I have finally bought an IPS monitor, Dell u2711. I came from using the 17" FHD lcd screen on my laptop Dell Precision M6600.
Before this I have never really put any serious effort into making sure my monitor color is accurate. With the latest purchase, I figure it is time to get into a more "professional" workflow in getting the best accurate color from my monitor.
But where do I start?
I know the U2711 comes Pre-calibrated in factory (sRGB & Adobe RGB). So the first thing I do after I plug in the monitor (through Display Port) is to set the Preset to "Adobe RGB". Next, I went to Start> color management> assign Adobe RGB (1998) as default profile. Is that how it should work? And it should have a fairly accurate color by now? I do not own any calibration hardware, so I will follow the adobe RGB profile for the meantime, which I believe should be as accurate as it can be. Correct me if im wrong.
So what I am doing now is just "profiling" instead of "calibrating"?
If I assume the above is the correct method, next I will need to set my software (3ds max and photoshop cs4) to work in Adobe RGB color space?
I went into photoshop's Color Setting. Change the working space from sRGB to Adobe RGB and press OK. Done? Now whenever I open an image without color profile to it, photoshop will as me if I will like to assign the Adobe RGB color to the file, and I should.
I use to work everything in sRGB color space because I do not know the proper way in using other color profiling and has no calibration tool, and using sRGB ensure that my client may see the closest thing to what I see from my side. I usually save and send the file in JPEG. So I do not know if I have adobe rgb profile embedded in the image. When my client opens the file from his computer (assuming using Windows photo viewer) will he see weird color... or accurate color base on my adobe RGB profile?
I am in a dilemma here, as I am still post processing my 3d with my laptop screen, because the color difference between my laptop and new monitor is too much. And for 1-2 years i have been producing images from laptop and that is what my clients see (and usually have no complain about the color)
My real question is..In my case, should I apply the Adobe RGB workflow. or should stick with the sRGB standard workflow? What is the consequences to move completely to Adobe RGB? BTW, in 3ds max, how is the monitor profiling going to affect what we see in 3ds max rendering? There seems to be no option to assign color profile to Max.
Please advice me! Thanks a million!
