[Openicc] Print and Monitor Color Pipeline-stepping back further...

[Iliah Borg]

> Stepping back in the workflow to capture/editing. It seems to me that for most users today (digital photographers/image editors) the concept of color management begins based on a completely SUBJECTIVE interpretation of raw data based solely on a calibrated display.

It is very common with E-6 that one can profile a scanner using some very good Don's target, individually measured, and after that dealing with clumsy development of the film. If the film is not exposed and/or developed properly, according to the strict standard, Profile stops working properly and one starts colour correction; for better or for worse - depending on the operator's skills. The problem essentially is the same, just more often, and it roots in the absence of standard camera filtration and no standard for raw processing. Sensors are so different that even being profiled using a monochromator they still render the same scene in studio lit by the same stabilized halogen lamps differently, sometimes very differently. It happens with printing, too. One can be given a good profile; but as soon as he starts tuning the driver settings to get more pleasing print he is in trouble. Next, folks are get carried away with large gamut displays and printers. They do not know to limit display gamut to printer gamut, they do not know to do proper proofing, soft or hard.

Colour management is for educated users while colour management education is in the same infancy as digital cameras. Plus we have the moving target. Plus we have uneducated educators. It is interesting to watch how pre-press that was on decline for several years is now hiring once again.

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Iliah Borg
ib at pochtar.com