Which rendering intent should be used in Photoshop when soft proofing?

I've corrected my image using the icc profile for the paper - when I save the image, should I convert the image to the output color profile?

do i have to check on simulate paper color on photoshop?

@ Daniel:  If you're sure that your monitor is calibrated correctly, and you're saving the images in sRGB space to sent to Adorama then you probably don't need to have them do any color corrections.  You should make sure your monitor is set to the right brightness.  Most of the time monitors for home use are set too bright and your prints will come back too dark.

@ Leda: When you save images, you should just save with the sRGB profile.  Use the ICC printer profiles for soft proofing only to get an idea of how your images' colors will change when printed on a specific paper. 

@ Jose: The "simulate paper color" option in Photoshop isn't great--it'll usually make your onscreen images a bit duller than they would actually appear in the final print.  I don't use that, and most books I've read on soft proofing suggest not using it either.  You should realize that a print will never have the pop that an onscreen backlit image has, but  "simulate paper color" takes it a bit too far IMO.

follow-up question from Leda Robertson (above):  how do I know what is the "right brightness" which my monitor should be set to to ensure that my prints don't come back to me too dark? I use a Dell laptop. 

Setting the correct brightness is a bit difficult and a bit subjective depending on the conditions you'll view the final print in (your print will look brighter in sunlight than it will under normal home lighting at night).  Most recommendations I've seen suggest monitor intensity be between 90-120 cd/m^2, but you'll need a way to measure that and the "best" value will change depending on the lighting in the room with your monitor.  The Spyder Elite software can measure your ambient room temperature, suggest a brightness value, and help you get there, but you'll have to adjust the brightness of the monitor on your own.  Other color profiling packages maybe be able to do the same, I've just not used them.  Lower-end monitors (this probably includes laptop screens) may not be able to get as low as 90 cd/m^2 and still produce accurate colors.  Some high end monitors with their own colorimeters and software can adjust screen brightness automatically to a value you set (some of the NEC MultiSync line, for example).

If you don't have calibration software or the ability to measure screen brightness, the only thing I can suggest is to make a few prints on your own printer or from Adorama and adjust your monitor brightness to try to match the print.  If your prints are too dark, try lowering the monitor brightness to make the image on screen look as dark as your print.  Re-edit those photos to make them brighter and try printing again to see if the on screen match is closer.

I use an NEC MultiSync 2690WUXi2 and NEC's SpectraView II software.  I've calibrated to D65, gamma 2.2, and intensity 110.0 cd/m^2.  Viewed near a bright window I'd say my prints match the brightness of my screen when viewed in dimly lit (not black) room.  Viewing at night with typical home lighting my prints appear darker (as one would expect) to the point where monitor intensity of 100 cd/m^2 or lower would probably be more appropriate, but a compromise has to be made somewhere.

Hope this information helps.

I always save with the profile after I color correct a photo. but I just read this in the icc profile page from Adoramzpix "Save this proof setup for future use, naming it AdoramaPixBook, or something to let you know what type of printing it is to be used for. You can view and edit the image while in the "proof" mode and see immediately how your corrections will be reflected in the final print. Once you're satisfied with your images, save them, but do NOT embed the profile in the image file."

If I do not embed the color profile, there is a chance end up with different color profile by mistake. Please help!

What is the best way to soft proof for Aluminyzed Prints?  There don't seem to be any ICC profiles available

There's contradictory information on this page so I'm still unclear on how to use the provided ICC profiles.  It is clear that the customer can ask that Adorama not make any color/brightness corrections to the image.  But what about the color space?  If the customer does the color space conversion on their own, can they ask that Adorama not (re)apply the ICC profile when printing?

The referenced pages from Dry Creek Photo say to convert to the provided profiles but not embed the profile.  That makes sense and I understand how to do that.  However, the above comments seem to contradict that by saying the customer should send the file as sRGB and should NOT do the color space conversion themselves.  If the customer is NOT to do the color space conversion themselves, this implies that Adorama will do it.  If this is the case, the customer must be told which rendering intent Adorama will use when printing.

At some point in the workflow, a color space conversion MUST happen.  It is either done in software (by a person or automatically by the printer manufacturer's software) or forced by the printer's physical limits.  If it is done in software (which it should be), the only way soft proofing is useful is to know which rendering intent is used to do the color space conversion during printing.  The print will NOT match the soft proof unless the same rendering intent is used for both.  A second issue is that different rendering intents produce different results.  Some images can have drastic differences between different rendering intents.  

