Message
Re: [colorvision_group] Explanation of softproof issue...
2008-07-14 by CDTobie@aol.com
In a message dated 7/14/08 12:09:23 PM, magick246@... writes:
Thanks for your taking the time to explain softproofing so clearly.
Unfortunately, in a single unillustrated email, there is much about softproofing that I could not explain, but I was hoping to address what was needed to get to the reason the softproof on screen does not look like the non-softproof image...
I have never quite understood what the rationale is between the displayed image and the image given from Softproof. I think it is a source of confusion for many of us. A question still seems to remain and that is, how does Photoshop come to displaying the "ideal image"? Is it a display that depicts the particular workspace, without particular paper, printer and ink limitations?
The workingspace image is an image that has fewer constraints; it represents what you camera could capture, imported through your workflow, and held on disk, ideally tagged with a workingspace to give the RGB values specific meaning. The view of it is all of that, limited by the gamut of your display, in any area where that is less than the image gamut. Having a standard gamut CinemaDisplay right next to an Eizo Wide Gamut display, I can move images from one to the other to gauge what effect the display gamut has on images. Except for cartoon colors, the answer is typically: not too much.
I use matte papers exclusively for my work and sometimes find great differences in how the darks are portrayed. I more or less, have to fly blind and can only make proofs to ascertain what is happening in this area. I cant see much difference when Black Point Compensation is off or on, but I am guessing that could vary greatly with the individual image.
BPC has more or less effect depending on the image, the media's D-max, and the rendering intent. Turning BPC off with a ColorMunki profile in any intent except perceptual, for a matte paper, will result in unacceptable detail clogging. We have chosen to go in the other direction (since BPC is only available through Adobe applications) and design our profiles to be used without BPC, so that they can be used with any color managed application, and any intent, not just Adobe apps with BPC. Have you experimented with adjusting the L* value in Reference Black to tune your softproof-to-print match?
C. David Tobie
WW Product Technology Manager
Digital Imaging & Home Theater
Datacolor
CDTobie@...
www.datacolor.com/Spyder3
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