Color Management for Digital Photographers

by Ted Padova and Don Mason

Color Management for

Digital Photographers

FOR

DUMmIES‰

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by Ted Padova and Don Mason

Color Management for

Digital Photographers

FOR

DUMmIES‰

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Color Management for Digital Photographers For Dummies®

Published by

Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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Copyright © 2007 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

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About the Authors

Ted Padova first began his interest in amateur photography as a Peace Corps

volunteer in Venezuela. He toured five Latin American countries, collecting

shoeboxes of slides he hopefully will one day sort out. Upon completion of

his two-year Peace Corps tour, he attended the New York Institute of

Photography in Manhattan when it was a resident school, earning a diploma

in Commercial Photography.

In 2004, he retired from his Digital Imaging Service Bureau and Custom Photo

Finishing Lab after 15 years of owning and operating three facilities. He has

authored over 25 computer books on Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Photoshop,

Adobe Photoshop Elements, and Adobe Illustrator. Today, he spends his time

writing and speaking nationally and internationally on Acrobat PDF and digi￾tal imaging.

Don Mason is a graduate of Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara,

California. He has been a professional photographer for more than three

decades and works in virtually every aspect of commercial photography. Don

first started using a computer in 1999, when he didn’t believe that digital

imaging would ever replace his wing lynch system used for processing all his

E-6 film and his darkroom where he made his own C-prints. After 4 years of

intensive work in Adobe Photoshop, he abandoned his analog film lab and

went completely digital. Today, he divides his time shooting professional

commercial photography and printing art prints for a wide range of clients on

his two, oversized Epson inkjet printers.

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Dedication

Ted Padova: For Arnie

Don Mason: For Jim, Joe, and Wes

Authors’ Acknowledgments

Our sincere thanks to the following people who graciously allowed us to use

photos of their delightful children: Claire Lahorgue and her children, Michael

and Sarah; and Jennifer Randle and her children, Cody, Calico, and Becky.

We’d also like to thank Courtney Creasy, Joel Berkovitz, Karen Krulikowsky,

Lisle Gates, Carole Murray, Dan Mancini, Mark Young, Cheri Zadarski, Nicole

Saint-John, and Kortney Penrose.

To the AOL Photo Chat gang — your input helped keep it real.

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Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form

located at www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and

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Kate Jenkins, Steven Kudirka, Kit Malone

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Composition Services

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Anniversary Logo Design: Richard Pacifico

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

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Publishing for Consumer Dummies

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Composition Services

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Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

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Contents at a Glance

Introduction .................................................................1

Part I: The Basics of Color Editing..................................5

Chapter 1: Understanding Color.......................................................................................7

Chapter 2: Controlling Lighting ......................................................................................21

Chapter 3: Calibrating Your Monitor..............................................................................29

Chapter 4: Color Profiles and File Formats ...................................................................55

Part II: Image Brightness and Contrast Corrections .......77

Chapter 5: Making Tonal and Brightness Corrections.................................................79

Chapter 6: Correcting Contrast ....................................................................................111

Chapter 7: Using Adjustment Layers ...........................................................................133

Part III: Color Corrections..........................................149

Chapter 8: Identifying Color Problems ........................................................................151

Chapter 9: Color Correcting Skin Tones ......................................................................157

Chapter 10: Using Levels and Color Variations to Make Color Corrections ...........179

Chapter 11: Advanced Color-Correction Methods.....................................................195

Chapter 12: Camera Raw Color Correction.................................................................227

Part IV: Finishing Work.............................................241

Chapter 13: Printing .......................................................................................................243

Chapter 14: Soft Proofing Color....................................................................................273

Part V: The Part of Tens ............................................283

Chapter 15: Ten Tips for Better Tone and Color ........................................................285

Chapter 16: Ten Reasons to Upgrade to Photoshop..................................................293

Index .......................................................................309

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Table of Contents

Introduction..................................................................1

About This Book...............................................................................................1

Who This Book Is For ......................................................................................1

Conventions Used in This Book .....................................................................2

How This Book Is Organized...........................................................................2

Part I: The Basics of Color Editing .......................................................2

Part II: Image Brightness and Contrast Corrections ..........................2

Part III: Color Corrections .....................................................................3

Part IV: Finishing Work ..........................................................................3

Part V: The Part of Tens.........................................................................3

Icons Used in This Book..................................................................................3

Where to Go from Here....................................................................................4

Part I: The Basics of Color Editing ..................................5

Chapter 1: Understanding Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Understanding Calibration Basics .................................................................7

Getting to Know the Language of Color ........................................................9

Hue ...........................................................................................................9

Saturation ..............................................................................................11

Brightness .............................................................................................11

Color space ...........................................................................................13

Color gamut...........................................................................................13

Clipping..................................................................................................13

Mixing Colors..................................................................................................14

Understanding grays............................................................................15

Understanding channels......................................................................16

Why are there 256 levels?....................................................................17

Understanding Color Modes.........................................................................17

RGB.........................................................................................................17

Index color ............................................................................................17

Grayscale...............................................................................................18

Bitmap....................................................................................................18

CMYK .....................................................................................................19

Converting Color Modes ...............................................................................19

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x

Chapter 2: Controlling Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Understanding Color Temperature..............................................................22

Using Balanced Lighting................................................................................23

