Note: Kirk is "the Affordable Full time Professional Wedding Photographer serving Winsdor, Ontario". Here is the Link to KW Masters Photography Wedding Photographer. You can also use the above link to see this post on our home site-click blog on the menu. Enjoy.
Introduction:
Several years ago I went to purchase a 22 in Color Samsung monitor for my computer. Having 15 in monitors, this was going to be a big change. You check out the specification, compare brands and models and pick the one your like. It cost around $300-400. at the time. When we tried to view photographs on it we found that we were having problems. The colors just didn't look right.
Today I am going to share with you what I found out and why buying a monitor was and still is a chancy thing.
Color Space:
Color space is the fancy term for showing the color distribution of an object, be it a photograph or a computer monitor. The wider the color reach or space, the better. There are 3 color spaces that I know of and some other custom spaces.
These are:
1. sRGB - Standard Red - Green - Blue This is the basic and smallest color space, many times used in printing your photographs. In Canon camera's, it is the only color space that you can set for your auto setting JPEGS. Another good reason for NOT shooting JPEGS with Canon. Our Olympus camera allows us to use Adobe RGB.
2. Adobe -RGB (1998) This is the standard color space of your RAW images. It is much larger than sRGB and you can get prints made using it at most places.
3. Pro-Photo - This is the largest color gamut available that I know of. The main problem is getting things printed with the larger color range. This is no problem for us, as we have a large professional printer with an extended color gamut range. So to use this, you will need to buy a professional color printer ($2-3000.) or have someone like us do it for you.
4. Custom color profiles for Offset Printing and silver halide process. When you print to different types of paper, you need to have a color profile setup for each type of paper. We print Luster and sometimes matt. When we have our Professional Photographic Art Wedding Albums printed, we have to process each image with the color space of the paper being used. This is more work, but the result is: "What you see is what you get". That is the goal of your Color Management efforts.
Color Monitors:
You may have already guessed what the snag is. The monitor sales people and their suppliers don't show you the color gamut of their monitors. They deliberately HIDE this information from you. You have to look and seek it out.
Our above monitor was costly, but it only has 72% of Adobe RGB.
And the rest of the story is...
This information is basically hidden on the Samsung Website. We have a Samsung 24" and a Dell 24" monitors that do have a 97% and or 115% Adobe RGB color gamut. So our display monitor shows us the true colors and the other, holds the Photoshop tools, and miscellaneous items. Did we mention the cost? You can pay up to $2,000 for a photographic monitor. Prices do vary and the last time that I checked, they were around $700 and up and up. There are only a few manufactures in the world that make the LCD displays. The rest just assemble the monitors. I found that Dell do have sales and you can get fast delivery to your door which is a great thing.
Masters-Tip: If you want to work and adjust the colors of your photographs in a photo editing program like Photoshop, DXO, Lightroom, etc, you should buy a monitor that gives you around 100% Adobe RGB rating. Check the web, some stores know about this, others don't.
Masters-Tip: Now you have to run a color calibration profile for your monitor
How do I do That?
You have the monitor which is a great start but you have to calibrate it. We use Spyder 2 to run a color calibration profile which your computer and PS uses so that we can see accurate colors on our computer. You can get the calibration tool for a steal of a price, around $400. For those people inclined to do so, you just might be able to calibrate your TV with this tool also.
You install your software, carefully put the tool over the monitor, remove, hide lights from the room and window which can effect the calibration and run the program. Remember to click once every 6 months or you will be reminded every time you start your computer.
Masters-Tip: Calibration is NOT a short cut for improving a poor quality monitor. Do NOT waste your time trying to calibrate a monitor with a color gamut of 72%. The pictures will still look like ...s you know what I mean.
Masters-Tip: Calibrate you monitor before every big project. The Dell doesn't drift much, so every 3-6 months should be okay.
Kirk is a Professional Wedding Photographer in Windsor Ontario Canada. In appreciation if you would be so kind as to give a G+ and a Facebook Like KW Masters Photography on his Facebook page. You only have to do this once and add your likes and G+ per post.
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