On Jun 26, 2005, at 6:13 PM, Joseph Tainter wrote:
"how are your color profiles and color management set up? what
profile are you shooting in, what profile are you specifying at
conversion time? what have you got set up for color settings when
reading an image that has an embedded color profile?"
Beats me, Herb. I haven't ventured into color management -- too
expensive. I could buy another lens for the cost.
If you are using Photoshop CS2 and you haven't set up its color
management preferences, you cannot get consistency and accuracy in
your color rendering. You can set it up with no additional cost,
using software calibration approximations, or you can buy a decent
hardware colorimeter and calibration software for your monitor, cost
about $100 these days and you get excellent consistency and accuracy.
For someone who has often expressed excruciating attention to lens
quality and seems willing to spend thousands of dollars to get the
best performing lenses, cheaping out on your photo processing system
for this pittance seems wasteful.
My gripe/query is that the presets in Pentax's Raw converter (for
daylight, shade, flash, etc.) always gave good color, with no color
cast.
It probably gives you a color cast; it's simply one that is appealing
to you.
I bought CS2 mainly because I had read about how good the Raw
converter is. I find that its presets imparts a warm color cast. My
computer, monitor, and printer have not changed. So the problem
cannot be color management. It is something in Adobe's Raw converter.
Your computer, monitor and printer might not have changed, but you're
using new software.
The Camera Raw plug-in is excellent. Current release version is
v3.1 ... download the latest from Adobe if you haven't already. If
its DEFAULTS are not to your taste, you can calibrate and re-set the
defaults to give you exactly what you want. It does presume that you
have at least set up your monitor and set up Photoshop to use color
management policies correctly.
If you need more information on how to use Camera Raw's capabilities
effectively, buy "Real World Camera Raw with Photoshop CS2" by Bruce
Fraser. He explains it well.
Godfrey
