[Digikam-users] Tutorial: Color Management, Camera Profiles,

[Paul Waldo]

Hi Elle,

Great work!  This cleared up a few questions I didn't even know I had! :-)

Quite a number of times, I have gotten the Color Management bug.  I understand
the rationale behind why one uses Color Management but, as usual, the devil is in
the details.  I have never been able to make it all work.  It has been an
unsuccessful struggle to get Color Managed images to look as good as unmanaged
images.  May I propose a topic for installment #2? :-)

I would love to see a step-by-step walk through of how to make Color Management
work in Digikam, including screen shots.  Here are some proposed items for this
walk through:

* Image comparison.  Show an image that was created in a color-managed workflow,
and the same image not color managed.  If the improvement is quantifiable, the
new user will continue reading

* Monitor Profiling in Linux

* Obtain the Camera Profile.  I would suggest gearing the walk through around a
specific camera, so that there are specific instructions or web locations.  This
can be a hugely intimidating task for a new user, so handholding is important
here.  For example,
http://staffwww.itn.liu.se/~karlu/div/howto/ufraw_with_canonSLR.php shows 7
profiles available for a single camera.  What to choose?

* Digikam set up for CM

My camera, where I haven't been able to properly set up CM, is a Canon Digital
Rebel, so if you want to use that for the walkthrough, I wouldn't mind :-)

I think the key is the first bullet point; if you can hook the reader by showing
the benefit, many folks will endure the pain of setting up CM.  If you do want to
use the Rebel as your model, I'll be happy to be the guinea pig!

Thanks for your consideration, Elle!

Paul 

On Sun Jun  1 13:12 , elle stone  sent:

>
>   This tutorial on color management, camera profiles, and working spaces has
>been put together in the hope that it will be commented on, corrected, and
>possibly even incorporated into the digikam handbook.  The existing
>information in the handbook is wrong on quite a few counts regarding color
>management, and therefore confusing to a new user. Rather than complain
>about the problems, I thought I would try to offer part of a solution.