SpyderMan

Almost every day somebody asks me: “Why don’t my prints look like what I see on my screen?” Actually, the print probably looks exactly what your software and printer think the monitor is displaying.

The answer lies not in the stars, but in color management. Before you get all geeky on me and think it’s too hard for regular people, let me introduce you to a system I call “” that works for users who aren’t perfectionists and just want better prints.

This system is based on spending little time and money on hardware and software, and it works for me. What works for you may be different because of what you photograph and how you photograph, but you can use these suggestions as a basis for creating your own system.

Start with your monitor

Color management begins with your monitor. Contrary to the recommendations of some digital gurus, I use LCD monitors with my Mac OS and Windows XP computers. A 19-inch KDS (www.kdsusa.com) is attached my Power Macintosh G4 and an 18-inch Planar (www.planar.com) is connected to my Windows XP Home computer. I like the small footprint, crisp focus, miserly power requirements, and low ELF/VLF emissions that are part of all flat panel displays. The prices for these particular monitors are modest, but out of the box their color accuracy is mediocre at best.

The first step in making sure that “what I see is what I get” is calibrating the monitors. I use ColorVision’s Spyder2Pro because the hardware is simple, cross platform, and the software is easy to use for the color management impaired. Oh yeah, it’s affordable too. Periodically, ColorVision’s software reminds you to recalibrate but you can set it for no reminders at all. I set up Spyder2Pro to calibrate my 19-inch KDS monitor this morning and while it was doing its thing, took a shower, and when I got back (and clean) a new monitor profile was waiting.

For image making, I use Adobe Photoshop CS on both computers. The n step in the process is making sure that the program’s Color Settings (Photoshop > Color settings) are appropriate up for the work that I do. The defaults may be fine for some people, but not every photographer has the same requirements. You can try the default settings to see if they work for you and make any changes based on experience. If you’re picky, you can contact a computer consultant, such as Kevin Elliott of Mac MD (www.macmdcare.com), or ask a friend in your camera club what his or her settings are. The only thing I change is the Working Space. I keep it set at Adobe RGB. (The advantages and disadvantages of using sRGB or Adobe RGB color spaces will be covered in part II of .)

As part of the common sense approach, I apply some old wet darkroom techniques to the digital darkroom. For example, I have two “standard” files for testing new printers, ink, and media. One is the PhotoDisc target that can be downloaded from www.inkjetart.com. The other is a personal image that contains reference colors such as skies, neutral grays, and skin tones. Whenever I gets a new printer, new inks, or a new paper type, I runs test prints to see if any adjustments to the paper type selected from the driver or color tweaks in Photoshop are needed to produce the desired results.

Printing is simple if you only run Canon paper through your Canon printer. Their printer’s driver software is matched specifically to their paper so there are few surprises, but what happens when you use some of Adorama’s new media with your new Epson printer?

Most companies offer paper profiles that can be downloaded from their websites that can be applied (Image > Mode >Assign Profile.) If this is too much trouble for you, as it sometimes is for me, I look at the paper and compare it to something similar to an existing Epson or Canon media, and select that from their printer driver. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. For more detailed information about using “other” kinds of paper, please read “Pick a Pack of Papers”.

Tips:

1. Calibrate you monitor on a regular basis. Colors change as the monitor ages so if all of a sudden your prints start looking blue, there’s usually a good reason.
2. Don’t be afraid of third party inks or papers. Some ink, such as Media Street’s (www.mediastreet.com), are truly plug-and-play.
3. Create a customized test print you can use to test new paper and media. Then make a folder to keep these prints in dark storage for future reference. Write technical information on the back of the print, including what paper and ink were used, printer’s settings, printer model, and the date print was made.

Joe Farace is Colorado-based photographer/writer who has written or edited 25 books and more than 1400 magazine stories. For a limited time, you can get an autographed copy for his book on Photoshop-compatible plug-ins called “Plug-in Smart” from the Bookstore section of www.joefarace.com.