate tutoria
al.
MMARY
SUM
Wee have seen why there is i a need foor a colour m
managed wo orkflow in th
he digital ima
aging proce
ess. The
step
ps above alllow you to se
et up your camera, com mputer system
m, monitor and
a printer fo
or optimum results.
r
We
e will cover printing
p in mo
ore detail in a separate ttutorial.
A fuller
f outline of all the steps
s necesssary in the D
Digital workfflow are cov
vered in the
e tutorial title
ed “The
Dig
gital Workfloww”.
© Michael
M Smy
yth 2008
Pag
ge 5