After a delay of many years, I recently decided to print some (a couple of dozen) of my photos (10x15 and larger). I started by submitting a "test" order with only 3 prints to get an idea how the color would turn out. And, having had good results in the past, I checked that box which instructs the printing technician to adjust the color.

The results were not what I expected - low saturation. However, I did notice that the colors looked almost identical to the image when viewed on my standard uncalibrated monitor as opposed to my RGB-LED backlit monitor, calibrated for sRGB.

So I bumped the saturation, making the images look good on the substandard monitor, thinking that when I placed my final order, again, requesting that the technician perform color correction. Lo and behold, this order arrived yesterday and the prints look exactly the same! Obviously, I need to stop checking that particular box.

However, this would lead me to believe that there is some sort of auto-correction going on here and/or the technician is making a subjective (albeit consistent) judgment on the final color balance.

In the future, I will not request that the technician apply color correction. However, even in a substandard monitor, the images look decidedly more saturated than the final prints. Can anyone explain this?

I have been getting consistently good color and density for year.. Following the drycreekphoto instructions: first converting the prints to the adorama profile but saving the print without any profile.   It worked for 5 years. However... With the my last order.. The prints are WAY off.. First time in 5 years. I checked and double-checked on my monitor it looks perfect ( NEC calibrated with spectra view monitor).  The images where sent to adorama first converted to the profile but saved without any profile  I requested NO color correction,  the back of the prints marking in NNNN.  Are the prints converted srgb?   (fyi; Intent was set by lightroom- no idea what  it was- my guess is -relative colorimetric which is my default setting)

Can you please give a clear set of instructions for professionals working with in a calibrated space and wanting to use the  profile you provide? 

Thank you

Executive Summary:

• Make sure that the image files you submit for printing at Adorama are stored with the sRGB color profile.
• Forget about Adorama's printer color profiles. They have virtually nothing to do with ensuring that your prints look like you expect.
• Make sure you have a decent color-calibrated monitor and software that is color profile-aware.
• Make sure you know how to set up your color-calibrated monitor and your software. It's simpler than you think, even if you have a mediocre display.

I think I know what happened with my prints. And I am resubmitting a set of test 10x15 prints to see if I am correct. To make a long story short, I strongly suspect it is my mistake, not Adorama's.

Adorama clearly states that they only support the sRGB (presumably, "sRGB IEC61966-2.1") color profile on customer's image files. Most of mine were set to Adobe RGB ("Adobe RGB (1998)"). I have set my camera to store its RAW images with the "Adobe RGB" color profile, thinking that it would prevent me from capturing the full color gamut. While doing this is not bad in itself, I should have, before submitting my photos to Adorama, selected "Convert to Profile..." and set the Destination Space to sRGB. Of course, if I set my camera to record images with the sRGB color space, I wouldn't even have to think about it.

How do I know this was the problem with my under-saturated prints? There were some which actually looked OK. They were from a mix of recent photos (from the same camera) and some ancient photos from an old point-and-shoot film camera. Every one of the JPEG files I submitted to Adorama which ended up looking OK were stored with the sRGB color profile. And all of the ones stored with Adobe RGB looked under-saturated.

Of course, you also need a good calibrated monitor and some decent software which understands color profile translation, not to mention knowing how to actually use said software. I highly recommend this link. It really helped me understand the whole color space game.

http://www.gballard.net/psd/cmstheory.html

Conclusion: It would be great if Adorama's printing workstations could deal with some of the more common color profiles such as Adobe sRGB, Apple RGB, etc.

In the past I've used Adoramapix without much drama, but recently I've found my prints' colors are way, way off.  I have downloaded your color profiles, calibrated my MacBook monitor using Supercal (which seems OK using the criteria on the DryCreek page), and select 'no adjustments' on my prints, but the print colors are way off.  I have been proofing my prints using 'Proof Setup' and 'Simulate paper color' in Photoshop CS5 extended.  Today I noticed that my image onscreen seems closer to the prints received if I also assign your profile to the file under the Edit>Assign Profiles menu rather than the sRGB working profile.  Should I be doing this additional step to edit my images, as I cannot find any instruction to this effect? 

I'm sorry I don't understand your response.  My files are sRGB (Edit>Color settings>working spaces>RGB:sRGB).  I am soft-proofing on screen using View>Custom>adorama_standard_lustre_0311.  The files do not appear similar to the print results using Edit>assign profile>working RGB:sRGB.  The files resemble the prints more if I select Edit>assign profile>profile:adorama_standard_lustre_0311.  Am I to understand your response that I should not have to do this?  If not, what further can I do to color proof my prints correctly?  Otherwise I may have to give up.  As noted above, my monitor is calibrated to the  est of my ability.