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Color Management Policies in Camera RAW

Lesson 14 from: From Capture to Print

Rocco Ancora

Color Management Policies in Camera RAW

Lesson 14 from: From Capture to Print

Rocco Ancora

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Lesson Info

14. Color Management Policies in Camera RAW

Lessons

Class Trailer
1

Class Introduction

03:26
2

Advantages & Pitfalls of Printing

17:41
3

Demystifying Color Management

14:12
4

Understanding Bit Depth

13:59
5

Best Color Space to Work In

21:33
6

Importance of Image Capture

24:59
7

Live Shoot: Natural Light

12:31
8

Live Shoot: Studio Lights

21:21

Lesson Info

Color Management Policies in Camera RAW

I'll open this up in Adobe Camera Raw. There it is. Okay, this one I've already adjusted. The way we set the color policies for Adobe Camera Raw happens down here at the bottom of the screen, where we hit that little, it says the color space you're working in, and the workflow options. This is what is going to come up. Okay, so the color space. Pro Photo, do you wanna work in SRGB, do you wanna work in Adobe RGB. Now, let's have a look at something. Let's pick the SRGB color space, and let's have a look at the histogram on the right hand side. We seeing the histogram? Now, let's have a look at that histogram mapped out at, say, Pro Photo RGB. See how much more color we have, and the spike has gone up, because we're mapping colors over a greater area, okay? So, you know, Pro Photo RGB, if we wanna work that way, the bit there, 16 bit, we never do any resizing. We leave it to the default of what the camera's actually capturing, and here I've got the option of opening in Photoshop as a sm...

art object, which we'll deal in the next section. We'll just open it up as an image. See, if I leave it as a smart object, when I hit okay, on the right hand side, it says "open object." Okay, and if I change that to don't open in Photoshop as a smart object, what I get is Open Image, okay? So, that button's a real tell-tale sign of what you have already put in. So, assuming we're working in Pro Photo in Photoshop setting two into Pro Photo, and I've done the necessary adjustments, I'll then hit Open Image and it'll open in that particular color space, and so everything is working the way it's meant to work. One of the other things that we do when we're converting raw files is always click our profile corrections for our lens, because not all lenses are perfect. Okay, so it just takes care of aberrations, and you can see there any distortion in the image. Okay, and should I need any more vignetting removed, I can dial it in manually around the edges, but this is pretty good, and I think we don't have anything to worry about there. Okay, so very simple the way we handle color in Photoshop, but you gotta be setting it right, okay? So if not, then you could be thinking you're working in a particular color space, and you're working with a color that you're not. So, if you are adopting an Adobe RGB color space because you're mainly shooting weddings and you just want nice skin tones in that, then, you know, Adobe all the way, okay? Adobe, Adobe, Adobe, and if you are doing things like landscapes where, you know, it's about vibrant sunsets, and saturated skies, and incredible clouds, and all that sorta stuff, and you are working in a wider color space like Pro Photo RBG, then what happens is everything has to match that. It's gotta be a Pro Photo RGB workflow, if you like. So, Lightroom output to Pro Photo RGB, your presets, your settings in Photoshop have to be setting Pro Photo, and then of course, Camera Raw, if you're coming in that way, you know, it happens the same. 'Cause you might have an image that comes in from Lightroom in Pro Photo RGB, and then you might wanna add, just say you'd, once again, you're coming back to replacing your sky in a landscape, and the second image comes from a library that you've got somewhere else, and you just wanna take that image and bring it via Photoshop through Adobe Camera Raw, then you gotta make sure Camera Raw is speaking the same color language as Photoshop, and then as Lightroom, and et cetera, et cetera. So, it's very simple, and once you've set that, you stick to it, and you don't break it. You just don't. One thing you need to be careful of is that, a lot of the times, you might come in and set a color space in Photoshop, and then something happens and your machine crashes before you've had a chance to officially check out of Photoshop. Those settings aren't saved, so it'll come back and it'll open to some default color space. You might be back to SRGB. Okay, so be very careful that, sometimes I'll just, if I'm doing color critical work, I'll always come in and check and go, yeah, I'm in the right color space, thank God, and it's all good. "So, if I've already set "all the color profiles in Lightroom "and everything's calibrated, do I still have to check "the color space in Photoshop, "or can it be assumed to carry over?" No, you still have to set the color. If you're not doing any editing in Photoshop, then it doesn't matter, but if you are continuing, like, I know my wedding workflow, I'll do all the color adjustments in Lightroom, and then obviously everything that ends up in an album's gonna be beautifully retouched as far as skin, and removing things, bits and pieces. So, I will take those images into, you know, an Adobe RGB in a Photoshop setup, which is an Adobe RGB output setup out of Lightroom. So, that has gotta reflect that, so you're retaining that, you know? But if you set those color management checkboxes, the minute you go into Photoshop and Photoshop is not in the color space that you're sending those files through, it'll tell you "Hang on a minute, something's not right." So yeah. Sean's asked, "If you aren't sure yet "which printer you'll print on, "do you recommend 300 DPI or 360 DPI "for your master file?" At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter, as long as you're not resampling. We're gonna be talking about sizing images in lessons to come. But as long as you're not resampling the image, and if you wanna output at 300, that's fine. Just remembering though, that when we do go to an Ibsen, we have to go to native, which is 360, and I'll explain how to do that in other sessions coming up. So yeah. But you can stay 300 if you like, if the output's gonna be 300. Like, you know, for me for my album work, my output is at 300 because I know that I'm not going to, the majority of my files like all the album pages and all the little bits and pieces that go with it are gonna be shipped via the internet to Graphy at 300 DPI, so that's pretty much what we do. Gordon asks, "Can't I make some presets "for each of the lighting conditions "so that I can apply them without using the color checker "for every shot, will that work?" Yeah, you could, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You could click onto the checker, right, save that color balance as a preset, and then apply that color balance preset to all the images. Yeah, that's another way of doing it, and that's actually a good way of doing it.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Rocco's Photoshop Actions
Rocco's Printer Evaluation Files
Color & Luminosity Seperation Action

