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It’s important
to understand from the start that calibrating means giving you a
neutral, accurate workspace, not necessarily something that will
perfectly match prints to your monitor. A lot of photographers get
frustrated trying to match the monitor, though. A monitor image
has many characteristics that make it quite different from a print,
and becoming obsessed with getting an exact match can distract you
from what’s really important—a print you can be proud
of. Here are some differences to consider:
•A monitor’s colors are made up of glowing red, green
and blue pixels, while a print’s colors are created by light
that must reflect through cyan, magenta, yellow and black dyes or
pigments and white paper.
•Since monitors and prints can deal with color in dissimilar
ways, colors on a monitor often will show slightly varied emphasis
compared to prints, which will show up stronger when different papers
are used.
•Inexpensive LCD monitors can be difficult to control when
it comes to color.
•Since no one ever puts a monitor on the wall for displaying
prints, a critical issue is how an image looks as a print, not just
how good it appears on the monitor.
The key to successful printing is a good print. Think about it—although
some photographers are excessively concerned about matching a print
to the monitor, people viewing the print won’t ask to see
the monitor so they can compare them. Still, it’s important
to have an accurate monitor that responds in a consistent way so
changes you make on the screen are reflected properly in a print.
Calibrate. For your monitor to be consistent, you
should calibrate regularly (at least every month or so). What you
want is a monitor that shows tonalities (dark to light) accurately
and keeps neutral tones neutral. Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements
come with Adobe Gamma, a calibration wizard that takes you, step-by-step,
through your monitor setup. It’s a good program that’s
built into the software, but it’s quite basic and relies on
human judgment (our eyes and brain can be fooled at times into thinking
colors are different than they are).
For more control, you need a sensor you can attach to your monitor,
such as the ColorVision Spyder (www.colorvision.com),
GretagMacBeth Eye-One (www.gretagmacbeth.com)
and Monaco Optix (www.monacosys.com).
This device actually will read your monitor and, through software,
create a profile for it (a profile is a set of instructions the
computer uses to interpret color). You need to be careful, however,
that the sensor you buy works on the type of monitor you’re
using. Older-style sensors for CRTs (the big, tube-type monitors)
can damage the soft screen of an LCD.
Once attached to a monitor, the sensor does its job automatically.
You need to do little except watch a parade of unique colors and
neutral tones that appear below the sensor. A software wizard will
guide you through the proper steps. Once done, usually it will prompt
you to save the profile. Most photographers will save it with a
specific name related to the monitor and the date. This makes it
easy to know when you profiled last (check your profiles in Windows
by right-clicking on your desktop, selecting Properties, then Settings/Advanced
and Color Management; for Mac, go to System Preferences, then Displays/Color).
Improve Your Workspace. Now, having bought a sensor
and done the profiling work, it would be a shame to have that profile
give you poor results because of your computer’s work environment.
Our eyes tend to compensate for our surroundings, so the location
of a computer monitor is important. If bright colors surround a
desk, this can be a problem, especially if they change through the
day because of the lighting in the room. You actually can get very
different-looking images if one is done in bright conditions during
the day and another at night when the room lamps don’t illuminate
the bright colors the same. Use neutral colors around your monitor
as much as possible.
In addition, be mindful of the quality of the ambient light. If
it’s constantly changing, from sunlight to skylight to incandescent,
you may find your prints looking different when printed at various
times of the day, regardless of the color of the room. Again, your
eyes will compensate for the light, so adjustments you make to your
photo may look the same, say at noon compared to 8 p.m., but the
actual results will be different. Your best bet is to keep the room
somewhat dim, with light changes kept to a minimum (I keep blinds
over my windows in my home and work offices; our art director keeps
the blinds shut in his office all the time).
React To The Print. This is a key part of the printing
process. Unfortunately, a lot of Photoshop gurus have so frightened
photographers that they feel they must do everything the “right
way” (based, naturally, on the guru’s advice) or an
image won’t look good. You must be your own judge. Check the
print when it comes out of the printer. Really study at it, without
comparing it with the monitor, and decide whether you like it or
not. No great darkroom worker ever took a print and tried to compare
it with the negative to see if it was printed correctly. Use the
monitor as a reference, but not as a benchmark.
Also, consider doing a final examination of the print after it has
“dried” for a while. Although a print comes out of the
printer dry to the touch, further drying occurs afterward (for how
long depends on the paper). This means that certain tones aren’t
fully “developed” for anywhere from minutes to hours.
In addition, check your print in the light under which it will most
likely be displayed. Photographers who sell prints need to examine
their work under a consistent, color-balanced light source, since
they can’t predict how their images will be displayed.
Test, Test And Test Again. Printing is a craft.
The more you print, the more proficient you’ll become. Traditional
darkroom photographers constantly tested to get the best prints,
and we should do the same. Try a print and check it; make adjustments
and see what effect they have on the print. Note your results. Any
compensation you apply to the image for printing generally can be
used as a starting point for all images on a particular type of
paper (this is similar to adjusting your aim in archery to compensate
for the wind; in this case, you do it with the colors and tones).
Traditional darkroom workers hastened the testing process by using
a test strip. You can do something similar by creating a page that
includes many small versions of your photo, then selecting and adjusting
each image differently (recording your adjustments as noted above).
For example, you could arrange four 3x5-inch images on a single
“canvas” (overall print area) that will print on one
page of 8x11-inch paper. Most image-processing programs offer the
convenience of an automated printing function (in Adobe products,
look under the Picture Package section; check the Help menu for
exact location). Be sure your resolution is set correctly. For your
four-print page, keep the upper left unchanged, and adjust color
and brightness differently for the others. Now, you’ll have
a quick test print.
You also can use software to do this test print for you. Vivid Details
Test Strip (www.vividdetails.com)
offers a structured way of testing, as well as many color-adjustment
tools.
OP
editor Rob Sheppard’s Website for workshops and Photoshop
videotape instruction is www.rsphotovideos.com. His latest book
is the National Geographic Guide to Photography—Digital.
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