Re: Color Management Process
- From: Father Kodak <dont_bother@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2005 10:32:30 -0800
Speaking as a former-newbie in this area, let me try to address your
concerns:
The objective of color management is to develop "profiles" for each
device that compensate for that device's inability to render colors
with 100% accuracy. In principled, you can mix-and-match different
cameras, monitors, printers, scanners, etc, and achieve the same
final print, within the abilities of each camera and printer.
Every device "renders" color somewhat differently. That is, given the
same color values, e.g. (200, 100, 87) every different design of
monitor, printer, projector, etc, will "render" those colors somewhat
differently. Further, there is slight model-to- model difference in
monitor rendering because of aging, differences in the manufacturing
process. For printing, the inks and papers affect color rendering.
Moreover, same applies to each different design of recording devices
including digital camera, flatbed scanner, and film scanner. For
film cameras, there are differences in film types, which become the
"look" of the film.
For both film and digital cameras, there are White Balance issues,
which are handled differently for film and digital. For film
correcting filters address this issue, and for digital, White Balance
settings are used. Photography pros generally buy large quantities of
a given "emulsion batch" to further minimize color variation.
Given all that, how do you start? When you take a picture. You
ensure that your film is matched to the lighting or you set the White
Balance. (or you shoot RAW). In critical applications, you might even
include a color-scale target in one shot.
You calibrate your monitor using a "puck" that measures the on-screen
color rendition of a known color reference source. The software that
comes along with the puck will help you set the monitor "profile" that
"translates" a color source such that the on screen display matches
the colors in the original digital image.
For printers, you print out a reference color target and use either a
flatbed scanner or "spectrophotometer" to measure the printed result.
The flatbed scanner is used in "entry level" products costing several
hundred dollars. The spectrophotometer approach is the basis of
professional level products that can cost $1200 ~ $1500 and more,
depending on overall functionality. Many people don't like the
scanner-based approach because of issues with the ability of a scanner
to measure color accurately for different materials.
The output of the printer calibration process is a profile specific to
a given combination of printer driver, ink, and paper. If you use say
3 different kinds of paper, you need three profiles. Change ink
vendors, and you need new profiles.
For scanners, you measure the scanner response to a known print or
film target, but I am not clear on the rest of the process.
I hope this helps. This has been the one-page overview, and obviously
there is a huge amount of implementation detail that has been omitted.
For that, you need to read at least one good book.
Father Kodak
On Wed, 28 Dec 2005 15:12:14 GMT, "Gordo" <none@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>What I am looking for is a one page overview of the process, not a detailed
>explanation of all the intricacies of how to manage color.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Gordo
.
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