Table Of ContentMastering
Digital Color
A Photographer’s
and Artist’s Guide
to Controlling Color
David Saffir
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To my Uncle Howard Levin,
who made so many things possible.
May his memory be a blessing.
Acknowledgments
My thanks to my teachers and mentors, who have helped me to see the possibil-
ities, and to make some of them become reality. A partial list includes Harald
Johnson, Jack Duganne, Lee Thomas, Ted Dayton, Ramona MacFadyen,
David Bacon, Mike Lehman, Tommy Durian, Eileen Fritsch, Teri Ritter, and
Cynthia Saffir.
About the Author
David Saffir is a nationally-recognized portrait, commercial, and fine art pho-
tographer and printmaker, living in the Santa Clarita Valley, California. Formerly
a resident of Santa Barbara, California and New England, David has had a life-
long interest in photography, and particularly the world of nature. He also writes
on a number of subjects, and has authored articles on color management, digital
capture, and large-format digital printmaking. David has enjoyed an extensive
career leading marketing, planning, operations, graphic design, and creative teams
as a general manager and vice president for high-tech medical companies. He has
led design, art, and communications groups in the U.S., Europe, and Japan.
Leaving corporate life behind, he chose to focus his time on work, and pursue his
love of crafting images through photography.
Now, David works extensively in portrait and commercial photography. He works
primarily with the Hasselblad H1, using Phase One digital camera backs. He also
uses Nikon and Canon DSLRs. David is also an accomplished digital printmaker.
He finishes all of his work, and makes limited edition prints for other artists and
photographers. He uses HP and Epson professional inkjet products. David teaches
workshops in digital printing, including the Clear Focus Studios seminar sessions
scheduled in a number of cities this year. He has also written numerous nationally-
published articles on digital image capture, color management, printing software,
and digital printing. Most recently, he taught web seminars for the Professional
Digital Imaging Association on digital capture, color control, and printing. He was
a conference-level speaker at WPPI and other venues during 2006.
His images have won awards in a variety of print competitions, and they have
appeared in a number of publications. His e-mail is [email protected]. His
website is www.davidsaffir.com.
About the Series Editor
Harald Johnson has been immersed in the world of commercial and fine-art
imaging and printing for more than 25 years. A former professional photographer,
designer, and creative director, Harald is an imaging consultant, the creator of the
website DP&I.com (www.dpandi.com), and the author of the groundbreaking
books, Mastering Digital Printing: The Photographer’s and Artist’s Guide to
High-Quality Digital Output (2003), Mastering Digital Printing, Second Edition
(2005), and Digital Printing Start-Up Guide (2005). Harald is also the founder of
YahooGroup’s digital-fineart, the world’s largest online discussion group on the
subject of digital fine art and digital printing.
Contents
1 Introduction: Imagine the Possibilities . . .1
Getting a Grip on Your Color:
2
Definitions and a Road Map . . . . . . . . . . .3
From the Eye to the Camera. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Color Space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Film Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Digital Capture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Controlling In-Camera Image Processing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
From the Camera to the Computer (Scanning). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Film Scanner Image to Computer and RAW Image Processing . . . . 17
Editing and Finishing the Digital File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Making Levels Adjustments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Making Color Cast Corrections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Saving the Master File with All Layers Intact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Controlling Your Color:
3
Tools for Photographers . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
Options for Scanning or Capturing Your Digital Image . . . . . . . . . 34
Film Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Scanners and Scanning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Digital Cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Hardware Settings and Pre-ProgrammingYour Capture Workflow . . 55
Example of Workflow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Additional Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
viii Mastering Digital Color: A Photographer’s and Artist’s Guide to Controlling Color
4 Production Guide for Photographers . . . .61
Begin with the End in Mind. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Using Your Tools Effectively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
The “Master Image”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Planning and Managing Image Capture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Selecting a Digital Camera for a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Scanning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
The Importance of Color Space and Profiling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Processing Digital Image Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
JPEG or TIFF. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Cooking RAW Files to Perfection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
RAW Processing Recipe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Editing Global Contrast. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Editing Color Using White and Gray Point Balancing. . . . . . . . 87
Editing Global Color Using CS2 Hue/Saturation . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Editing Global Color Using CS2 Color Balance. . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Editing Global Color Using CS2 Photo Filter Tool. . . . . . . . . . . 93
Finishing Up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Getting the Best Output. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Color Management
5
Policies for Photographers . . . . . . . . . .103
Impact of In-Camera Color Space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
In-Camera Color Space and File Type Decisions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Setting Up Adobe Photoshop Color Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Managing Scanning Film to Digital. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Basics of RAW File Processing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
The Impact of Computer Display Choices On Your Work . . . . . . . 114
Calibrating Your Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Maximizing Quality Using Inkjet Printers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Viewing Inkjet Prints During the Production Process. . . . . . . . 125
Viewing Inkjet Prints On Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Specialized Software for Inkjet Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Contents ix
6 Production Guide for Artists . . . . . . . . .131
Expectations Are Everything . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Making an Image of Your Art: Options and Actions. . . . . . . . . . . 134
Photographing Your Artwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Scanning Your Artwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Evaluating and Managing Quality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Printing On Demand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Storing Digital Images. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Archiving and Storing Digital Images and Prints. . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Color Quality Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . .157
7
Capture and Lighting Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Choosing Lighting Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Color Space and Color Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Exposure Management and Color Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Color Enhancement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
In-Process Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Work Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Controlling Your Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
The Human Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Software for Processing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Post-Production Controls: Soft Proofing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Post-Production Controls: Evaluating Output Quality . . . . . . . . . 182
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Black and White Imaging
8
in the Digital World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .185
Converting a Color Image to Black and White. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Printing in Black and White . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Improved Printer Drivers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Custom Printer Profiles for Black and White. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Using Printer Profiles to Make Prints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Using a RIP for Black and White Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
