Watermark, color space, and transparency problem

I'm having a problem with inserting a watermark image into my pdfs.
I created the watermark image in Photoshop. It is 8-bit gray with a transparent background. I saved it as a pdf (pdf 1.4 to allow transparency).
The main pdfs (to be watermarked) are created through a seperate process (they are scans of old book pages). The pdfs are produced from 8-bit gray tiff images, but I cannot determine what color space the these pdfs are.
To the problem: in Acrobat 9, when I insert the watermark above, all of the blacks on the page shift to grey, as if the opacity was shifted lower. The opacity is set to 100%, so this should not be a problem! The watermark does have a transparent background, though.
Since this seems to be a color space conflict, if I save the watermark PDF in CYMK or RGB, it does not cause the tonal shift (blacks remain true), but the watermark now has an opaque background. I need it to be transparent, as the background of the files to be watermarked are not tonally consistent (old discolored paper).
I guess these are my questions:
(1) Is there any way to determine the color space of a PDF? File->Properties does not list color space.
(2) Why does the watermark PDF, saved in CYMK or RGB, not allow a transparent background? Is this an Acrobat issue or color space?
(3) Does anyone have an idea on how to solve this? :)
Thanks a bunch.

First, I have 2 questions: 1) How do the color and watermark background look when you have Advanced > Print Production > Output Preview open? 2) What version of Acrobat are you working in?
The most common reason that people see an almost "washed out" appearance (or looking as though additional opacity is applied) is due to a bug in Acrobat 8. This was fixed in the 8.1 dot release. One way to determine if this is what you are running into is to view the file with the Output Preview dialog open. If it views correctly then, make sure you have the update installed.
I don't work with watermarks, but understanding the general concept of watermarks it seems like a reasonable guess that they would use overprinting. I'm wonder if this is what is affecting the display of them (non-transparent background) since Acrobat needs Overprint Preview ON to accurately display objects with overprint flags . As with above, turning on Output Preview will help you deduce if that's what is happening since Output Preview automatically enables Overprint Preview (which is off by default).
BTW, Preflight will let you know what color spaces are in PDF file. Run any Profile. In the results panel, drop down the "Overview" section. There you will find a color spaces section listing the color spaces of the document.

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Do realitze hat the original image in 12 to 14 bits is in linear gamma as that is how the sensor reacts to light. However formats for display are always gamma corrected for efficiency, because the human eye reacts non-linearly to light and because typical displays have a gamma powerlaw response of brightness/darkness. Lightroom internally uses a 16-bit linear space. This is more bits than the 12 or 14 bits simply to avoid aliasing errors and other numeric errors. Similarly the working space is chosen larger than the gamut cameras can capture in order to have some overhead that allows for flexibility and avoids blowing out in intermediary stages of the processing pipeline. You have to choose something and so prophotoRGB, one of the widest RGB spaces out there is used. This is explained quite well here.
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- And standardize 16 bit formats on the widest gamut supported by whatever you're doing with it? - ProPhoto for editing, and maybe whatever gamut is recommended by other software or hardware vendors for special purposes...
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Personally, all my web photos are presented through Flash, which supports AdobeRGB even if the browser proper does not. So I don't have legacy browsers to worry about myself.
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that IE was the last browser to be upgraded for colorspace support (ie9)
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The original is a PSD file. My concern is that the virtual copy would not be updated to reflect the change in the PSD file color space when it comes time to print from the virtual copy so the image will be cropped correctly.
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thanks for the input.
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This is useful if your new to DSLR photography.
This is Nikon response on my question in the discussion: View photo metadata
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Van-Paul wrote:
The respone of Nikon Europe Support (Robert Vermeulen) was: In Nikon D800 NEF RAW files both color spaces (Adobe RGB and sRGB) are physically available. In JPEG and TIFF files only the in the shooting menu selected color space is physically available.
I still think this is an evasive answer that doesn't really pinpoint the exact chain of events that take place. They are:
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2. In the raw converter it is encoded into a working color space to process the information. In Lightroom this is known as "Melissa RGB", or linear gamma Prophoto. It is also demosaiced to bring back the color information.
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These three steps are what the camera does to produce a jpeg. So the basic steps are the same, the camera is just doing it automatically (and usually butchering the image in the process...).
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Watermark, color space, and transparency problem

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