| Step |
Task |
Links |
| 1 CAMERA |
If you
plan to edit and print
your own photos
change your camera color space setting to Adobe RGB. It probably
is on sRGB if you have never changed it. If you are happy with your camera's images then leave the setting on sRGB. Read your camera manual to see how the manufacturer tells you to deal with color spaces. Canon 10D, 20D, 30D, 40D, 5D, and Rebel and XT users will want to read specific info in your user's guides about this option: page 62 in the Rebel XT350 manual; page 58 in the 10D manual; page 56 in the 20D manual. |
Mike
Chaney's great article on in camera color spaces from Oct 2006 Another very good starter article from Mike Chaney |
| 2 CAMERA |
Make
sure you have left the
saturation, contrast, and sharpness settings in the default mode on
your camera. Don't boost or cut anything in your camera, let the
software do this step. |
|
| 2 a CAMERA |
If you
want black and white
prints - shoot in color and adjust the color image later on to obtain
the best black and white (unless you have one of the very latest b/w
mode cameras which allow you to favor one or more color channels). |
|
| 3 MONITOR |
Use some
type of monitor
calibration tool. Use Adobe Gamma, which is located in the
Windows control panel area to adjust contrast, brightness, and colors
if you have Adobe software. This utility self installs in your
control panel when you install Adobe software, it's free, just use
it. Vista users may have trouble finding Adobe Gamma - I'm working on figuring this out. If you can afford a third party colorimeter, then use that device to measure and correct your monitor instead of Adobe Gamma. Note: If your monitor is not accurate then you are making inaccurate decisions in your editing software regarding contrast (tonal information), color saturation, and hue changes. And, don't try to compensate for this inaccuracy by skewing your printer color controls. |
Colorimeters (Colorvision, Pantone, Monaco, etc.) |
| 4 MONITOR |
If you
are using a laptop PC or
Mac, or an LCD monitor on your desktop pc, then ask me for help in
setting up color. Do you know how to adjust your laptop pc's
brightness and contrast? My experiences so far have been marginal
in trying to make an LCD monitor look as good as my better flat screen
LaCie or Sony CRT's. Just my
opinion.... |
Setting up your monitor correctly |
| 5 SOFTWARE |
Read
your software help
information to see how the manufacturer suggests you deal with setting
up color preferences. Photoshop, Elements, ULead, ACDSee, Paint
Shop Pro,
Microsoft, etc. all will tell you something a little different. My experiences so far tell me that Adobe is all over the place when it comes to saying and doing color management between their different pieces of software. Photoshop CS2 has the clearest info to date. |
|
| 6 SOFTWARE |
Get a
reliable test image and
make a test print to see how close you are to a good print. Don't
fix things until you know what you are fixing. Tim Grey's best Test
Image When you first open an image file try doing a Save As command and look around in that dialog box for information as to what color space you are about to tag your image with. Many times this will be a surprise and you'll find that even though you thought you were tagging your file with Adobe RGB - if you intend to print the image - it's not showing up that way in the dialog box. In most software the next step is to go to the Color Settings preferences dialog boxes and reset your options to the color space you want. sRGB for screen and web output; Adobe RGB for printer output. |
Photoshop
Elements Color Help Photoshop CS2 Color Help |
| 7 SOFTWARE |
When you
edit your image, if you are using
Photoshop CS2,
then start checking your output quality before you print by using the View
> Soft Proof options. If you are not familiar with Soft
Proofing then go to Photoshop's help command and do some reading on
this. This option let's you see how your image will look based on
your printer, your paper you plan to use, and your existing adjustment
layers. Consider flattening your image then adding one more
adjustment layer while soft proofing to see if you need to boost or cut
saturation or tonal levels. Note: Soft Proofing is not available in Elements. |
Ian Lyons
Computer-Darkroom basic color management (includes good info on soft proofing) Softproofing basics from Steve's Profile mismatches, etc were covered really well in PSTV Episode #59 - December 2006 |
| 8 PRINTER |
Download
and install paper .icc
paper profiles for the type and brand of paper you will be using.
I know this may put many of you to sleep, but stick with this step. Here is information for Kodak papers just as an example. I use only Epson papers, but let's not get too hooked on Epson if Kodak papers will provide the quality you need. Kodak professional inkjet papers separate pdf's for PS and El. Note: The following is excerpted from Kodak's web page: What is a color profile? A color printer profile is a small software file that describes how ink interacts with a specific type of paper, within a specific printing system. In this case, your printer. Using the right ICC Color Profile for your printer is one of the easiest steps you can take toward better prints. Your print driver will use the profile to adjust the output of ink to match the colors, contrast, and brightness in the picture file. The result is better, more consistent, even amazing prints. Your printer came with profiles that are specific to the manufacturer’s paper, but all papers are made slightly (or dramatically) different. By using the profiles we made specifically for your printer (along with the correct Printer Driver settings), you’ll get the best possible prints on KODAK PROFESSIONAL Inkjet Photo Paper. If you’re looking for color predictability and consistency, download the profile for your printer and operating system, and get the results you expect – every time. |
Luminous
Landscape tutorial on printers and color Epson color workflow for Epson printers Steve's digicams printer profile help |
| 9 PRINTER |
Learn
how to let your software
determine the colors your printer will use to make the print, not your
printer color controls. Sounds weird right? The idea here
is to literally turn off the color controls in your printer and let
your software manage this process. You are still going to select
the paper type, paper size, dots per inch of ink spray (usually 1440
dpi or 2880 dpi with Epson's), speed of printing, edge smoothing, etc.
in the printer dialog box, but you are going to turn off the printer's
color controls. |
Adobe inkjet printer and color basics |
Main Complete Workflow
Tutorial gballard.net
http://www.gballard.net/nca.html
Color
management and gamma tips?
