| Have you ever been disappointed with the quality of | | | | allow you to achieve far more accurate colour |
| the prints you received from your local photo | | | | calibration settings. |
| laboratory? Or wondered why you can spend hours | | | | |
| tweaking your digital images and still get them back | | | | For a free alternative to Adobe Gamma you should |
| with strange colour tones or too much light? | | | | take a look at this program. |
| Welcome to the often frustrating world of colour | | | | |
| calibration! | | | | Hardware calibration: |
| | | | |
| Problems with colour calibration occur because every | | | | The best possible calibration results are achieved by |
| computer screen has a different way of showing a | | | | using physical calibration devices. By placing the device |
| particular colour. Even primary colours can be shown | | | | against your monitor, it can adjust your colour profile |
| very differently if you view them on a different | | | | to a recognized standard. Although expensive, the |
| monitor or computer. To see this in action, try | | | | Spyder 2 ( is used by many professional design and |
| looking at the same image on both your own | | | | printing companies. |
| computer and that of a friend or colleague. | | | | |
| | | | Colour Profiles |
| The frustrating thing is that the problem gets worse | | | | |
| over time - as your computer screen ages it | | | | To achieve as perfect as possible a match between |
| becomes less precise in the way it displays colours. | | | | the image you see on your screen and the one you |
| What this means is that while an image may look | | | | get back from a printing lab you should ask for a |
| great on your screen, it will look different and be | | | | copy of the colour profiles used to calibrate their |
| printed differently at the printers. Some printing labs | | | | printing machines. This is a small file that will tell your |
| will try to adjust your photos for you - unfortunately | | | | computer exactly how to display each colour for the |
| this can often make them look even worse. | | | | greatest accuracy. Large photographic laboratories |
| | | | may be unwilling to provide you with this information, |
| Calibrating your computer and a printing facility can | | | | but many smaller agencies will be very amenable. |
| be difficult - but in this article we outline some simple | | | | |
| ways to achieve greater consistency. | | | | A final word |
| | | | |
| Basic calibration: | | | | Taking photographs is an important part of capturing |
| | | | and preserving the important milestones and events |
| There are a number of free online options you can | | | | of our lives. Many people will often spent hours in |
| use to achieve better calibration of your monitor. | | | | front of a computer editing their images before |
| | | | sending them off to be printed. Making sure your |
| Easy RGB has a simple step-by-step guide that will | | | | computer monitor is properly calibrated is one way |
| assist you to adjust a number of settings. | | | | you can make sure that your passion and effort is |
| | | | rewarded with stunning photographs.Dylan Tovey |
| Software calibration: | | | | works at the Australian canvas printing company He |
| | | | gets to see the good, the bad, and the ugly when |
| The Adobe Photoshop image editing suite | | | | framing and printing customer photographs. His own |
| automatically installs a program called Adobe Gamma | | | | keen love of photography has turned him into an |
| into your control panel (START-SETTINGS-CONTROL | | | | evangelical spokesperson for good photographic |
| PANEL). Using this type of colour-calibration wizard will | | | | habits. |