Print calibration??
Did you know that every screen shows colors, brightness, contrast, etc different? I am very embarrassed to say that up until now, I didn't realize the SIGNIFICANCE of this in regards to professional images...
This first occurred to me when I posted an image to my Facebook page off of my computer, and then went onto my iPhone to share to my personal page. As I opened Facebook I was shocked at the look of the image I just shared. It looked heavily saturated, the colors were more red than on my computer.. I was so confused. It looked perfect on my computer?
Fast forward to researching color calibrating... Duh. Everything around me was impacting the look of my images. Whether I edited at night, in my office, out in my dining room, my surroundings, specifically lighting, was different. Did you know that apple products have this very useful (lol) setting called "True Tone" and "auto brightness"??? Some lighting made my images look too warm, some way too cool... then add auto brightness and I was punched in the face with a very over exposed image. So what does this mean??? What do I do??
Well. After doing more research I learned that your computer (specifically when editing) should be color calibrated at least once a month in order to maintain color printing accuracy. This is amazing and a game changer! Now I don't have to worry about how my images are going to print because I have effectively calibrated my computer! Downfall of this?? My phone is still different. And my sisters phone is different than my phone. And your samsung- you guessed it. Different.
This is a huge downfall because what you see on Facebook, isn't necessarily an accurate representation of what the image ACTUALLY looks like. This could impact clients booking me (although, the difference shouldn't be THAT huge), show my images as slightly different colors, brightness, etc. Now as photographers we have to make a decision- edit for social media, or edit for printing. And the choice is pretty obvious. We take images not just for a new Facebook profile picture... We take these images to hang in your home, to put in a photo album for generations to look through.
This is where you come in. Please, when you get professional images done, ask your photographer who they recommend or use for printing. A professional, high quality print is ESSENTIAL. We have calibrated our computers to match these prints. Yes, in different lighting, the image is going to look slightly different, but going into it with a calibrated monitor makes a huge difference.
So. Calibration is important. Lesson learned!