Brian wrote:
….
Hi Mike,
Am I missing something here, or misunderstanding something? I have always
regarded colour calibration and colour correction as "completely" separate issues. My understanding is that colour calibration is simply (not so simply!) a way of calibrating ones system so that what one sees on the screen is an accurate representation of what will be printed (on whatever device it has been calibrated to).<
There’s nothing wrong with calibrating your screen and printer, and in fact this is essential in a prepress or other multi-workstation environment. The problem is that there is no accurate representation on a screen of what a print will look like, or vice versa.
Although they can resemble one another, monitor and print will never look the same, any more than a print, or even an oil painting of a fire will look enough like a fire in a fireplace to fool anyone, though a monitor image might. Print and screen are two completely different representations of the same object. Understanding this, and dealing with it reasonably well is the key to getting the printer and screen reasonbly close to one another, as well as the key to getting images that look good.
That would have no apparent bearing on colour correction of an image. A
correctly calibrated screen will highlight that an image of less than accurate colour content is just that, it will not correct the colour. Colour correction will correct the image for colour balance and tone etc.
Good color correction will rely on numbers and not just visual data – for example neutral values – to determine what to do.
So how is calibration a preventative measure? It has no bearing at all on
whether the colour data of the image is correct or not! Only colour correcting the image will do that. <
A true calibrationist looks first, last, and always to the workflow when there is a color cast or other defect in the image. To him, the real meat of color is in the calibration. Histograms hold more meaning than the image itself, and individual images are important only because they confirm or deny the perfection of the almighty workflow.
The calibrationist’s wil o’ the wisp is a calibrated system that will simply crank out image after perfect image. But, because the world has a pesky way of being imperfect, you’ll hear plenty of "woulda coulda shoulda" language about how things should have been calibrated and profiled. This is the mark of the true calibrationist.
This battle will never end because it is an embodiment of the age-old conflict of the fun-filled and rampant Dionesian versus the disciplined and polished Appolonian. Although the best practicioners of any specialty straddle both sides of human nature, personally, I’ll go with the folks with the best parties, and the best wine, and the best color corrected images, every time. π
—
Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com