A Landscape Photographers Basic Guide to Calibration and Profiling

The Science of Colour

A quick search of the internet on the topics of colour management, monitor calibration and printer profiling, and one would be excused in deciding it was all too much effort.  However, like many things in photography you can decide to get your head into the science of it, or you can take a more measured approach and make some small changes to your workflow.

Calibration and Profiling

Even though I don't print high volumes of my landscape photographs, I've always strived to make my workflow is as colour accurate as possible.  But why?  Most people probably won't even view my images on a calibrated monitor.  There are a couple of reasons,  Firstly, just for my own personal satisfaction.  I like to know what I'm looking at is an accurate representation of the colours in my photographs.

The other reason is that when I print one of my images on my Canon Pixma Pro-10s, I want to be confident that what I print matches what I see on screen.

Perhaps the best way to tell you about my workflow is to show you:

In the video, I mentioned a few links that you might want to look at.  In case you missed them in the YouTube video description, here they are again:

• ColorMunki Display

• Eizo CX271

• Canon Pixma Pro-10s

• Hard A4 Envelopes

• Fotospeed blog article on the differences between profiling and calibration

• Fotospeed article on colour spaces

• Fotospeed profiling booking service

• Fotospeed generic printer profiles

• Fotospeed Platinum Gloss Art Fibre 300 Paper

For me, those extra little steps I take to calibrate and profile my monitor and to also profile my printer are worth a little extra effort in my workflow.  I love the satisfaction of watching an image come to life on the screen as I post process it and then watching it turn into something physical when I print it.  knowing that the colours remain accurate along each step is an extra bonus.

So does your workflow include calibration and profiling?  If not, does this video encourage you to try and implement new workflow?  Let me know in the comments below.

That Image of Trevose Head

In case you wanted to see that image of Trevose Head that you saw in the video in a bit more detail, here it is below:

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Trevose Head, Cornwall.

If you want a little more information on Trevose Head, then check out my blog post on this fantastic Cornish location.

PS - The product links used in this article are Amazon affiliate links. By buying through the links I may receive a commission for the sale. This has no effect on the price for you.