I'm scanning in Adobe RGB, but when I open the (.tif) file in CS2 and look under Edit/Color Settings, it says the working space is sRGB. Is this telling me that the scan itself is in sRGB, or just that PS is selecting that working space by default? Does selecting Adobe RGB from the pull down menu restore Adobe RGB colors that are in the original scan, or are they just not there at all?

If you are scanning in aRGB, are you also embedding the scanned file with the profile? If you are using Silverfast there is a check box to do that. Otherwise the file may be getting to CS2 untagged as to color space.

In addition, your CS2 Color Management policies should probably be set to Leave Color Space As Is (or the equivalent wording), and to notify you if the opened document has a different colorspace from your working color space. Then you would have the choice of leaving the embedded color space in the file if it is different from your working space, or assigning your working color space or converting to your color space. Set your color policies such that you don't automatically convert to the working color space without being alerted.

If you are scanning in aRGB and your default is set to convert to sRGB without warning you, and you then reconvert to aRGB through the pulldown menu (Edit>Convert to Profile, I presume) you will have put the file through 2 unnecessary conversions, which because of conversion rounding errors can decrease the quality of your data.

Set your color settings for RGB to Adobe RGB 1998:
http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/p...r-settings.html
Also do something very simple that will save you from lots of trouble:
on every document you have open in photoshop, there is an info window to the lowest left side of document's window, usually displaying document's size. Next to it there is a small arrow. Click on it, then go show>Document profile. That way you will always know your current image profile. As for the image size, you get that on the info pallet anyway.
George

You need to understand the role of the working space AND how they interact with the policies and warning check boxes. Its possible one can scan in Adobe RGB (1998) and Photoshop will convert on the fly when opening that document into sRGB (which would be bad).

http://www.adobe.com/digitalimag/pdfs/phscs2ip_colspace.pdf

Thanks everyone. There is certainly more to this than I originally thought.