[Digikam-users] Re: Using digiKam to develop professional photos

[Marcel Wiesweg]

> I just started to learn about developing photos and now the big moment is
> near and I want to print a photo in poster size.
> 
> I got the image here as a Canon RAW (*.cr2) file and I try to get the very
> best out of it using digiKam.
> 
> Is there somewhere a nice howto for a professional workflow using digiKam?
> 
> AFAIK has the RAW image no color space so I think the first step would
> involve to convert it to AdobeRGB, or? Do I do this during the RAW import
> selecting the "work color space"?

If you want to work in AdobeRGB, set this as the workspace profile in 
digikam's settings. The color management settings for RAW import are somewhat 
separate, easiest is that you set the output profile to Adobe RGB as well.
If you specify "no" input profile, libraw will do its best to get the colors.
For the perfect result, you'd need an input profile specific to your camera.

> Do I have an AdobeRGB image then? I tried this once and the metadata says
> unkown color profile. 

You need to look at the color tab in the right sidebar

> The next question: Since sRGB is used for computer
> display and AdobeRGB would simply look "wrong" do I have to enable the
> color managed view or disable it during my work?

Yes. In the editor, you can switch it on and off and see that the colors will 
be slightly desaturated without it. It's much more obvious with wide-gamut 
profiles. The output is simply wrong.
Isn't color-managed view enabled by default?
(again, for the perfect result, you'd need an output profile specific for your 
screen. If you dont have the necessary hardware device, or a cheap notebook 
LCD, then sRGB should be good enough. I'm using sRGB here as well)

Marcel