For your project, you need a color test chart, or anything that can be used as a true baseline, and have that in a picture at the begining of every session or roll. Then have one of those charts available for anyone wanting to produce an image in the future and they'll make your red the red they was there! In theory. Uncompressed TIF, but zip up your files possibly - external compression.
At 01:05 PM 3/17/2004 -0500, you wrote: >Back to the list after a few years of absence. I apologize if I've already missed a similar discussion. > >I've recently been interested in digitizing my photographic process. I'm sticking with E-6, but every slide I make I get scanned. The web-site www.josephholmes.com gave me a bit of inspiration in to what digital imaging can mean to the photographic process: overcoming, or at least managing, the limitations and variations that are introduced when we try to represent the natural world in print form or on the web. > >This self imposed term paper I've been doing on the web has led to more questions than answers. I came back here to get a consensus I have relied upon in the past. Here are my questions: > >1) Which file format, in what type of compression, in what color space (or photometric interpretation) is the best for archiving and printing (not web use)? > >My feeling so far is that GIF is out b/c it is limited to 256 colors; JPEG (which is actually a compression not a format) is out because the compression is "lossy"; TIFF seems to be the winner. Are there there viable options to consider. Should the TIFFs be compressed in a particular way, or uncompressed? Which way? Should the file be in RGB, CMKY, XYZ, L*a*b*, or other. I know RGB is good for monitors, CMYK is good for printers, and L*a*b* has its advantages too, but what should be the bread and butter? > >2) Could someone explain the "Color Management" process. Does this process change the information in a file, or does it merely alter it during the data process to change it for a specific use. Ex- if I have a color profile for my scanner, does it alter the raw data coming in, or provide a means of interpreting that data? Similarly, if I changed a color profile for an image in photoshop one day, and then changed it back to the original later, would the result be different from the original? And lastly, is color management based on a standard palette that all profiles look to as a baseline, or does the process happen in the absence of a standard? how? > >Thanks for the help and the dicussion. I'm glad to be back. > >Brent Roberts >Florence, SC >(formerly of Birmingham, AL) > >
