Digital Prints

1. Open and Convert
A color-managed application like Photoshop must first know what to do with tagged or
untagged documents. “Tagging” means associating a required Source profile to the file. In
this case, there was no source profile since I received the scan from someone who doesn’t
know about such things (not an uncommon situation). Also, profiling a color negative
scan is very problematic, and it’s often better to simply capture a good, full-range scan,
and take it from there.
I open the scan of my two nieces Kira and Katie in Photoshop and immediately assign my
typical working space: Adobe RGB (1998)—see Figure 4.14. This gives me a “bigger tent”
to work in. I can change the profile later.
The scan needs some work, and I
do some basic image editing with
Levels and Curves to darken it,
remove the overall green tinge,
and more (not shown). This is
now my new master file.
2. Soft-Proof
One of the best ways to implement
profile-based color management is
with the use of Photoshop’s
RGB soft-proofing function. Softproofing
RGB files (you could
always soft-proof CMYK) is a great
advancement to digital imageediting
from Photoshop (beginning
with version 6).
Soft-proofing means proofing an image onscreen with the use of one or more ICC profiles
so you can get an idea of how the image is going to print. The image is viewed through
the visual filter of both a printer profile and a monitor profile. Photoshop will change the
way the image looks based on these output (and input if you have one) profiles.
Soft-proofing works like this in my current situation:
1. I duplicate the new master image (Image > Duplicate) for use as a visual reference. This is
a temporary image that stays untouched.
2. On the working image, I use the Proof Setup dialog box (View > Proof Setup > Custom) to
create the proofing space I want (see Figure 4.15). Under Profile, I choose the custom output
(printer) profile I had made earlier with the Eye-One Photo package. The Intent tab let me
pick a rendering intent for converting from document space to proofing space. The Simulate
and Use Black Point Compensation checkboxes offer options that give different renderings of
the image. I don’t worry if the soft-proofed image (still on my screen) looks less than perfect;
I’m getting a preview of how it will print if I didn’t do anything to fix it.
Chapter 4 ■ Understanding and Managing Color 141
Figure 4.14 Raw scan and assigning
the Adobe RGB (1998) working space.
Photo courtesy of Karen Inga Morgan