Have you ever seen an image and the colors just don’t look right?
One of the aspects of photography I spend a considerable amount of time on is color! It is one of the main reasons my clients book me.
When I look at a photo, I want to see natural, vibrant, and authentic colors. You might think that a camera should automatically take natural colors when you click the button, but believe it or not, accurate color grading is surprisingly hard to achieve! Each step in creating, sharing, and ultimately viewing a photo has the potential to change the colors.
Steps of an image being created:
Light is bent through a camera lens
Light data is recorded by a camera sensor
Image data is processed into a raw image file by the camera’s processor and saved to a memory card.
The raw image file is saved to a computer and viewed on a monitor.
The raw image data is read and interpreted by photo editing software that uses code to interpret it so the image can be edited. I use Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.
The raw image is edited by yours truly (me!)
The image is exported and compressed to a readily viewable photo (usually a .jpg)
The finished photo is then shared with you (the client) and viewed on your phone’s screen (most often).
You might post the photo to social media where the file is compressed to a smaller version and it is then seen on any number of different screens or digital displays.
You might print out the photo
Color can change at every step of the process above. Every camera sensor (the image capturing device that works like a digital eye) sees color a little differently and every camera lens bends and filters light differently as well. So before you even see the photo you just took on your camera, the colors have already changed twice! Human eyes don’t even see colors all the same (try taking a color accuracy test some time).
So how does Jeff make sure colors are authentic?
Well, while I cannot control the color settings of the screens my photos are being viewed on, the compression that might occur when images are moved between devices or posted to different apps, I can control the color of my images between steps 4-7 above.
When I am taking photos, I do my best to make sure that the colors I am seeing on the camera itself are as close as possible to the way I want them to look before I take the image.
Then, later when I upload those image files to my computer for editing, I make sure my editing software is up to date, and my editing monitor is calibrated. Monitor calibration happens once every month and I feel is the most important step in this entire process. I use a dedicated calibration tool. You wont believe how much the color of a large monitor can shifts over time. I want to make sure that when I edit the image, I am seeing the changes in color accurately.
When I edit the images using my creative style, I focus on first and foremost on color, paying special attention to skin tones. My artistic eye settles on something that is true to the person, but flattering. People most often prefer warmer skin tones. Sometimes the lighting in a room casts unflattering colors onto a person, and I usually try to correct that back to natural, unless it adds to the feel of the photo. Creative choices are being made at every step with the goal of a final photo that looks natural, vibrant, candid, and timeless. Photography truly is a form of art.
So, how do I make sure my screen is showing me accurate colors?
If color is as important to you as it is to me, there are ways to adjust the color, brightness of most screens and monitors. Sometimes those settings (like on iPhone) change often and when you update your software things can change in unexpected ways:
if you have an iPhone, try turning off “True Tone” which tints your screen constantly to adjust for current light environment.
Always assume that most screens are not calibrated often, or ever. Google search for the screen control settings for your specific device and you might be shocked by how different things might look!
