Colour management: Are our eyes the weakest link?

[ricktas]

We often discuss colour management and how using a calibration device on our monitors lets us create a set 'standard', whereby our photos should look the same on every screen that has been calibrated. Whilst this might be the case and work in theory, our eyes can be the weakest link in this chain. Some people are colour-blind and cannot differentiate between some colours/shades. Othertimes, though we might not be colour-blind, our eyes can play tricks on us.

It certainly does make you wonder if the way you 'see' a photo on screen, no matter how much calibration etc is done, if you are seeing what others see.

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[rene52]

I agree Rick, I have a colour calabrated monitor at home but at work I view on a Factory Defaulted Dell monitor. The difference is just amazing. The other thing I find as well (and I haven't been able to get this done properly as of this time) is to also colour calabrate my printer - again becaus it will print different colours than what I see on the screen. I have tried to get the ICC file in Photoshop and print from there but it doesnt work (well I might be doing something wrong I suppose) so I now print from Windows Viewer as this is the closest to what I see on the screen. I just wished we could print what we see.

[ricktas]

Prints will always look slightly different to what is on screen. You can only aim to get it as accurate as possible. Your screen is transmitted light- light is emitted from within the screen to allow us to see what we do. Prints are reflected light - thus the surface of the paper/canvas etc, reflects light from the surroundings (ambient light) and lets us see the image.

To get the most from your printer, some calibration devices include a 'scanner' that you print a specific page, on the paper of your choice, and then scan that page and a print profile is created for your printer/paper combination. This is the best way to get as accurate result as possible. Using ICC profiles works well, but you need to ensure photoshop, or whatever you are using to print, is using this profile, and not being over-ridden by something in the printer's driver. There are a lot of reasons a print may not be up to the standard you expect and you need to methodically eliminate possible causes till you hit the jackpot.