Color Management for Photographers

Do you wonder why the photos you print don’t match how they appear on screen? Learn how to color manage your system from capture to print in this short, intensive workshop. From basics of digital color, discover how to use a color management system including software & hardware. Topics include: limitations of color gamuts, color settings, calibration and profiling of a LCD display & profiling a media on the supplied photo quality inkjet printers. Prior experience in digital photography & working knowledge of computers & Photoshop CS , CS 2 or 3 required. Bring 5 digital images to 1st class meeting. Note Printing elective for Professional Certificate in Photography. prerequisite: Intermediate Photography in the Digital Age (ART 40440) or equivalent experience. For more info. or to discuss prerequisites, call (858) 964-1051 or ahl@ucsd.edu.

IN-CLASS
Instructor: Marc Aguilera
Section: 079251 Course No. ART-40402
Time/Date: W 6:30-9:30 p.m., Sep. 22-Oct. 27 (6 mtgs.)
Location: Rm. 134, UCSD Extension Complex
Credit: 2 units in Art
Fee: $325 No refunds after: Sep. 27 (da/amn)
No visitors permitted. Early enrollment advised.

Sign Up’s Are Available Now

Colorworks AIGA Event

Colorworks AIGA Event
Originally uploaded by colorcritical

I will be speaking about color management and the web at the COLORWORKS AIGA event 9am – 4pm at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at USD on Saturday February 23, 2008.

The event will feature Leatrice Eiseman, Color Guru at PANTONE as well as Paul Wharton of Larsen. The event centers around color theory, branding, and color forecasting as well as my technical discussion on Color Management and the Wild Wild Web.

If you have free time come down, I am sure it will be a great event and you will feel the energy that surrounds color and it’s meaning and communication.

See you there!

Color Control Freak 08

Color Control Freaks
Originally uploaded by colorcritical

It was freezing cold in Grand Rapids this last week. I have never been so cold. But then again, I am used to San Diego weather where if it rains for more than a few centimeters it makes major news.

I meet with fellow color freaks Mark Gundlach and Phil Nelson. We went over the new 08 seminar materials and I must say I am excited to present this years content. It’s a little different than years past with some added material from PANTONE®.

The one day seminar is sponsored by X-Rite®, HP, PANTONE®, and Eizo. With updated content and easy going approach to color, Color Control Freak 08 will surely be interesting. I will be speaking in Minneapolis, Kansas City, Portland, Denver, Dallas, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Houston.

Color Without Limits 2 by X-Rite with Marc Aguilera, Mark Gundlach, and Phil Nelson

Device Independent Color
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

The technologies that you use every day to create, edit and print are color management ready—How ready are you? Without an understanding of color and how your applications and hardware handle color, your workflow is going to be all work and no flow. X-Rite Color Services is offering a 20-city seminar tour to help creative directors, designers, photographers and production managers unleash the power of their color.

Get the applied knowledge you need to effectively implement digital color management. Learn how to optimize color for your entire workflow, including inputs, displays, editing, proofing and every kind of final output. Master best practices and color settings for the latest versions of popular applications, including Adobe Creative Suite 2 and Quark 7. Simplify color matching, so that your monitor shows what’s in the file and your printer matches your screen.

Register today online or call toll-free 888.439.4403 x200 to speak with seminar coordinators and register by phone. For printer-friendly details, download the seminar PDF.

As an attendee, you’ll receive our Digital Color Toolkit, equipping you to begin applying color control immediately. The kit includes the Eye-One Display 2 monitor calibrator and software, our “Need to Know: Color” manual and color workbook, DIMA 2007 calibration target and digital file, reference CD, four digital NIK filters, a trial version of SilverFast DC Pro Studio for RAW and discounts from our sponsors.

The fee for the 9am-4pm training is $349 and includes lunch, the Digital Color Toolkit and an Eye-One Display 2 monitor calibrator.

Cites are listed below and more information and registration can be found by calling toll-free 888.439.4403 x200 to speak with seminar coordinators and register by phone.

Philadelphia, PA – Nov 7
Baltimore, MD – Nov 9
Boston, MA – Nov 14
New York, NY – Nov 16
Toronto, ON – Nov 28
Washington, DC – Nov 30
Chicago, IL – Dec 5
Detroit, MI – Dec 7
Kansas City, MO – Dec 12
Minneapolis, MN – Dec 14
Dallas, TX – Dec 19
Los Angeles, CA – Jan 9
Portland, OR – Jan 11
San Francisco, CA – Jan 16
Seattle, WA – Jan 18
Columbus, OH –Jan 23
Charlotte, NC – Jan 25
Nashville, TN – Jan 30
Atlanta, GA – Feb 1
Secaucus, NJ – Feb 6
Denver, CO –Feb 8

For a color workflow to really work, you need to get others on board throughout the process. One way to get everyone working together is to bring them with you to the seminar.