Going for Neutral Gray ..................................................................................24

Building a viewing booth.....................................................................25

Employing viewing booth alternatives ..............................................27

Chapter 3: Calibrating Your Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

What Is Monitor Calibration?........................................................................29

Working with CRT versus LCD Monitors.....................................................30

Calibrating with Hardware Devices .............................................................32

Adjusting Hardware Controls on an LCD Display ......................................33

Using Calibration Software ...........................................................................36

Using Adobe Gamma............................................................................37

Calibrating with just RGB controls on a Mac....................................42

Calibrating LCD monitors that have brightness

and contrast controls.......................................................................47

Calibrating monitors that have white-balance,

brightness, and contrast controls in Windows.............................52

Calibrating monitors with just white-balance

controls in Windows.........................................................................53

Calibrating Mac monitors that have white-point adjustments.......54

Chapter 4: Color Profiles and File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55

What’s a Color Profile? ..................................................................................55

Understanding the Different Types of Profiles ...........................................57

Monitor profiles....................................................................................57

Workspace profiles...............................................................................57

Output profiles......................................................................................58

Working with Workspace Profiles in Elements ...........................................58

Defining your color workspace...........................................................58

Embedding the workspace profile .....................................................60

Managing Print Colors with Output Profiles...............................................61

Acquiring device profiles.....................................................................62

Installing profiles on your computer .................................................65

Using output profiles when printing ..................................................67

Choosing and Changing File Formats ..........................................................69

Which formats support profiles?........................................................69

When can you change a file format? ..................................................71

Understanding Bit Depth...............................................................................73

Understanding dynamic range ...........................................................74

Where you get 16-bit images...............................................................75

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Table of Contents xi

Part II: Image Brightness and Contrast Corrections........77

Chapter 5: Making Tonal and Brightness Corrections . . . . . . . . . . . . .79

Checking Out Your Images............................................................................80

Fixing Tone Problems ....................................................................................81

Using the Levels Dialog Box..........................................................................84

Getting to Black and White ...........................................................................88

Adjusting Gamma levels ......................................................................89

Correcting a low-contrast file..............................................................92

Correcting an underexposed file ........................................................93

Correcting an overexposed file...........................................................94

Correcting a high contrast file ............................................................95

Finding the first real black and white pixels .....................................95

The Levels black-and-white preview option .....................................97

Breaking the Rules of Editing......................................................................100

Knowing when to break the rules.....................................................101

Breaking the rules for white-point adjustments.............................102

Breaking the rules for black-point adjustments .............................105

Chapter 6: Correcting Contrast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111

Correcting Image Contrast..........................................................................111

Fixing Contrast Problems with the Auto Contrast Command................114

Working with the Brightness/Contrast Command...................................117

Modifying Contrast with Adjust Color Curves .........................................121

Using the Shadows/Highlights Tool to Adjust Contrast..........................124

Traveling Back in Time with the Undo Command ...................................131

Chapter 7: Using Adjustment Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133

Adding Adjustment Layers to Your Editing Arsenal................................134

Creating Adjustment Layers .......................................................................134

Working with Adjustment Layers...............................................................136

Changing the opacity of layers .........................................................137

Moving adjustment layers between files.........................................137

Choosing a layer blending mode......................................................139

Correcting Image Contrast with a Curves Adjustment Layer.................139

Increasing image contrast .................................................................140

Reducing image contrast...................................................................144

Part III: Color Corrections ..........................................149

Chapter 8: Identifying Color Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151

Identifying a Colorcast.................................................................................151

Discovering Memory Colors.......................................................................153

Getting Familiar with Color Saturation......................................................155

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Chapter 9: Color Correcting Skin Tones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .157

Correcting Skin Tones..................................................................................157

Using the Hue/Saturation Tool ...................................................................164

Understanding the Hue/Saturation dialog box...............................164

Editing Hue/Saturation ......................................................................165

Removing a Colorcast..................................................................................173

Chapter 10: Using Levels and Color Variations

to Make Color Corrections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .179

Using Levels for Color Correction..............................................................179

Correcting color by using Levels......................................................181

Analyzing the Levels adjustments....................................................184

Working with Color Variations....................................................................185

Correcting color with Color Variations............................................188

Darkening and lightening images .....................................................191

Saturating images with Color Variations .........................................191

Chapter 11: Advanced Color-Correction Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .195

Cleaning Up the Whites ...............................................................................195

Examining color channels in Levels.................................................198

Using Auto Levels...............................................................................199

Setting White and Black Points with the Levels Eyedroppers ...............204

Fine-Tuning with the Hue/Saturation Command......................................212

Correcting Overexposed Saturated Files ..................................................216

Correcting Color by Using Levels ..............................................................221

Understanding the effects of adjusting color in Levels.................222

Color correcting a file with Levels ...................................................223

Chapter 12: Camera Raw Color Correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .227

Understanding Camera Raw .......................................................................228

Using the Raw Converter ............................................................................228

Making Adjustments in Camera Raw .........................................................233

Working with Camera Raw Defaults...........................................................239

Part IV: Finishing Work .............................................241

Chapter 13: Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .243

Preparing Files for Printing.........................................................................243

Printing and image resolution ..........................................................244

Changing image resolution................................................................246

Cropping images.................................................................................248

Converting Color..........................................................................................250

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