Photoshop CC: Soft-Proofing, plus RGB Color Spaces

  Updated 08/26/21       Two questions from Patrick C in San Diego, CA:   Should I be “soft proofing” my images before I send them to you? If so, do you provide any ICC profiles for your LightJet printer to view my images before uploading to you?   Do you use ProPhoto RGB Color Space (or something else) as your working Color Space in Photoshop?   The answers:   Interesting questions – some real “In the weeds” stuff – let me put on my “propeller-head” hat, and we’ll look at these one at a time …   _____________

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Photoshop: What is a Master File, and why do you need one? – WITH VIDEO

Updated: 08/22/22 – BONUS – – For even more information on Master File Creation & Workflow in Action, see this additional post – WITH YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://blog.main.wattsdigital.com/video-photoshop-master-file-creation-workflow-in-action/  X Notes for the above video can be found here: https://main.wattsdigital.com/images/WattsDigital_ContrastColor_Notes_08-21.pdf ___________ Question: From Matthew S in San Diego, CA:   “Once you capture an image in RAW (or a 16-bit scan), what is the best way to save the image for printing purposes? Or should I convert the image to another format? I typically convert everything to a max quality JPG.  Supposedly any “lossy” degradation will be unnoticed to the eye, or so

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Why shoot in 16 bit (RAW), rather than 8 bit (JPG)?

  Updated: 08/26/21   •  By the way – for much more on “The Philosophy of RAW”, see my post here: https://blog.main.wattsdigital.com/?p=2215     I’ve been asked versions of these two questions so much lately that I had to share – In this post, we’ve got two important questions (and two timely answers) as seen from a “post-processing” point-of-view …   _____________________   Question #1:     From Kris K in Gilroy, CA:     “You’ve mentioned shooting in 16 bit RAW files, and I’ve always used 8 bit JPG’s.  What would be the advantages and disadvantages of using 16 bit versus 8

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Photoshop: A Trick of the Eye

Updated 08/29/21   Rods and Cones are Nature’s Own, but our eyes will still deceive us …   Our eyes are miracles that are created by God – but even God has a sense of humor!  – Do not underestimate how easily our eyes (and by extension, our brain) can be tricked – Magicians make use of this fact!   It has been my experience that of The Three Steps to Successful Color Management in Photoshop the most overlooked is #3: Assure that you have the proper Lighting Conditions and Perception. I want to prove my point on Perception (more

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Photoshop vs Lightroom? Wrong question! – WITH VIDEO

  Updated:  09/09/21 – BONUS:  See my short video from YouTube here:           FYI, this is Part 1 of a 3-part series on this subject – –    •  Part 2 is here:  https://blog.main.wattsdigital.com/?p=2375   •  Part 3 is here:  https://blog.main.wattsdigital.com/?p=2637   ________________   Lately, I’ve been asked a version of this question over and over –   “For working on my images, should I use Lightroom or Photoshop?”   To me, that’s the wrong question, perhaps not even a fair question.   Photoshop and Lightroom are NOT designed to replace each other; they’re designed to COMPLEMENT

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