Crash Course to Seamless Color

There’s so much information surrounding color management out there these days that, let’s face it, it’s overwhelming. And anyone who’s spent time on the WPPI or PPE trade show floors recently can certainly attest to the fact that the seemingly endless number of printers and color management options out there can be downright dizzying at times. The question then becomes: is there a perfect solution for ensuring 100 percent color consistency in your images?

The answer is no. And that is simply because color can change based on a number of factors, including individual color perception (varies from person to person), hardware vs. software combinations, document settings, editing software and even the light source in your studio or editing room. So, while there is no universal fix to managing color, you should be aware of all the times the color in your images can shift from the moment you take your photograph until the time you deliver your file, either digitally or in print.

Proper color management insures that your digital files, monitor, printer (either in-house or outsourced), and all of your other media accurately depict the same color so there is continuity in every image.

This is extremely important in the delivery process, especially to accurately depict skin tones. Most photographers have had the unfortunate experience of delivering an image that was either too warm or too cool, or just didn’t accurately depict the person’s skin color. Green skin, anyone?

While color management can be extremely scientific, I’ve divided this article into four separate sections in order to keep things relatively simple to digest: color spaces, shooting, editing and delivery. Consider this a crash course introduction into color management.

1. Color Spaces
In order to better understand color, we first need to discern how we see color versus how certain media types depict color. To our eyes, color is depicted as a combination of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet; everything we see as human beings is a combination of these seven colors. Most visual media, however (like TV screens, monitors, cameras, etc.), depict color as a mixture of red, green and blue, while most printers print images as a combination of cyan, magenta, yellow and black. To complicate things further, most monitors and printers are only capable of depicting a fraction of the available color span. These specific ranges of colors are called color spaces. More often than not, photographers are shifting between color spaces from the time they photograph their subject until they deliver their file. Shifting through the color spaces will change the perceived color of an image. So to better understand these shifts in color, we need to first understand which color spaces we are using and when. While there are many different types of color spaces, there are traditionally three color spaces most digital photographers will work with: sRGB, AdobeRGB and CMYK.

Maintaining color continuity in an image between your camera, computer, phone and/or printer is extremely important. All Photos © Jeff Rojas. 

sRGB – For digital only.
This is the most common color space traditionally used by monitors. By default, most digital cameras will display your image in sRGB and the colors will often look more saturated than AdobeRGB. If you’re NOT printing your work, sRGB is the color space you should consider sticking with.

AdobeRGB – For professional-quality prints.
This has a greater range of colors than sRGB, especially in the cyan and green areas of your image. You have the ability to work with many more colors in post-production and can still convert your final output to sRGB. Most high-end inkjet printers have the capability of printing these additional colors and therefore it is generally better for professional prints. If you work with 16-bit images and require the additional color range for more vibrant colors, this should be the color space you work with.

CMYK – For newspapers and magazines.
This is used in the printing process. It uses cyan, magenta and yellow (when combined to create black) ink to subtract color from white to display an image. CMYK is generally used by newspapers, magazines and most large commercial printers. It has the most limited amount of colors that can be produced.

Plus: ProPhoto RGB (RAW) – For the color perfectionist in you.
Covers the largest range of colors, beyond what human eyes can see. If you are a color perfectionist and print with high-end printers that use the entire spectrum of color, this is the color space for you. For 99.9 percent of photographers, this color space is overkill.

Figure 1. Would you say the grey circle on the left is lighter or darker than the grey circle on the right? Turns out they are both the same! The sole difference is the color that surrounds them, but those colors directly influence the way we perceive the neutral circles.

2. Shooting
Ambient Light Source
In theory, proper color management says you should view both your digital and physical images under the same lighting conditions. If you’re looking at the back of your camera in 5000K light (daylight), you should be looking at your print in 5000K, not 3000K light (tungsten), because our eyes will adapt to the difference in color cast.

Don’t believe me? Take a look at the image below (Fig. 1). Would you say the grey circle on the left is lighter or darker than the grey circle on the right? The answer is that they’re both the same. The sole difference is the color that surrounds them, but these colors directly influence the way we perceive the neutral circles. Be very conscientious of the lighting conditions around you as you’re looking at the back of your camera. The slightest change in the color temperature will influence the way you perceive your images.

Figure 2. The images we see on the back of our cameras are a small JPEG interpretation of the image and not the image that will be imported on your computer.

Color In Camera
By default, most DSLRs will display images in sRGB on the back of your camera. Remember that every sensor in every camera can vary slightly. There is not a 100 percent standard depiction of color throughout a camera line. As your LCD ages and fades over time, this fact will be more evident. You shouldn’t be judging your images from the back of the camera LCD, but this is the way to ensure that you have the closest accurate depiction of what you’re seeing when you import your files into an editing program like Lightroom.

Even with that in mind, it’s also important to note that the images we see on the back of our cameras (Fig. 2) are a small JPEG interpretation of the image and not the image that will be imported on your computer. As you import files into third-party software like Adobe Lightroom, the color space, color profile, color saturation, contrast, noise reduction, sharpening, etc. will not be applied to your RAW files on import. This is why many photographers choose to tether their cameras to a color-corrected monitor to judge color and contrast (Fig. 3).

