Colour spaces - an interesting read

[Alex]

Hi all,

I just found this which might be of interest to many of us:

http://www.nulab.com.au/newsletter/nove ... aAdobe.htm


It's published by a local pro Lab.

Just a newbie question to go with this. I don't yet have a monitor calibrating hardware (it's on a wish list atm), but a related question: Is ICC profile the bit shown in PS as sRGBI followed by numbers? So if I had a spider it would create my own profile which I would then use in PS CS? Also, NC uses a different profile which is for me defaulted at sRGBNikon or something similar to that (sorry I'm not in front of my home PC now), I can't see the same profile as in PS. Are they supposed to be similar? I can't see much difference between the image in NC and PS.

A related question. I use a 1 hour lab to print 6 x 4 in Melbourne. Colours vary sometimes they are Ok sometimes leave a bit more to be desired. For instance a bright green grass came out somewhat yellowish in some photos. Can anyone recommend a good lab in Melbourne area? Nulab seems good but very expesnive!

Sorry I should have posted this in the beginners section, but I thought the link to the article would be interesting to PROs as well.

Cheers and thanks for your help
Alex

[MattC]

Alex,

ICC profiles are shown as you describe.

A spyder (such as Colorvision) will create a profile and calibration data for your monitor which is loaded into the graphics adapter at start up. This is a system profile for interpretating and correctly displaying colours on your monitor. It is not a working profile like Adobe 1998. PS does not use this although it will be (and should be) displayed in your list of profiles.

Your colour variation in pints could be caused by a few things. Monitor calibration and/or profiles (or lack of) is the most likely culprit. You adjust your sRGB print to look right on your screen, but because your monitor is off, prints come back screwy.

Although monitors can be calibrated visually, it can be a tedious and frustrating task (I tried and failed). A Spyder is a very cost and time effective way of getting things right. Combined with correct printer profiles what I get on my screen looks exactly like what I print.

Cheers

Matt

[Alex]

Thanks for the pointers, Matt.

Cheers
Alex