Let’s start with the following. I think you’ll recognize it as irrefutable proof about why it’s important to know at least the basics of color management.

Huh? O.K. Stick with me and I’ll lay it out for you.

First, take a look at the following nothing-special-about-it-snapshot of some geraniums. While not a great photo, it is a great stepping stone towards an understanding of why your photos look lousy. Really.

The most important truth in color management – the fundamental truth that all digital photographers cannot escape – is that our eyes and brain can distinguish many more colors than our cameras can capture. The second most important truth in color management is that our cameras can capture more colors than most monitors can display. And… the third most important truth in color management is, you just guessed it, that our monitors can display more colors than our printers can print.

Let me also add, since I’m on a roll, that there’s no direct link between the cost of a printer and the range of colors that it can print. As you’ll see in the graph at the end, my Epson 3800 inkjet can print a wider range of color (say “gamut”) than a multi-million dollar commercial printing press.

A color space is like a box of crayons. It describes a gamut (think “range”) of color. Like friends, it’s important to choose your color spaces carefully. ProPhoto RGB is the huge color space into which you should be converting your RAW files when opening them with Photoshop or Lightroom. (Yes, our digital devices today can only use a fraction of the colors in ProPhoto RGB. But, converting your RAW captures into ProPhoto now will assure that you’re keeping your color options open for future technology.) Adobe RBG (1998) is a more moderate space and is the space your DSLR camera should be set to – unless it has ProPhoto as an option. sRGB is smaller still and is typical of the color gamut of most sub-$1500 monitors.

Of course, my inner-photographer wants to see these concepts as a graph. The yellow box below shows the vast range of colors in the ProPhoto color space. The blue box contains all the colors within the Adobe RBG (1998) space and the cyan box all those within the sRGB space. You’ll note that Adobe RGB (1998) and sRGB can show about the same range of reds and magentas. You’ll also see that Adobe RGB (1998) can show a few more yellows and blues and loads more green than sRGB.

If you choose to work in a color space that’s too limited (like using sRGB for capture or Adobe RGB for RAW conversion) you are literally throwing away crayons that you otherwise could have used to render subtle differences of color in your photos. Onward.

So, here is the truth about why your photos look lousy. They have colors that won’t show up on your monitor and colors that can’t be printed. Remember the nothing-special-about-it-snapshot of geranium? The green dots in the graph below represent all of the colors in that photo. The orange line represents the gamut of colors that can be displayed on my calibrated NEC 2090UXi monitor (a 20″ desktop LCD). You’ll note that there is a large blob of green dots that extend outside of the orange line at the upper-right corner… meaning that there’s a large number of red and orange shades in the photo that my monitor is not able to display. So right out of the gate, I’m not even able to see many of the colors that my camera recorded. Out-of-gamut reds and oranges with a geranium. Humm… my photo is beginning to look lousy already.

You need to plug a real monitor into your laptop. If you want your photographs to be taken seriously, you have to get a “real” monitor. Here’s a graph that compares the gamut of my stylish MacBook Pro 17 to my NEC 2090UXi. The sad reality is that my laptop monitor is worthless when it comes to making critical color decisions. It just doesn’t have enough crayons in its box. When color matters, I haul my studio monitor with me – especially when shooting for clients on location. [Look for more in an upcoming post on "Shooting Tethered Into Lightroom".]

Your printer and paper make a huge difference as well. Can your favorite printer/paper combo show all of the colors in your photo? Maybe. Maybe not. The graph below compares the gamut of my geranium photo (green dots) against the gamut of my three favorite Epson papers coming out of my Epson 3800 – Ultra-Smooth Fine Art (pink line), Premium Luster (cyan line) and Exhibition Fiber (purple line). For the geranium image, Ultra-Smooth Fine Art absolutely would be the wrong choice because most of the important reds and oranges won’t show at all (check out the large blob of green dots outside of the pink line). Premium Luster shows all but a handful of the reds (just a few dots outside of the green line). Exhibition Fiber (using the free Pixel Genius profile) is able, but just able, to show everything (all of the green dots are within the purple line). In terms of showing the full gamut of colors in the geranium photo, Exhibition Fiber would be the best Epson paper for printing this image on my E-3800 (as if I would actually want to print such a handsome image… not).

Here’s the detail from the upper right corner showing that the gamut of Premium Luster is a tiny bit smaller than Exhibition Fiber when it comes to geranium reds.

You have to be very careful with CMYK. When it comes to having your photos printed in books, magazines or catalogs, your heart will be broken again and again by the limited gamut of the commercial printer’s Cyan Magenta Yellow and blacK. (Remember CMYK is a 4-letter word.) Despite the fact that we see images printed in CMYK countless times each day, it has the smallest gamut of all the crayon boxes we’re discussing. As shown below, the vast majority of the important colors in my geranium snapshot cannot be reproduced on a commercial CMYK press (note the huge blob of green dots outside of the green line). Yes, I hear the uber-geeks shouting that there are alternative ink sets to CMYK, like Hexachrome and such. But, unless you’re self-publishing and paying the printer, you’ll be stuck with good ol’ CMY and K. If you are handing photos off to a commercial printer, your photos will greatly appreciate the time you invest in the study of color management.

My photo looks lousy and it’s not my fault! (Or is it?) There’s no arguing with the fastest thing in the universe. As Einstein may have said, “physics is physics.” I can’t make my monitor show a wider gamut of RGB than it’s capable of showing. I can’t get a redder red on a commercial CMYK press than 100% Magenta mixed with 100% Yellow. If I can’t extend the gamut of the monitor or printer, then I have to optimize my photo for the gamut in which it will live forever. For instance, when photographing a subject that has ultra-saturated colors, I know that I’m in for some extra work back in the studio – skillfully massaging pixels with Photoshop so that at least the essence of the image is portrayed in the smaller gamut of my intended printer/paper combo.

One final graph. If you were baffled by the graph at the top and have read this far, I bet that you now can interpret the graph below. Consider it to be the photographic proof that the resources on color management listed below are worth checking out.

Learning About Color Management

Books

Real World Color Management by Bruce Fraser, Chris Murphy and Fred Bunting

Color Management For Photographers by Andrew Rodney

More Color Management Books – at Amazon

DVDs

Six Simple Steps to Good Color Management – new DVD by JP Caponigro, available through ACME Educational

Online

John Paul Caponigro’s website – check out the Downloads page for free tutorials

Kelby Training – on-demand tutorials from the folks who invented Photoshop education

National Association of Photoshop Users – access to NAPP’s online tutorials is worth the price of membership alone

Lynda.com – 24/7 on-demand tutorials for a wide range of digital topics

Workshops & Seminars

D-65 Workshop – lives up to it’s slogan “Digital workflow, not workslow.”

The Fine Art of Digital Printing – spend a week with JP Caponigro and Mac Holbert at FADP and you’ll no longer think of “Color Management” as a four-letter word

Photoshop World – offered spring and fall by NAPP. You’ll find many seminars on color management and sit in large rooms filled with fellow photographers who are as baffled eager to learn as you.

Santa Fe Workshops – week-long workshops in beautiful northern New Mexico