Colour Management

Venues and 2012 dates to be announced

Colour management is at the heart of every contemporary digital photographic process and practice. This advanced weekend course presents a logical and comprehensive approach to accurately colour managing all aspects of digital imaging, from capture to display, editing, printing and publishing. The aim is to establish the essential skills needed to increase productivity, reduce costs and significantly improve image quality and colour fidelity. Topics covered include:

The Principles and Practice of Colour Management
• Understanding colour reproduction in digital workflows
• The relationship between an image and its colour space
• What are device profiles and where are they stored?
• The difference between calibration and profiling
• Assigning and converting profiles

Setting up a Colour Managed Workflow
• Working with appropriate software and hardware
• Choosing the right RGB, CMYK and Greyscale working spaces
• Print viewing environments and softproofing solutions
• Collaborating with designers, labs and prepress services
• Matching a screen image to its printed image

Device Profiling
• Creating custom camera, scanner, monitor, and printer profiles
• Comparing and testing profiling software and hardware
• Sourcing and evaluating commercially available profiles
• Spectral analysis of devices, materials and environments
• Editing profiles for visual compensation

Alternative Colour Management Strategies
• Analysing profiles for accuracy, reliability and device stability
• Implementing and automating colour managed workflows
• Separating into CMYK colour spaces and device link profiles
• The limits of ICC based colour management
• DIY colour management on a budget

The course is based around a series of practical demonstrations that demystify colour management and integrate its critical functions into contemporary digital imaging practice. Real-world examples are used to illustrate how to accurately implement colour management in everyday production, including collaborating with service providers and working with non colour managed equipment and applications. Detailed course notes and calibration guides are provided.