one of the truly amazing things about digital photography is that once you have made the purchase of camera, computer, and printer, you have full control over the entire process from a shoot to print.
This gives you great opportunity to fully control the process from start to finish so that what you capture can translate itself into a fine print or digital file ready to move on to another computer or computers for further use.
key to success is a basic understanding of the principles of workflow colour management.
we have all had to get to grips with this at some time or another, as it is the one thing which stands in the way of progressing to the final fantastic print. if you do not have this understanding you cannot put it into practice.
personally, for my first couple of years working in the digital realm I was dissatisfied with all my attempts to make prints.
but after a few false starts I realised that the key to reproducing a good print was making sure that
1. the computer monitor was calibrated and profiled.
2. and that the printer was also profiled.( for all favourite media types)
there are several steps involved in achieving these2 goals in the first of which is the purchase of some basic profiling equipment.
for advice on this I would contact your local x-rite(makers of colour management devices and software)dealers
two of these are image supply systems Dublin click here
and squid technology in the u.k. click here
recently I found a fantastic tutorial on colour management, which first explains principles of colour theory, and then proceeds to talk you through the actualities of creating a rocksolid colour managed workflow.
you can go directly to this article by simply clicking on the title at the top of this page. or click here
if you read and understand this article, you will have no choice but to put into practice, leading to total happiness regarding all your printed output in the future!!
