Color Challenges in a Digital Workflow

Question

I think Ive posted here before about my general lack of understanding for Color Management so please refrain from responding with any 'Jeez what a tool!' comments.

I work for a product manufacturer and my team is responsible for creating renders of our products which we do in Cinema 4D. We composite and finish these renders in Photoshop, working in sRGB.

Like any product, ours come in many colors and finishes. Our results are shared for feedback via Adobe Workfront where anything up to half a dozen people can review the images and comment.

Now when we are finishing the images in Photoshop we are doing so on BenQ PD2705U monitors which are factory calibrated so we dont fiddle with them. We match the images to actual product samples under D50 lighting conditions.

The problem is our reviewers are looking at our images on a multitude of different screens, some pretty good and some are abysmal. They are sitting in rooms with yellow sunlight pouring in and holding product samples, then telling us our images are not yellow enough. I try to explain about color contamination and such but for the most part, people are not interested and just say 'fix it'.

I cannot be the only person encountering this issue so would love to hear from folks who have conquered these challenges and how they did it. Should we be using something like OCIO/ACES? Should we be proofing in a different way?

Cheers
Sean

NB, colourmanagement · Answer

@seans9494305820435793 I am sure you're not the only person encountering such issues. It can be very frustrating.

I can see that you have put in some thought, because you're asking the right questions.

Unfortunately, for accurate image assessment, viewers must use a calibrated/profiled display system and view that display in "reasonable" lighting circumstances. Either that or perhaps look at accurate printed proofs - again in 'reasonable' lighting - daylight is fine.

One might opine that viewers of TV screens look at them in all sorts of lighting on all sorts of differing TV's, some even with the colour or brightness turned up way high, and that they get used to it - so think their TV looks OK!

Sadly, this does not apply to approval of product if colour is critical.

A photographer client told me he was repeatedly asked for differing alterations to a single critical image being approved, it turned out the client was looking at a Blackberry in varying conditions. It's not going to work I'm afraid.

Furthermore, I'd be calibrating and profiling. the benQ as well, no screen is properly "factory calibrated" you'll need something like Calibrite's i1Display Pro to deal with that job. Photoshop needs an accurate display profile to work with.

Please note also that it's somewhat unlikely that your rendering app IS colour managed in the graphic arts sense - SO many are not, I hope a 4D user will chip in here and help on that. You're avoiding that issue, of course, by viewing in Photoshop, you'll also need to ensure that the images are saved with an ICC profile embedded.

For the best chance of accuracy out there sRGB is perhaps the best colour space to work in.

I hope this helps
neil barstow, colourmanagement net - adobe forum volunteer - co-author: 'getting colour right'
google me "neil barstow colourmanagement" for lots of free articles on colour management
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