Ratings and Reviews

Roberto Valenzuela
 

I honestly consider many courses to be great, but optional. However, this course by Rocco Ancora is a MUST! It helps the photographer complete the circle of being a photographic artist. Our job doesn't end at the edit, it ends with the print. When your clients can hold and enjoy your creative vision physically, that is when the magic of being a photographer happens. I have been so fortunate to travel the world teaching and meeting some of the best photographers in the world. That being said, I can say with confidence that nobody can teach this combination of Photoshop retouching / fine-art printing better than Rocco Ancora. I believe in this class so much, I traveled to Seattle to attend this course to be part of the live studio audience. I have never done that before. But that's how important I consider this material to be. I am so happy I took the time to go and learn from the man himself. Now, I will get this course to watch it, dissect it, study it, and practice it. Very excited to see how the knowledge in this course will propel my career further. --Roberto Valenzuela

a Creativelive Student
 

I was fortunate enough to attend this class in person and got to experience Rocco's prints in person. The quality is absolutely breathtaking and a game changer, Learning these skills will really help my business in a number of ways. In the past, I have had a difficult time convincing clients to purchase typical lab prints through my studio, as opposed to buying them through Walmart or Costco where the quality was "close enough." Rocco's method that he shared in this class creates three dimensional images of unmatched quality and images that just jump off the page. The knowledge from this course will empower me to help run a sustainable business and thrive as a photographer. You would be foolish to not learn these methods and incorporate them into your business. Highly Recommend!!

April S.
 

I have invested time into learning Lightroom and Photoshop, my own gear, and my particular photographic style, but the one thing I am really lacking is a solid understanding about preparing an image for print, and the various print options (e.g., paper types). When I saw this course come up on the CL schedule it caught my eye immediately so I RSVP'd for the live broadcast. I was at work when it started and couldn't watch at that time. I do listen in from work sometimes, but after 2 minutes of listening to this course I realized it was one I really needed to watch closely and focus on. So, I stopped the stream after a couple minutes and bought the course. I have never done that before. I always wait and watch as much as I can in the initial broadcast (or rebroadcast) to decide if a course is one that I really should spend for. I knew right away though that Rocco was presenting the very information I was lacking and needed, and I wanted it! In addition, it was clear to me after looking him up online that he's a consummate professional with lots of experience and his delivery style even in just the couple of minutes that I listened reflected that. I already have X-rite ColorMunki Display and Colorchecker, a good monitor, and I have a photo printer (Canon Pixma Pro-100) but I'm lacking that technical understanding of color and know I'm not using my resources to their fullest. I use my Canon Pixma to test-print images before uploading to the print service I use. My method isn't ideal since the service uses different printers and ink, and paper depending on what I choose, but at least I have a much better idea of what my image file will give me in print form. After Rocco's course I believe I will be much better equipped to prepare my images and choose the options best suited to each image. I'll still test print if only because it's fun to see something on paper, but I expect the results I get from the print service to be much better once I really know how to put this knowledge to work for me.

Student Work

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