Re: Color management in "Real WORld Photoshop"

[Max Heim <mvheim@studiolimage.com>]

You, of course, are quite correct. In this case, I am not even including 
photographic elements, so I don't have to deal with many of the issues 
you mention. When I do work over site photographs, I generally aim for 
"pleasing" color. For my purposes, the efforts required for an "absolute" 
match would be impractical and unnecessary. And frequently I have no 
control over the quality or color fidelity of the original photograph. 
Matching perspective and shadows, etc, as you mention, is a higher 
priority. 

I think clients are more aware of the treacherous nature of color in 
photographs, probably through personal experience. When I was doing more 
print design, it was typical that a client would seize upon some color 
seen in the "comp" and insist upon maintaining it, even if it was out of 
gamut for the printing process. This back when comps were assembled using 
Pantone papers, color transfer type, markers, etc. But now I'm showing my 
age...

CDTobie@aol.com had this to say:

>
>In a message dated 1/10/00 10:04:44 PM, mvheim@studiolimage.com writes:
>
>>I'm just empirically matching the Epson print to the (Matthews Paint) 
>>swatchbook, in order to achieve a plausibly realistic result. What I mean
>>
>>is, if the building is supposed to be painted Moss Green 1B-4C, that the
>>
>>color of the printout of my illustration of the building matches the 
>>paint chip 1B-4C.
> 
>This is a perceptual matching situation, not an absolute match. A building 
>will have shadows, reflected sky coloration, atmospheric fading and other 
>factors necessary to look "right" for the distance and circumstances of an 
>image. So this has considerable artistic interpretation involved, but far 
>less demanding actual matching than many other applications, where the color 
>chip needs to get lost when dropped on the same color on the final print.
>
>I often alter digital photos to show proposed additions or renovations, and 
>every trick I ever learned in painting drawing and drafting classes is 
>needed 
>to maintain photographic realism in the resulting images. If a section of 
>wall is copied and pasted in place for use as a new wall section at a 
>different angle, it needs to have not only the perspective adjusted, so its 
>texture is appropriate, but may need to be lightened, have the saturation 
>increased, along with the contrast, and the hue warmed up, or all the 
>opposite, depending on lighting and geometry.
>
>C. David Tobie
>Design Cooperative
>CDTobie@designcoop.com
>


--

===============================
Max Heim
mvheim@studiolimage.com
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Studio L'Image/San Francisco
415 643 9309 : 415 643 9307 fax
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