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aRGB with ACR 4.2 and PSE6

PostPosted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 5:22 pm
by MichelB
After working exclusively in sRGB in my workflow, I am experimenting with aRGB to take advantage of my new home printer with 6 colors inks...
I understand that raw files (Canon *.CR2) can be processed in either color space, even if the exif data indicate sRGB, which applies to the accompanying jpeg. In the future, I may change my camera settings to aRGB, but to experiment in the meantime I want to use my old pictures. I have found how to do it in DPP when converting to tiff format.
In ACR, I do not find such a feature: ACR converts according to the exif data of the camera, ie in sRGB. I don't think using the 'apply aRGB' command in PSE6 is a valid option: if I start with a narrower color space, converting it should not give me more information in the file?
Any ideas?

Michel

Re: aRGB with ACR 4.2 and PSE6

PostPosted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 6:12 pm
by Chuck_S
Michel, that may be a feature of ACR that's enabled in CS3 but not in PSE. I'll have to fire up CS3 and see if I can confirm that...

Re: aRGB with ACR 4.2 and PSE6

PostPosted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 8:17 pm
by jlwilm
Michel, Chuck,

I am using PSE5/CS3 and shoot RAW on my Canon 30D.

On the camera side, I have my color space set to Adobe RGB, and mantain that throughout PSE5/CS3 processing to printing onmy i9900 printer.

Seems to work sweet.

Re: aRGB with ACR 4.2 and PSE6

PostPosted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 4:47 am
by MichelB
jlwilm wrote: Michel, Chuck,

I am using PSE5/CS3 and shoot RAW on my Canon 30D.

On the camera side, I have my color space set to Adobe RGB, and mantain that throughout PSE5/CS3 processing to printing onmy i9900 printer.

Seems to work sweet.


Yes, that is absolutely logical. As I said before, I wanted to test before changing my camera settings and workflow. At present, I am mainly printing on online services with sRGB and optimize for my display (slideshows) or web. I'll print probably a very small percentage on my new printer (best shots in A4 without margins). Since I am shooting raw, it might not be sound to change my workflow to aRGB for everything, with risks of omitting to convert to sRGB for most of my work. From your answers I think my reasoning stil holds: raw data is not yet in sRGB or aRGB and can still be processed either way. No problem with Canon DPP, but I thought there was somewhere a hidden option in ACR...
Thanks both, and I tell you the results of my tests!
Michel

Re: aRGB with ACR 4.2 and PSE6

PostPosted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 6:39 am
by Chuck_S
Michel, bonjour. I finally checked in ACR 4.2 via CS3. Indeed, there's a 'hot' display of the default color space on the bottom of the ACR screen; clicking on it reveals a dropdown box of four choices: sRGB, Adobe RGB, and a couple others I didn't recognize. That choice box is apparently unavailable in Elements, at least 5.0. Hope that clarifies it to some extent.

Re: aRGB with ACR 4.2 and PSE6

PostPosted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 8:18 am
by MichelB
Chuck,
I got it!
I have to use the Menu /Edit/Color settings/always optimize for print...
The option 'allow me to choose' does not work.
I thought the purpose of this option was to enable working with large gamut displays able to show the difference... As a matter of fact, it also tells ACR which colour space to convert in.
Thanks again,
Michel

Re: aRGB with ACR 4.2 and PSE6

PostPosted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 8:08 am
by Codebreaker
Raw files by themselves do not have a colour space, so any changes in the camera will not effect the RAW file. You have to determine the colour space that the final converted RAW file resides in when using Photoshop or whatever.

In Elements the Edit> Colour Settings determine the outcome.

If you choose Optimise for Screen then the result will be sRGB

If you choose Optimise for Print then the result will be AdobeRGB

Essentially the Colour Settings only determine what happens when you have an image with no profile or you are creating one from scratch - which is what you are doing with RAW. These settings will not effect an image that already has a profile - neither will they conver it.

Colin

Re: aRGB with ACR 4.2 and PSE6

PostPosted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 8:18 am
by Chuck_S
Codebreaker wrote: Raw files by themselves do not have a colour space, so any changes in the camera will not effect the RAW file. You have to determine the colour space that the final converted RAW file resides in when using Photoshop or whatever.

Colin


Colin, that says the choice of my colour space in-camera is only relevant when shooting JPEG - correct?

Re: aRGB with ACR 4.2 and PSE6

PostPosted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 8:30 am
by Codebreaker
Chuck....

That's right.

Colin

BTW: anyone getting email notifications of replies - I don't

Re: aRGB with ACR 4.2 and PSE6

PostPosted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 9:06 am
by MichelB
Chuck_S wrote:
Codebreaker wrote: Raw files by themselves do not have a colour space, so any changes in the camera will not effect the RAW file. You have to determine the colour space that the final converted RAW file resides in when using Photoshop or whatever.

Colin


Colin, that says the choice of my colour space in-camera is only relevant when shooting JPEG - correct?


Yes... but: whether you have set your camera to sRGB or aRGB, even if the raw data remains unaffected, which has always been obvious to me, when you process your raw files in ACR - AND - open in Elements, you are not asked by Elements which color space you want to use. It is automatically done according to the general color managements settings, as explained by Collins. In other softwares, you can tell which space you want to choose afterwards for each picture, but it would be a waste to import in a small gamut to convert into a larger space after.