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What is Colour Management and why is it necessary?

May 31, 2021 Paul Schillinger

Colour management is a collection of rules and procedures in digital imagery which govern the control and management of every process involved in the colour transformations which occur during image capture or rendering images between input devices such as a digital camera or scanner and output devices such as our monitors or printers which render our images with ink on a substrate..

To boil it down, colour management is rather like a protocol for the translation of one language into another – say French into English with a person between having the ability to handle the translation between the two – except that instead of languages the subject for translation is a product of light. An example is image data captured by a digital camera which must be translated so that it can be shown by, that is, output on a screen display or printed with ink on paper.

So, you might ask why is a translation necessary and what are we translating?

What is a “Custom Print” anyway?

May 15, 2021 Paul Schillinger

To fully appreciate a custom print, we should look first at its opposite – a standard or “on-line” acquired print. These prints are made in unattended, automated, serial operations. You upload your images to a server from your computer or drop them off to a photo service bureau on USB where the sales clerk adds it to the queue on the server with all of the other on-line orders. The server is connected to a series of printers each of which is loaded with one of the standard papers – usually gloss, lustre and matte. The idea is to herd everyone to those few common, inexpensive, resin coated, bright white papers to reap the benefits of volume processing and presumably to offer volume pricing. If better paper is also offered, there will often be just one or perhaps two smooth, matte finish papers offered under the general moniker “Fine Art” or “Giclee.“ Also, many of these photo service bureaus print with dye based inks which fade quickly, especially if not carefully preserved by the buyer.

Once your images are added to the queue, they are pumped through to the series of printers where they are grouped together with hundreds of other images from other customers. There they are averaged and printed, as is, on large rolls of the aforementioned resin coated and matte papers. The file settings which are required for this type of print are the least acceptable for print – flattened 8 bit Jpeg, PNG, etc. in sRGB or sometimes AdobeRGB colour space, usually at or below 25mb in size. If you request a 20” x 30” print to be made from your Jpeg image which only has enough print resolution for a 5” x 7” print, the image will simply be enlarged on the fly without concern for the resulting quality loss. That’s your problem. Their job is simply to print.

The Ultimate Monitors for Critical Image Evaluation and Editing

February 14, 2019 Paul Schillinger

Laptops, iMacs, wide gamut displays of all sorts, IPS vs TN panels, 4k, 5k, 8k and on & on. After much serious research, we settled on NEC PA302W-BK SpectraView ll monitors for our colour critical image evaluation and editing work. We had not looked back, until recently. These monitors have provided excellent accuracy, consistency, flexibility and reliability. They have proven to be worth every penny.

But, recently, the time arrived for a new addition to our monitor line up. Only this time, we were interested in the 4k offerings. Having had only excellent experience with our NEC 30” displays, we were hard pressed to consider other players such as Ben-Q, LG, Samsung, Dell or even EIZO. But, to be thorough, we persisted.

The Apple Cinema Display (LG) which is the same display as the iMac was not considered because while the monitor is apparently acceptable for video work, it falls far short of the requirements for critical image work due to its gloss glass and DCI-P3 colour space at approximately 84% coverage of Adobe RGB not to mention the absence of the valuable calibration features available with some of these monitors. It’s virtually a large size version of a Mac laptop display.

The “Good Enough” Print

February 24, 2018 Paul Schillinger

One thing that I find to be extremely baffling in the world of fine photography is the fact that many photographers invest huge sums of money to acquire the finest gear, go to great lengths to create the best possible image by spending hours in post processing, fussing over every minute nuance of image detail and tonality only to then bang off a “good enough” print with inadequate care or forethought, using OEM canned profiles, inadequate paper and inaccurate settings while under the influence of blind faith that somehow it will all turn out just fine. Of course, when the print is made, without another superior print to compare it against they may well believe their print is indeed the very best it can be. Most of the time, this is not only untrue but it is a shame.

In fact, a couple of years ago one of my students, a photographer, invited me to review her portfolio of prints which she had been preparing to take to a local gallery. A couple of prints in, I noticed a poorly made print. The image was a colourful shot of a group of children on their way to participate in a parade and all the kids were well dressed in Polish ethnic attire which was quite ornate. The image was printed on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag. A print on such fine paper could tend to lead one to believe that the print must be perfect and the printer must have been good. Not so!

The Importance of Viewing Environment

February 3, 2018 Paul Schillinger

For critical evaluation of an image in print against the same image displayed on a computer screen, the lighting that is used to illuminate the print must be in sync with the display, in terms of brightness and colour temperature, etc. You might say, “Wait a minute, when the print is hung in my home it won’t be illuminated by anything but my living room lights.” This may be true, but neither will your print be evaluated for accuracy in your living room. It is irrelevant to the process of critical evaluation of the print against the same image displayed on a colour critical monitor.

When an image is translated from an emissive medium (a screen display) to a reflective one (paper, for example), it’s success in print becomes entirely dependant upon ambient lighting. The luminance and purity of an RGB image can only be simulated on paper using relatively impure CMYK inks to create a print that is viewed under lighting which is usually far from ideal. The quality of the ambient light, its brightness and colour temperature have dramatic effects on the appearance of the print. Subdued lighting darkens tonality. Shadow detail may seem to be lost altogether. This is the primary reason for one to conclude that their print is too dark.

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