Colour management and photographers - another perspective.
Colour management and photographers - another perspective.
- Subject: Colour management and photographers - another perspective.
- From: Paul Foley <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2008 13:50:29 +1000
I read with interest about the ColorMunki and looked to my regular
Color Sync User group emails for more information about it. I have
certainly not been disappointed with the volume and variety of
discourse.
What news of the Munki meant to me was the availability of affordable
end user paper profiling. I am a photographer selling RGB images to
clients and Inkjet prints to consumers. I have long used colour
management as part of my workflow but had stopped short of making my
own paper profiles because the cost of the software and equipment was
beyond my budget.
Initially I paid for people to profile the papers I used but over the
last few years I have had paper suppliers and printer suppliers do
that for me without charge. These profiles weren't perfect but they
were (very much) better than nothing and better than canned profiles.
Then I read about the Munki and it lead me to do some more research
about the affordability (for me) of profiling. I was surprised during
this research to receive a "special offer" from one of my suppliers
which offered a monitor calibrator and paper profiler (not the Munki)
for $AUS755.00 - after trading in an existing monitor calibrator.
Since last Wednesday have been happily "dinking" away at thousands of
little colour and grey squares while I create my own profiles.
Now I know the novelty of this cumbersome, manual operation will not
last, however, as a photographer I feel liberated and in control of my
own destiny. Well, as far as getting good colours and neutral grays go
anyway. I guess I shouldn't leave the all of my destiny to colour
management -:)
I'm never going to be an expert on profiling and if I'm smart I'll
know when I need to engage one. I know I won't rely on the printer or
paper suppliers for that advice/service - I'll turn to an
understanding colour management guru with good communication skills.
Perhaps the following tale has some relevance to colour management
experts and the services they can offer to photographers and designers.
Back in the day before digital photography became affordable to the
masses I lived in a large regional Australian city. I had several real
estate clients who engaged me to photograph the exteriors of houses
and provide them with small B&W prints which they used in their Press
Ads. It was boring, time consuming, not very profitable and so far
away from the reasons I became interested in photography in the first
place.
I put a few noses out of joint when I took those clients to a camera
store to help them buy a "cheap" digital camera so they could do it
themselves. My contemporaries didn't see it was going to happen anyway
and they certainly weren't being asked by those same clients to make
quality, creative images of the high value properties they began
marketing as house prices rose and the use of colour brochures became
more widespread.
Of course, the real estate agents tried to do the quality pictures
themselves at first but soon learnt there was a big difference between
the simple front on exteriors they could do and the creative, well lit
exteriors/interiors that a professional could supply.
A few years later when DSLRs become affordable I went thru a similar
process with some designers and architects - but that is another story.
Thanks to those who regularly contribute the passion and knowledge
evident in these discussions.
Paul Foley
Lightmoods P/L
PO Box 995
Spit Junction (Sydney)
NSW, Australia, 2088
Ph +61 2 99697018 Mobile 0412 683007
email@hidden
www.lightmoods.com.au
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