Scanner profile

[Joe]

I have problems understanding scanner profiles. It's all very
confusing. I read in the Nikon manual SRGB shows fewer colors but all
can be edited in Photoshop. Wide RGB shows all colors but only some can
be edited in Photoshop. I like more colors but what's the point if I
don't see them in Photoshop? So what should I use?

And in Photoshop both scans looks the same but colors under the cursor
are different. How can that be? What am I editing when I use different
scanner profiles?

Joe

 

[Jim]

I have problems understanding scanner profiles. It's all very
confusing. I read in the Nikon manual SRGB shows fewer colors but all
can be edited in Photoshop. Wide RGB shows all colors but only some can
be edited in Photoshop. I like more colors but what's the point if I
don't see them in Photoshop? So what should I use?

Adobe RGB as a working profile. Use the scanner profile as a means to
convert to Adobe RGB.

And in Photoshop both scans looks the same but colors under the cursor
are different. How can that be? What am I editing when I use different
scanner profiles?

What is your working profile?
Jim

 

[Joe]

What is your working profile?

I didn't explain it very well last time.

My Photoshop working profile is Wide RGB.

I scan the same film twice: First scan using the SRGB profile and the
second scan using the Wide RGB profile. I then open both scans in
Photoshop. The Wide is opened without problems (same profile) but for
the SRGB scan Photoshop brings up a dialog box. I choose "use
embedded".

Both images look the same but when I inspect the colors (by averaging
out the same area in both images) the colors are quite different.
That's what is confusing me.

What I gather is that the scanner program changes actual color values
in the file depending on the profile I select there. And then sticks on
a profile tag to indicate how those color values were generated. Is
that right?

Then when Photoshop opens these files it looks at the embedded profile
in the file (which was put there by the scanner program) and converts
the colors depending on the working profile. But it does that only for
display. It doesn't actually touch the color values in the file. That
way both images look the same on the screen even though the actual
color values in the files are different. Is that right?

Let's see if I got all of this right before I ask more questions.

Joe