Trade Tricks: Easy Color Management

When your goal is to create a beautiful print, understanding basic color management is a key component in the digital darkroom. Because monitors and papers are two completely different media, it’s important to realize your print isn’t going to be an exact match of what you see on your screen. If you continually test your printer’s capabilities, however, much like you would with various filters and papers in a traditional darkroom, you may end up developing interesting techniques. What really matters in the whole process is whether you like your end result.

Monitor Calibration. Start by calibrating your monitor. You need a predictable workspace in which to process your image. Some products on the market that assist you with this are ColorVision Spyder2, Digital Light & Color Profile Mechanic and MonacoOPTIXXR.

Color Space. Adobe RGB (1998) and sRGB are two major color spaces used in digital imaging. It’s best to be consistent with your color space from start to finish. Most digital cameras have their default capture in sRGB, but may allow you to choose Adobe RGB (1998) instead. Many professionals will bring images into the Adobe RGB color space because its gamut is larger than that of sRGB, meaning you ultimately have more colors with which to work. On the other hand, sRGB loads into your image-processing program in a form that, for many photographers, needs less work to prep for printing. You’ll have to experiment with each space to see the differences and determine which one works for you.