In the past week, I’ve found myself in discussions that involved the mechanics of color management. Not the theory, not the science, but the simple goezintas-comesoutas of profile/based management of color in a processing workflow. So, while eating my lunch, I concocted a cartoon of it, and submit to this august group for peer review:
Yes, it’s not August…
I’m not expert in this area (more like I am very experienced at being confused by it), but I sure hope your diagram is correct, because it makes perfect sense!
My hack software follows this flow, and after my experience with the whole thing i can’t cogitate any way for it to be different…
Comments…
Who understands the difference between Assign and Convert?
Instead of separate boxes for convert|assign and four profile clouds, why not use Assign Camera Profile | Convert to xxx
1A. Almost no one. More folk need to. I’ll add a callout with the definitions.
2A. For those who are contemplating things like calibrated camera profiles/DCPs, I think it’s worth showing the distinction… ?
What does the Raw processing... step include?
2A: Yes, I agree. But I still prefer “Convert to Whatever” – and you could still have the clouds close by to show where the different profiles are used.
I would:
– remove “Internal”
– combine action to profile; e.g.: “assign camera profile”
– move “assign camera profile” arrow(s) to between “raw file” and “raw image” for visual consistency
Same thought occurred to me as i put it in, my notion is all the operations that take place prior to presenting a RGB image to the user for further editing. In no particular order, at least:
After all, that’s where the representation of color becomes pertinent to the user. Before that, it’s just an array of measurements…
Edit: maybe, change it to “Raw Conversion…” ??
PS I think someone did this before in great detail; the map of a photographic workflow. I forgot who and which post that linked to it.
Revision 1. I think I addressed all comments in some manner. Still, feel free to beat on me 'till I get it right…
A step in the right direction…
However (why is there always a however???)
I wonder if the profile clouds perhaps should point to the blue rectangles instead?
I think we should write this up into an article for the main site!
Actually, yes, that drives home the oft-missed point that color profiles should follow the images encoded thusly. One of the realizations that made some of this clearer for me.
That would be really good. Funny, I started this when I realized I’d posted the same prose explaining it three times, and linked to previous posts a couple of times, here and at dpreview…
In my mind, that is what the main site is for: centralization of knowledge, a “final” place for that information, a place that we can point to instead of repeating ourselves, and the publishing process-- fact checking, proof reading, etc etc. 
Well though, that’s what I had originally. So, now that I call out the profiles in the assign/convert boxes, I can go back to that… ??
Should I continue peer review here, or move it over now?
Replace Open file with Decode file
I’d continue here, seems like you’re getting some good feedback!
