Soft proofing

[xxxmen]

This is my first post...

I just want to know what most retouchers here think of soft proofing.
Soft proofing is colour correcting via calibrated monitors with the elimination of any hard proofs. Basic correction and annotaions would be done via email or onscreen. Is there any freelance retouchers working in this format now?

What are your thoughts and how do you think internet will effect retouchers
and colour correction specialist?

[Ant]

I do it on occasion with remote clients. Basically it's a cost and time issue as well as being due to the fact that the art that I supply is then placed in ads and repurposed many times and they do their own, in-house cmyk proofing of finals. Sometimes I will supply an RGB proof for them to base their conversions on if time allows and I'm already sending a disc overnight.

I don't think the internet will or has really affected me negatively. When it comes to email/web there is more to it than calibrated monitors however. Other variables such as viewing conditions, colorspaces and the fact that monitors are transmissive devices as opposed to paper which is reflective and has color. If color is that critical, say matching swatches, then it won't work, softproofing. Color correction specialists definitely no. Some can be done by the numbers, but unless the go to colors are pantones or the exact numbers of the actual product is known, it isn't possible. On that note, I have found that less and less are clients concerned with 'dead-the-hell-on color matches when it comes to matching actual products. A creative director I worked with recently said it is less of a concern to him because the photograph is not meant to be an exact replica of what you pick up in the store. It's larger and more dynamic than that. Not meant to be why you want to purchase the product, only an interpretation of the product and a desire creator. Otherwise, it's a snapshot with maybe some cool lighting, maybe.

[xxxmen]

I'm more concern about myself as a digital retoucher working in a company(office location). Having soft proofing can eventually put us out of business because the company can hire retouchers remotely to do the job since everything would be done onscreen. There won't be a need for proofs etc or proofers anymore. Does anyone else strictly work on colour correcting via soft proofing now? How do they transfer high res images for retouch via this method?

[Ant]

I wouldn't worry about color corrections only via soft proofing. If it's critical and they would use you because of it, the company you work for is not going to lose work to others because of the reasons I stated above. That is why there are still prepress houses.

High res images are transferred via ftp.

[pixelzombie]

remote proofing will become more commonplace as it saves a lot of time in the intial rounds of a project, but there will always be a final proof...

[mseydel]

Soft proofing is only as good as the communication system that surrounds it. You can have two identical monitors on either side of the continent calibrated to within 1?E, but you still need a good method of file transfer and annotation...the reality right now is that there are few accessible systems which do it all well. By this I mean color accuracy in RGB, predicting your final CMYK as a preview space on your monitor, and keeping track of the edits and annotation between you and your client on your live file. You should be concerned with companies that use softproofing for internal workflow, because by not needing proofs, they reduce their overhead, meaning that they can use their budget more efficiently to hire more talent, advertise, or upgrade equipment. If you have to pull a proof on evry correction, you're really wasting a lot of money.

[xxxmen]

Thanks mseydel,

I work in a digital graphics dept. where we colour correct and proof every image through fuji proffers. We are converting to a soft proof workflow. They are having trouble with the annotation because there are mutiple users that can work on a publication, so that seems to be the downfall right now.