Lightroom/Photoshop and getting my images color correct!

PrettyKitty

Ok, the more I think I know, the more I realize I don't know and now I'm just straight up confused! I've been an amatuer photographer for years and am now being asked by other people to do some work for them. So now I'm a LOT more concerned about this process... since in the past I've mostly only cared about how it looks online. Now I'm worried about prints AND web!

I have Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2. I import my photos using Lightroom 2 and usually shoot Raw+jpg but I don't let lightroom stack them. I want to see the raw and jpg seperately. So if I do my edits in Lightroom, my understanding is that i can't control the color profile. So if it looks good in lightroom (assuming my monitor is properly calibrated) then it should print well? If I burn it to a full size jpg after my lightroom edits, will my client get prints that are similar? The reason I ask is because when I upload to the web using Friedl's plugins (which converts to sRGB in the process), the web versions look a LOT more saturated. I'm assuming this is just because it's the web and wouldn't affect the actual printing? Is this correct?

Then let's say I export to CS4 to do some advanced editing. I believe it comes over in Pro-PhotoRGB because I started in Lightroom even though the picture was shot in AdobeRGB or sRGB? Here's where I start to get really confused. If I go to view proof setup and pick my printer profile, things look ok. But if I go to proof setup and click monitorRGB they look really jacked up- very grey and lifeless.

SO is there a good tutorial for photoshop on this topic? I basically want to make sure i'm following the right process for the following 2 things:

1. Bringing a photo into Photoshop to edit it before uploading it online to give to a client.

2. Bringing a photo into photoshop to edit before getting it ready for web use such as a blog (small-res, web use only, etc.)

I know I should probably change the color space to sRGB before saving it for web use, but do I change the profile for finished jpgs for clients as well, if I don't know where they'll be printing them? and if it goes back to lightroom before being uploaded to the web, does it go back to Pro-Photo RGB anyway? Can anyone enlighten me or send me to some links or tutorials or how all this works? LOL...

arodney

IF the image looks good in Lightroom with the current rendering settings, yes, more or less, it should print well. There is no soft proofing in Lightroom, you should do this in Photoshop to get a better preview of what the print will look like. This assumes good profiles for display and printer.

Lightroom processes all raw data in a cousin of ProPhoto RGB but you do not have to get ProPhoto RGB out the back door into Photoshop. I would suggest you do however. But you can setup the Export presets or the Edit in Photoshop to use something else. I would not necessarily give a client the data in ProPhoto (that’s asking for trouble if they don’t fully understand color management). And yes, prior to uploading to the web, the data should be sized and saved in sRGB. If you build web galleries in LR, it will do this for you.

As to good tutorials, I think highly of those by Jeff Schewe on Luminous Landscape. http://www.luminous-landscape.com/videos/CR_1.shtml