Tutorials
All of the tutorials that appear here are available free of charge via email in either MS Word/Notepad. If you would like us to send you a tutorial, please use the contact page to tell us what you'd like and in which format.
Colour Correction With Digital Images-Do This First!
10th February 2007.
1) Photoshop's default colour space is "sRGB IEC61966-2.1". This is arguably the worse colour space for photographers. It was designed for the web and it's not what we want.
2) Press "shift>control>K" to bring up the colour settings. "shift>command>K" on a Mac. In the "working spaces" section from the "RGB" drop down menu, choose "Adobe RGB (1998)".
3) Click on "ok" and this is your new colour space.
4) Moving on, click on the "eyedropper" tool in Photoshop's tools pallet.
5)The eyedropper tool will be used for reading colour values from your images, so don't ignore this part.
6) The default sample for this tool is "point sample", this doesn't work well if your trying to read values in a specific area such as flesh tones. This is because it gives a reading from just one individual pixel rather that the area under the mouse cursor.
7) Go to the "options" bar and under "sample size" choose "3 x 3 pixel average" from the drop down menu.
That's all there is to it. If you found this tutorial of use to you, please let us know with a short email via our "contact" page.
Managing Colour
19th February 2007.
Colour management is about getting what you see on your monitor into the final print. Many people struggle with this, but it is simplfied with the use of ICC profiles. Cutting through the sales jargon, it works like this;
"Each device in the photographers digital workflow, ie-camera, monitor, scanner and printer is assigned a description of how it records or displays colour. This is an ICC profile".
Image editing software such as Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro is used to convert between profiles as the image progresses through the various digital workflow stages.
ICC profiles are very specific and need to be used with caution in order to produce the best results. The profile for your printer will be installed along with the driver and will be reliable only to that model of printer and the type of paper used. These settings are specified in the print dialogue window. Up to date ICC profiles and drivers are available over the internet for most printers and third party papers. So is using the printer driver and manufacturer's papers the way to go? It is if you want to be "locked in" to a specific system with very little scope to experiment. If you want to be free to try different papers, try this;
I've detailed below a basic workflow, using Photoshop CS for colour managing a Jpeg file as it comes into the software, is edited and then home printed. The result is to ensure that the image is accuratley managed in terms of colour as it moves throughout the editing process.
1)SET YOUR COLOUR SPACE! See our tutorial of the 10th February 2007 of how to do this. It's a no brainer, so don't ignore it, just do it!
2)Open a Jpeg image in Photoshop. If you get a message telling you that the embedded profile doesn't match the working space, select the "don't colour manage" option. Ignore any other messages such as "are you out of your mind" etc. Converting between profiles at this stage is not good.
3)OK, we now need to assign a colour profile to the image that matches the capture device. Go to: Image>Mode>Assign Profile, and select a profile that matches your camera/scanner that the image was created on.
4)Now we need to convert the image into a colour space that is suitable for our editing needs. Both camera and scanner default colour spaces are rarely suitable for this. Go to: Image>Mode>Convert To Profile, and select "Adobe RGB (1998)". This colour space encompasses a wide range of tones, so it's ideal.
5)Now carry out any editing that you need to do on the file. Cloning, levels, Saturation etc should be done now. Then save an UN-SHARPENED copy of the file in Adobe RGB 1998 colour space to your HDD. That way, you can always come back to this file in order to print from different printers. Continually converting from one profile to another will degrade image quality over time.
6) When you've completed your editing, it's time to preview the image in the colour space in which it will be printed. Let's look at a soft proof first. Go to "View>Proof Setup>Custom", and choose the printer profile that will be used to print with. In this case I'm using an Epson R2400, loaded with Epson Premium Semigloss paper. If your media is not listed here, use a the profile that is the closest match to the paper your using.
7)In the preview pane, if the image looks similar to how it did on your monitor after editing, this is a good sign. It means that the colours being used are within the range of your printer. If it dosen't, don't worry! Click on "OK" and make adjustments with "levels" and "Hue/Saturation" to the image until it looks the same as your "Soft Proof Setup".
8) When your happy with the image, it's time to print. Go to "File>Print With Preview". Click "page setup" and select your printer, paper size and orientation. The click "OK".
9)Under "Colour Management", select the document as the print source, then under "Options" select "Let Photoshop Determine Colours". Then choose the printer profile that gave you the best result in the soft proof stage. Change the rendering intent to "Relative Colourimetric". Click "Done" to move to the last stage.
10) It's critically important to avoid the colour corrections being applied twice at this stage. This WILL happen if you leave the printer driver's auto calibration mode switched on! Turn it off before hitting "print" and you will see a colour balanced print emerge from your home printer within a few minutes.
