Color profile

Okay, I searched a long time but can't really find a specific answer to my question and I'm getting a little crazy of all the different opinions on the internet...


I shoot in RAW, manage my photos in CS6, then export to Jpeg with 'save as'. CS6 always asks to embed the color profile. When I uncheck this box, my jpegs look dull and not the same as they did in cs6. 


But, if i 'embed color profile' it is okay. So offcourse I do that. Now this may sound stupid but i am getting crazy overhere.


In the folder where I save the photo are now two files: my jpeg photo and an unreadable xmp-file. Does this mean the color profile is only in the xmp file? What happens when I upload my jpeg to iStock, does it loose the color profile because that is in an other file? Or is it also embed in the jpeg?


Even when I shoot RAW - export first to TIFF - then to jpeg, the xmp file is still there.


HOw do you guys do this? And do you keep them? I mean the xmp files?


Thanks!


 

The xmp-file is just the info of your conversion / settings of the raw-conversion, so the next time you open your raw there are already your settings made the last time you opened that file. The profile for the jpg is saved in the jpg-file.

The .xmp file is a simple plain text that you can read with any simple text editor or MS Word; you can also print it, although I cannot imagine why you would do that.  It reflects all the edits you applied in Camera Raw, organized by snapshot (if you're using that capability).  You can delete it, but deleting this file has the effect of discarding ALL the edits you applied in Camera Raw.  This is the reason Bridge pairs the Raw and .xmp files for copy, move or delete operations.  The correct procedure when creating backup copies of Raw files is to include the .xmp files in the backup - otherwise you risk losing all your Raw edits.


Regards

/
/I keep my origonal Raw files with their xmp's and never delete them. I keep them seperate from my Jpeg files, seperate from my Psd files in different folders and a seperate folder for Istock uploads/releases.., creating new folders every year usually. 'Origonal photos' - 'Non Origonal photos'.


When you 'save as' with embed colour profile in Jpeg then upload to Istock, it will keep colour profile if it's sRGB. If other such as aRGB 1998 then the smaller image sizes that Istock create will get converted to sRGB while the larger sizes retain whatever you embeded.  


The xmp is created when opening Raw files and tweaking, it has nothing to do with the created Jpeg.

(Edited on 2012-12-28 08:35:32 by Feverstockphoto)

Keep the RAW and XMP files together in a folder, no other format files should place in the same folder.

Thanks!