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| Introduction: |
| Back in the days of black and white photography, no one worried
about color. Sure you have different filters to cause specialized
effects but that was it. Once color photography came around, you simply
chose the type of film for the color effect you wanted to achieve. The
photo lab understood the film that was used and knew how to develop it
to achieve the results that you would expect. With the introduction of digital photography, this all changed. All of a sudden there were discrepancies between the initial photo, image displayed on the the monitor, and the final print. Given the number of available cameras with varying recording sensor manufacturers, types and styles of monitors, and finally brands of printers, no wonder there is such a wide variation between images on one device vs. images on another. |
| ICC Profiles: |
| All film manufacturers label their film in order to tell the photo
lab which channel to use to correctly develop the film. This label
includes the manufacturers name, channel information, and film speed.
The photo lab just looks at the film and processes it according to the
label. In digital photography, there is no such information provided. You must ensure that the images you decide to display or print contain the correct information (label) so that they can be shown or printed correctly. This is very important, given that each device in your digital workflow has its own color characteristics, which are defined by an ICC profile for that device. An ICC profile should also be attached to every image (Adobe RGB, sRGB etc.). This tells the device that is using that photo (be it a monitor to display, photo lab, home printer) how the colors within that image should be shown. If there is no ICC profile embedded in an image, most devices assume that it is in the default color space, usually sRGB. sRGB is generally not the best profile to use for photographers due to its small gamut. |
| Camera Profile: |
| Before you go out and start shooting, it is important to decide
which color space to use in camera. The two most common color spaces are
sRGB and Adobe RGB. The differences between the two and why you should
use one over the other are discussed here.
Most high end cameras also have the ability to shoot in RAW mode, with
the option of converting to a color space of your choice during editing.
Adobe RGB and sRGB are both used with the jpeg image format while RAW is
a format on its own. More on that here. It has to be noted at this point that images shot in any color space, also have to be shot using the correct white balance, otherwise colors will not appear natural. Using the correct white balance will ensure that a neutral grey in your shot will match a neutral grey displayed on a color calibrated monitor. |
| Monitor Profile: |
| In order for images to be correctly displayed on your monitor, it
has to have a profile associated with it. A monitor should be calibrated
every month using a hardware calibration tool. There are a number of
such devices available and it is usually best to spend a fair amount of
money here to ensure the best possible calibration. When choosing a
calibration tool, keep in mind that CRT monitors are much better for
displaying accurate colors than LCD's. However when a photographer is
shooting in the field a CRT is out of the question. If you use both,
check to see if the calibration too will work on both types of monitors.
This will save you money down the road. All of the available hardware calibration tools will come with their own instructions and usually a wizard that you can follow along with to calibrate your monitor. Typically the calibrations will generate a monitor profile, store it, and apply it as the default profile. Once this is finished, colors will be displayed correctly. |
| Printer Profiles: |
| If you send your images to a photo lab, ask what color space they
prefer to use. In your image editing software, covert your image to that
profile using the perceptual rendering intent (Photoshop). This will
scale the existing color space to the output color space, rather than
clipping colors. There are other rendering types available but
perceptual is the safest to use. If you print your images at home on an inkjet printer, you will need a specific printer profile. Most home inkjet printers come with a set of profiles already built in, all you have do it specify the type of paper and the correct profile is automatically used. There are hardware devices that can be used to create custom printer profiles, but they are expensive and generally excessive for home users. Calibrating a printer using these devices involves printing a vast amount of color patches and measuring their colors. The software then uses this date to generate a profile. |
| Final Thoughts: |
| Color management can be a very complicated topic to understand, but here is a simple list to follow to ensure that your colors always look good. |
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| If you have any questions or suggestions please feel free to contact
me. Cheers. |
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