Mastering Color Correction: A Guide for Artists & Photographers

This in-depth color management and correction guide will provide you the practical knowledge you need to ensure that your prints most accurately represent your original artwork or photographs.

What is Color Management?

Color management refers to the process of maintaining consistent and accurate colors in images or graphics across various media and devices, including computers, smartphones, and prints. At its most basic, it is a process that ensures the color you see and want is the color you get with your finished print product.

For example, say you've taken a photo of a bright yellow and red sunset. After downloading it, you open it on your computer screen and then open the same image on your smartphone. Finally, you print a copy with your inkjet printer. 

Now, say you line up the three sunset images side by side. Are the colors the same or do they vary? Ideally, the photo should look the same regardless of where and how you see it. That's where color management comes into play. 

Achieving color consistency and accuracy in varying formats is challenging, as computer screens and commercial inkjet printers use different methods and technologies to produce colors.

Misalignments between the colors you see on your digital screen and those in your prints is frustrating. More importantly, poor color reproduction may negatively impact your efforts to create and sell beautiful reproductions of your Fine Art and photographs! 

Understanding and using best practices in color correction techniques also streamlines digital workflows, saving time and money by reducing post-production color corrections and wasted paper and ink.

For these reasons and more, a working understanding of color correction is essential for artists interested in creating vibrant and accurate copies of their work. 

Understanding Color Space Frameworks

Color space frameworks aren't abstract concepts—they mathematically map all the colors in the universe in numerical form. Printers use Color Space frameworks to understand the reproduction capabilities of colors in a digital file and to determine which colors can be displayed consistently in various print mediums. 

For example, Color Space frameworks determine how highlights and saturation will render in a print, and provide a framework for mathematical adjustments that help printers match your artistic vision.

Different creative endeavors typically require specific color spaces based on their needs. For instance, photographers aim to display images on screens and transmit red, green, and blue light. Therefore, they digital displays most often use sRGB and Adobe RGB Color Spaces.

On the other hand, Fine Art printers are more interested in reflected light and how to render vibrant prints using the ink colors most commonly found in commercial printers, such as Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. A key component, black (K), is also essential to compensate for the lack of pure pigments, inks, or dyes. Therefore, printers primarily use the CMYK Color Space.

Learn more > Understanding Different Color Spaces, Pantone.

Learn More > Color Spaces Explained, Photo Review

Calibrating Your Monitor

The first step in an effective color management process is to calibrate your your computer monitor. Screen calibration means adjusting your monitor display to ensure colors meet RGB (red, green, blue) color model standards (the most widely used color model standard for computer display screens).

Note that that screen calibration software and the tools built into your Windows or Mac operating system aren't ideal for color-calibrating your display because they depend on a user's subjective eyesight.

To achieve an exact calibration, you'll need to use a small device called a Colorimeter. When used in conjunction with calibration software, this device optimizes colors specifically for your particular screen and lighting conditions.

Professional colorists recommend calibrating displays at least once a month to ensure consistent colors, especially as monitors degrade and their colors change over time.

Learn more > How to Calibrate Your Monitor, Adobe.

Utilizing & Adjusting Settings on Your Color Management Tools

Digital imaging software (embedded in most digital cameras) includes color management settings that can be adjusted to meet your desired outcomes. Understanding and using these settings will help you achieve consistent color representation between your digital and printed files. 

For instance, you can tweak image settings like brightness, contrast, and saturation to compensate for discrepancies between your digital images and paper prints.

Pro tip: Remember that computer monitors emit light, making colors appear brighter, while paper prints reflect light, which can make them look darker.

Achieve Best Print Results Using Soft Proofing & Test Prints

Soft proofing is a process that enables you to preview how your final printed images will look on a monitor so you can make color adjustments without wasting paper and ink.

At The Stackhouse Printery, our soft proofing process utilizes highly calibrated monitors, top-of-the-line color management systems, and Color Space profile s so we can correct color issues before we print and achieve the best possible print results.

After soft proofing, we execute a test print, which often reveals unexpected color shifts or issues that weren't apparent on a monitor screen. Then we carefully compare the test print with the digital image on a calibrated monitor to identify any discrepancies.

Adjusting for Print Differences

If your prints appear different from those on your screen, you can solve the problem by reassessing your color profiles and recalibrating your monitor. It may also be necessary to adjust the lighting conditions under which you view both the screen and the prints, as this can significantly affect color perception.

Our Print Professionals Can Help!

Color correction is an art - it requires experience, attention to detail and an understanding of both digital and print media. This guide is a good place to start when learning how to calibrate your equipment, to achieve prints that accurately reflect your original vision. 

However, color management is a complex process, impacted by countless variables such as paper types and ambient light conditions. Continuous learning and practice is essential to master color correction in your prints.

At the Stackhouse Printery, decades of experience, best in class equipment, software and digital workflow practices make us color management experts.

Our team is here to help every step of the way. Don’t hesitate to reach out and ask our team to help you prepare your files for optimal results!