Advancing Digital Photography
2013 dates to be advised
This advanced two day course covers the essential colour management strategies needed for an efficient, profitable and colour accurate photographic workflow. The myths and fairy tales surrounding working spaces, monitor profiles and printer profiles are debunked and replaced with simple, logical, effective and productive workflow solutions. It also covers creative image editing and accurate image printing. Solutions are proposed for typical editing errors and fixes for the frustrating limitations of editing in RGB colour spaces. Printing processes are compared and evaluated, and an informed and creative application of materials, tools and the principles of pictorial design produces prints of the highest quality, both technically and aesthetically.
Understanding Colour
• What is colour and how is colour represented in a digital workflow?
• What is the relationship between an image and its colour space?
• How do I choose the most appropriate working colour space?
• What is the difference between assigning and converting profiles?
• What are out-of-gamut colours and what happens to them?
• What is a DNG workflow?
Setting up a Colour Managed Workflow
• How do I properly calibrate and profile my monitor?
• What is soft proofing and why is it so important?
• How do I test and verify that my workflow is consistently colour accurate?
• How do I calibrate my printer (or the printer at the Lab)?
• What if my Lab doesn’t operate an ICC colour managed workflow?
• Can internet publishing and web sites be colour managed?
Editing Digital Images
• What constitutes an efficient and productive image editing workflow?
• Are you a curve person or a slider person?
• How do we experience colour and tone?
• Does this correlate with how Photoshop edits colour and tone?
• Why can’t I control saturation independently of hue and brightness?
• What are the critical differences between creative and output sharpening workflows?
Printing a Digital Fine Print
• What are native printer resolutions and file sizes?
• When and how can I best resize my files?
• What are the limitations of printer drivers and when should I use a professional RIP?
• What are the qualities of microceramic, cotton, alpha cellulose, and baryta papers?
• How can I determine the most suitable printer, inkset, media and scale for an image?
• BW printing: How can I minimise ink inconstancy and metameric failure?
The course is presented through a series of practical applications, analytical demonstrations and critical observations that demystify colour management as the foundation of contemporary digital imaging practice. Real-world examples combine beautiful materials, effective techniques, and informed strategies to significantly advance our RGB image editing and printing options. Through careful observation and detailed experimentation the building blocks of digital imaging are teased out and rearranged into a logical and efficient workflow. Detailed course notes are provided.
