SkipCohenUniversity
  • Home
  • SCU Blog
  • Our Podcasts
  • About Us

got color management? Guest post by John Paul Caponigro

5/20/2014

0 Comments

 
Intro by Skip Cohen

I'm always amazed at photographers who "eyeball" color management. It reminds me of the time I installed shelves in my first apartment, thinking I could find the studs just by tapping the walls and not measuring. By the time I found the studs, the wall looked like it had been hit with a shotgun blast. Sure I got the shelves up, but had I done things right from the beginning I would have saved myself a whole lot of time and headaches.

A couple of months ago, I wrote a post about installing X-Rite's ColorTRUE software on my iPad and was blown away by the difference it made. I don't make my living as a photographer, but you do. The technology and dedication that's gone into ColorTRUE is in every X-Rite product. Even better, John Paul Caponigro is about to take you through six simple steps to color management!

You're a professional photographer and the tools are right there at your fingertips, but it's up to you to take full advantage of what they can do for you.

Picture

6 Simple Steps To Good Color Management


by John Paul Caponigro

I remember the days before color management. They were painfully imprecise and inefficient. Color management changed that. Now I get better results, more quickly, more easily, and with less waste. While there’s more to learn, once you’ve got the basics down and the right tools (a colorimeter or spectrophotometer) with a few simple steps you can get high quality results quickly and consistently. Sure, there’s more to learn. You can dive in as deep as you’d like to. Color management is rocket science. But you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to drive the rocket. Instead, be an astronaut. Take these six simple steps and the quality of your images and prints will soar.


1 – Make Profiled Conversions
Assign an ICC profile to all image files either during Raw conversion or scanning. Use appropriate profiles to make conversions into other color spaces with derivative files only. Minimize the number of conversions made.

2 – Calibrate Your Monitor Using Hardware
Once a month, use a colorimeter to build an ICC profile for your monitor. Minimize the influence of other light sources during characterization. Use the colorimeter’s software to help you set monitor brightness between 90 and 100 and choose White Point D65 and Gamma 2.2. Check the results with know target images afterwards. (I use X-Rite’s i1Display Pro; it takes 5 minutes once a month.)

3 – Set Good Photoshop Color Settings
In Photoshop’s Color Settings (in the Edit Menu) Set Color Management Policies to Preserve Embedded Profiles and Ask When Opening / Pasting. And, choose a wide gamut device neutral editing space. Start with North American Prepress Defaults and then change RGB to ProPhoto RGB.

4 – Softproof
Simulate the appearance of a print before printing. Go to View : Proof Setup : Custom and choose the profile you intend to print with. Check Simulate Paper Color and choose a rendering intent of either Perceptual or Relative Colorimetric. Make output specific adjustments before printing. Use these adjustments only when printing these media.

5 – Navigate Your Printer Driver Correctly

Use Photoshop / Lightroom or your printer driver to manage color – not both. In general, favor using Photoshop/Lightroom as this is the most versatile allowing you to use custom output profiles. (I make printer/paper profiles with my X-Rite’s i1Pro; it takes longer to print and dry the target than it does to measure it and make the profile.)

6 – Control Your Environment
Edit and evaluate your images in neutral surroundings. Minimize the effect of extraneous light sources, such as glare on monitors or back-lighting. Evaluate proofs and prints in appropriate lighting.

There’s much more that can be said about each of these topics – but, not much more to do. Take these six simple steps and you’ll be well on your way to achieving consistent, high quality results with your images.

Need more help, just click on any of the links below. Nobody does it better than John Paul Caponigro!

Free color management resources
Jp's color management dvd
digital workshops
JP's FRee monthly enews "Insights"
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    November 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013

Categories​

Business
Marketing
Technique
Sales
Fast Food Fridays
​

Podcasts

Tamron Recipes 
Beyond Technique
Why?
Mind Your Own Business
Pro Photographer Journey

 Partners

Tamron
PhotoTexting

​Lumix

Marathon Press
​Platypod
©  2019 Skip Cohen University
  • Home
  • SCU Blog
  • Our Podcasts
  • About Us