If you found this tutorial of use to you, please let us know with a short email via our "contact" page.
Colour Correction With Digital Images-Do This First!
10th February 2007.
1) Photoshop's default colour space is "sRGB IEC61966-2.1". This is arguably the worse colour space for photographers. It was designed for the web and it's not what we want.
2) Press "shift>control>K" to bring up the colour settings. "shift>command>K" on a Mac. In the "working spaces" section from the "RGB" drop down menu, choose "Adobe RGB (1998)".
3) Click on "ok" and this is your new colour space.
4) Moving on, click on the "eyedropper" tool in Photoshop's tools pallet.
5)The eyedropper tool will be used for reading colour values from your images, so don't ignore this part.
6) The default sample for this tool is "point sample", this doesn't work well if your trying to read values in a specific area such as flesh tones. This is because it gives a reading from just one individual pixel rather that the area under the mouse cursor.
7) Go to the "options" bar and under "sample size" choose "3 x 3 pixel average" from the drop down menu.
That's all there is to it. If you found this tutorial of use to you, please let us know with a short email via our "contact" page.
Managing Colour
19th February 2007.
Colour management is about getting what you see on your monitor into the final print. Many people struggle with this, but it is simplfied with the use of ICC profiles. Cutting through the sales jargon, it works like this;
"Each device in the photographers digital workflow, ie-camera, monitor, scanner and printer is assigned a description of how it records or displays colour. This is an ICC profile".
Image editing software such as Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro is used to convert between profiles as the image progresses through the various digital workflow stages.
ICC profiles are very specific and need to be used with caution in order to produce the best results. The profile for your printer will be installed along with the driver and will be reliable only to that model of printer and the type of paper used. These settings are specified in the print dialogue window. Up to date ICC profiles and drivers are available over the internet for most printers and third party papers. So is using the printer driver and manufacturer's papers the way to go? It is if you want to be "locked in" to a specific system with very little scope to experiment. If you want to be free to try different papers, try this;
I've detailed below a basic workflow, using Photoshop CS for colour managing a Jpeg file as it comes into the software, is edited and then home printed. The result is to ensure that the image is accuratley managed in terms of colour as it moves throughout the editing process.
1)SET YOUR COLOUR SPACE! See our tutorial of the 10th February 2007 of how to do this. It's a no brainer, so don't ignore it, just do it!
2)Open a Jpeg image in Photoshop. If you get a message telling you that the embedded profile doesn't match the working space, select the "don't colour manage" option. Ignore any other messages such as "are you out of your mind" etc. Converting between profiles at this stage is not good.
3)OK, we now need to assign a colour profile to the image that matches the capture device. Go to: Image>Mode>Assign Profile, and select a profile that matches your camera/scanner that the image was created on.
4)Now we need to convert the image into a colour space that is suitable for our editing needs. Both camera and scanner default colour spaces are rarely suitable for this. Go to: Image>Mode>Convert To Profile, and select "Adobe RGB (1998)". This colour space encompasses a wide range of tones, so it's ideal.
5)Now carry out any editing that you need to do on the file. Cloning, levels, Saturation etc should be done now. Then save an UN-SHARPENED copy of the file in Adobe RGB 1998 colour space to your HDD. That way, you can always come back to this file in order to print from different printers. Continually converting from one profile to another will degrade image quality over time.
6) When you've completed your editing, it's time to preview the image in the colour space in which it will be printed. Let's look at a soft proof first. Go to "View>Proof Setup>Custom", and choose the printer profile that will be used to print with. In this case I'm using an Epson R2400, loaded with Epson Premium Semigloss paper. If your media is not listed here, use a the profile that is the closest match to the paper your using.
7)In the preview pane, if the image looks similar to how it did on your monitor after editing, this is a good sign. It means that the colours being used are within the range of your printer. If it dosen't, don't worry! Click on "OK" and make adjustments with "levels" and "Hue/Saturation" to the image until it looks the same as your "Soft Proof Setup".
8) When your happy with the image, it's time to print. Go to "File>Print With Preview". Click "page setup" and select your printer, paper size and orientation. The click "OK".
9)Under "Colour Management", select the document as the print source, then under "Options" select "Let Photoshop Determine Colours". Then choose the printer profile that gave you the best result in the soft proof stage. Change the rendering intent to "Relative Colourimetric". Click "Done" to move to the last stage.
10) It's critically important to avoid the colour corrections being applied twice at this stage. This WILL happen if you leave the printer driver's auto calibration mode switched on! Turn it off before hitting "print" and you will see a colour balanced print emerge from your home printer within a few minutes.
If you found this tutorial of use to you, please let us know with a short email via our "contact" page.