Tool: Color Checker
Save yourself the headache and invest in a color checker. It will save you a ton of time in post-production trying to accurately depict proper white balance. A color checker is designed to accurately reproduce true-to-life color; what you see is what you get. Beyond correct white balance, you have the ability to create custom color profiles in Lightroom to compensate for your specific lighting situation.

Most laptops display oversaturated colors from the factory and will need to be color calibrated in order to be utilized for editing.

3. Editing
Monitor Color Profile
No monitor is made equal. At press time, most monitors on the market were not displaying AdobeRGB. If you want the full gamut of colors that AdobeRGB is capable of, you’ll need to invest in a screen that displays AdobeRGB. This is extremely beneficial if you intend to edit and refine detail in areas of extreme color saturation in your image, which would benefit you if you wanted to print your image.

To be clear, the only time you would enjoy the benefits of the AdobeRGB color space is when you’re using editing programs like Photoshop and Lightroom. The colors of the images depicted online can shift depending on the browser you select. This is why it’s recommended to only use the AdobeRGB color space if your final intent is to print your image.

The Color Around You
Both the ambient light and the color of the walls in your editing room will directly influence your perception of color. In a perfect world, you would photograph your subject in 5000K (daylight) and edit your photos in a room lit with 5000K light and all the walls would be painted a neutral grey. This would ensure that your eyes aren’t influenced by outside color casts. If your editing room is orange and the light is tungsten, then all of your images may look cooler than they really are. If you’re editing in the dark, the brightness of the screen may affect the way you perceive contrast in your image. All of these influences affect your perception of color, which is why using a colorimeter is so important in your editing process. If your screen is correctly calibrated, then DO NOT tinker with the white balance manually.

Tool: Colorimeter
There is no bias when working with color. Red is red. Blue is blue. Green is green. Our eyes don’t always agree, however. Because our eyes adapt to color casts so well, we cannot solely depend on them to judge color and contrast. To make things worse, most monitors will not accurately depict color due to improper calibration of the monitor (contrast and color settings). There are many monitors not intended for color accuracy, and some monitors may even cast a red or green tint to your image.

A colorimeter, like the X-Rite ColorMunki, makes an unbiased analysis of the colors depicted on your monitor versus what the computer is trying to produce. It then corrects the monitor using an ICC profile to display the images trying to be displayed by your computer so that red is red, blue is blue, and green is green. This is a great way to match skin tones. High-end color reference monitors, like the Eizo ColorEdge line, have a built-in colorimeter so that you can color calibrate your monitor without the need of an external device. Even if you’re displaying your images online, you still want to properly calibrate your monitor to make sure your image is displayed correctly on your client’s and audience’s monitors the same way.

Most personal desktop printers are capable of printing in sRGB, even though they use CMYK ink.

4. Delivery
Make Your Prints And Edits Pop!
In order to better make a decision on color profiles, it’s important to consider your final delivery method. Simply put, if you’re only planning to deliver your final digitally and it will never be printed, stick with sRGB through the entire editing process. If you are either planning to or would consider printing your image (Fig. 4), stick with AdobeRGB. This allows you great flexibility if you later plan to deliver both digital and physical prints, edit your photo in AdobeRGB and export one file as an sRGB file for digital and a second file as CMYK for print.

Using Commercial Labs
Most commercial labs like Miller’s, Mpix Pro, Bay Photo and WHCC will request images be sent to them in sRGB format. Rest assured that sRGB printers do not exist. So why do these print labs request files in sRGB? That’s because they are doing the color correcting for you and make your life a little easier. Most commercial print labs have the systems and the staff to manually color correct your images and would rather have you spend your time where it counts: behind the camera. This can lead to some slight shifts in color between your edit and the print that you receive from the company.

Tip: Using the AdobeRGB color space is so much more powerful during the printing process, and it has more available color spaces that match CMYK than sRGB. If you’re trying to match your print to your edit, this is extremely important to remember.

What About CMYK?
If you’re going to be printing your work in magazines, books, flyers, business cards or newsletters, work in AdobeRGB and then export in CMYK. Because of the limited span of color CMYK is capable of displaying, sRGB will have a great shift in color when converted to CMYK than AdobeRGB.

Digital Delivery
If you’re going to be strictly delivering your files in digital format (such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, PhotoShelter, SmugMug, etc.) stick with exporting your files in sRGB because smartphones, tablets, computer monitors, TVs, etc. are all capable of displaying the sRGB color profile.

Tool: Soft Proofing 
If color consistency is of the utmost importance to you, most commercial printers will have a monitor calibration profile (ICC) that you can use to soft proof your images before you send your digital files to be printed. The type of paper you use influences color, which is why programs like Photoshop and Lightroom provide you with the ability to view what your print would look like before it’s actually printed. Using a soft proof will allow you to load specific paper profiles that the printer is able to print on. This will then show you any colors that the printer is capable of printing versus any out-of-gamut (unavailable) colors that you’ve selected.

Too much to take in at once? Check out Rojas’s Color management cheat sheet!