Recommended color profile for Photoshop graphics?

[Chris Poisson]

All graphics in FCP are just RGB.

Have a wonderful day.

[Raven Plenty]

Yes, but my graphic’s appearance in a final video will vary depending on which working space I am using when creating my graphic in Photoshop. What is the normal procedure? Do people simply use trial and error and see what it looks like on their broadcast monitor? “Oops, looks too saturated, better tone it down.”

In Photoshop, colour management is used to ensure that colours are properly defined, eg. this colour is a real colour (not just RGB numbers with no frame of reference). I recognize that in video, as with web design, graphics will appear different on different televisions, computer monitors, etc. However, with web design, there is still a frame of reference, i.e. “this is what it is supposed to look like, and it will look correct when reproduced on a properly calibrated monitor.”

Creating website graphics in Photoshop using my calibrated monitor and proper colour management, I know what my graphics will look like on other calibrated monitors. Is there no recommended colour space to use in Photoshop that will show me what my graphics are “supposed” to look like in NTSC? (Notwithstanding the popular phrase “Never The Same Colour”.)

Let me know if I should be posting this in the Final Cut Pro Basics forum instead. Your help is greatly appreciated. Cheers.

[Chris Poisson]

[Raven Plenty] “as with web design, graphics will appear different on different televisions, computer monitors, etc.”

You hit the nail squarely on the head here, different monitors, televisions etc. are totally different. I don’t rely on Photoshop’s color management at all just because of this, because nothing works for all cases.

Have a wonderful day.

[Stephan Walfridsson]

Well, the problem is that unless you are checking your colors on a (properly calibrated) broadcast monitor there is no way you will be able to see exactly what the colors should look like on a (properly calibrated) broadcast-monitor. Computer monitors and broadcast monitors use very different colorspaces. There is no simple ‘this is what it should look like’ solution. (If someone knows of one please let me know, as it would mean that I didn’t have to buy those expensive reference monitors for color correcting.)

From the Photoshop helpfile (Video and animation / Creating images for video):

“For more accurate previews, Photoshop also has a Video Preview command that lets you immediately preview your work on a display device, such as a video monitor. To use this feature, you must have the device connected to your computer via FireWire (IEEE 1394). See also ‘Preview your document on a video monitor’.”

Stephan

[Raven Plenty]

Thanks for your responses, that’s pretty much what I expected to hear.

We’re never going to have a broadcast monitor here for the amount of video work we do. Isn’t there a decent ballpark workflow I can use? I mean, I do a lot of print work and printed CMYK artwork is more different from my RGB monitor than a television is, but I can still view a reliable simulation on my computer monitor. I presume that a bunch of properly calibrated broadcast monitors lined up in a row will display the same colour, brightness, etc. So surely a computer monitor can reasonably match a broadcast monitor in terms of colour and brightness at least as well as it can match a printed photograph – although it won’t preview interlacing of course.

Please understand that I have a pretty advanced understanding of colour spaces and colour management, but am new to video work. Thanks for bearing with me.

[Stephan Walfridsson]

I abolutely understand your problem,and acknowledge your understanding of colour.

Anyway, here are a few pointers that I googled up:

From: https://www.videouniversity.com/photoVid2.html

Legalize it!
Always use Photoshop’s NTSC Filter (in 6.x and CS versions ) to “legalize” colors for TV. This helps avoid color-related image artifacts, such as highly saturated reds and blues.
Select >Filters >Video>NSTC Colors.

(This filter is apparently very agressive so if you know what you are doing you should do it manually instead.)

Images Get A Level Playing Field
Another important enhancement tool that you should use with every photo you plan on bringing to video is “levels.” Levels are the image adjustment tools in Photoshop that allow you to control the white, grays and blacks.
Depending on the monitor you use, and the color space settings applied to your work, you may want to limit or otherwise control the display from Photoshop.

Select >Image >Adjust >Levels (or >Layer >New Adjustment Layer) to control and adjust the black and white levels in your image output.

The default Output is usually 0 and 255, as indicated by dialog boxes and two draggable triangles. Most monitors will display images destined for TV more accurately with settings of 16 and 235.

Click on the preview box to quickly and easily see the overall corrections and adjustments.

Sometimes, it can be difficult to see exactly what pixels are being used for white and black adjustments. If so, hold down the Alt key (on a PC; the Option key on Macs) to show image threshold as you drag the slider back and forth. The image will be re-mapped in high contrast to help the differentiation.

(This is because video has a slight headroom for super white (over 235) and superblack (under 16), which mustn’t appear in the final broadcast master.)

From: https://www.web-graphics.nl/video_graphics.php
Here are a few rules to follow if you want your text to be readable on TV.

No lines thinner than 4 pixels, they will flicker.
No lines that are almost horizontal or almost vertical, they will stair-step.
Avoid fancy, curvy fonts like Times, Chancery, or Garamond.
Use point sizes bigger than 24 points.
Avoid saturated colors.
Avoid whites brighter than 92% (235 in Adobe Photoshop).
Always use drop shadows on any text you want your viewers to read.
Always keep any text you want viewers to read inside Title Safe area.
Keep text on screen long enough for you to read it three times.

Stephan