Take your design team, bring along your boss, invite key clients or send your sales, client relations and IT staff. Groups of four or more are invited to register for only $250 per attendee. This discount is available by phone at 888.439.4403 x200 for any combination of seminar cities.

Color Management for Photographers – UCSD Extension

Color Management for Photographers
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

Sign Up! If you have been having trouble understanding the complexities of digital color reproduction then this seminar will set you straight. It’s hands on with access to fast computers and digital printers from Epson and hp. You will also have the ability to use the latest color measuring devices by Gretag Macbeth. In this short but intense “workshop” we go over the necessary fundamentals of color so missing in today’s instruction. We also have the necessary equipment and means to produce quality color managed from capture to print. The workshop dates are convenient for even the busiest schedules. We meet for three hours from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm on Friday September 22, then for a full day on Saturday September 23 and then finish it up one week later for another full day of instruction September 30th. This is by far the most cost effective means to get quality instruction and hands on experience with color management.

Color Management for Digital Sign Makers

Color Management for Digital Sign Makers
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

I am on tour again! This tour runs from July 11 to October 4 will feature myself as well as Mark Gundlach of GIA. The focus of this tour will be to educate large format printers and designers the necessary concepts needed to manage color digitally. We look at the fundamentals of color science without turining you into a color geek. We will also define necessary terms suchs as Profile, Calibration, Linearization, and Delta E. We stress the importance of understanding how profiles work and what you can expect from ICC profiles. We define color measurment devices like colorimeters and spectrophotometers and how they differ from densitometers. One of the interactive and dynamic parts of the seminar surrounds the procedure for managing ink on cast or calandered film. Dark Ink Restrictions, Linearization, Total Ink Limit, and Profile is our Mantra. It can be a lot of information but it’s what you need if your frustrated with getting the right color. I personally urge you to get educated and put what you learn into action. Many of the seminar attendees have taken our seminars before and come with lots of questions, which of course we welcome. So if your a beginner or an advanced user you will get something out of this informative one day seminar. Also, some cites have a second day detailed and advanced RIP training seminar on Onyx 7.0, the latest Onyx Graphics has to offer. Onyx is a powerful RIP and it has got even better with a new Media Manager and tool set such as Layout. Check out more information from Onyx and if your interested check out the DSM page from GIA. I hope to see you there!

UCSD Color Imaging I – Spring 06

UCSD Color Imaging I
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

If your looking for a 9 week course in digital imaging with an emphasis on color management then check out the University of California San Diego Extension Studies. I teach a course were the recomended reading is Tim Grey’s book “Color Confidence” and we use the Gretag Macbeth i1 Match System for calibration and profiling. Our equipment is up to date with a quad tone print system, Epson 2200′s, and hp Photosmart 8750′s all networked to Dell P4′s. The course is usually 3 hours a week from 6:30 to 9:30 pm. It’s interactive and the students actually build their own ICC profiles to be used with their choice of displays as well as have access to GMB i1 Spectrophotometers where they can build a custom output profile to the media of their choice. It’s an eye opening experience for those who want to best color their device can reproduce. If any of the students read this post I want to thank you for being patient with my schedule. I sometimes wish I had a clone. Also thanks to Annika at UCSD for also being so patient and personable, you make my day.

Color Control Freak Tour 2006

Color Control Freak Tour 2006
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

So the tour has come to and end. Phil Nelson and I have completed the first tour of the year for GMB and GIA. We have the numbers to prove it was a huge success with 1,136 people attending in over 27 cites, several of which sold out completely. The tour which was sponsored by hp, Adobe, Eizo, HOW, Pantone, Quark, nik, and Gretag Macbeth made a beleiver out of the skeptical and reinforced the essentials for seasoned veterans. Face it, if your not measuring color then how can you expect to control it. Face it, your a color control freak. So keep your eye out for the next upcomming seminar tour, like Picture Perfect and Digital Sign Making. Special thanks goes out the Juniper Sage for making the tour run so smoothly.

CAPIC Color Management Lecture at ACAD – Calgary Canada

Profiled and Gray Balanced Fruit
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

There is something about Canada I really love. Maybe it’s the snow…or the funny people, oh, I know it’s Tim Horton’s. The home of the best coffee and donuts a visiting American can hope for. But seriously, Canada rocks, and I mean it. I recently had the pleasure to speak to a nice crowd on behalf of CAPIC, the Canadian Association for Photographers and Illustrators in Communications at the lovely campus of ACAD, Alberta College of Art and Design. The topic was a full color managed workflow for photographers where we had a live studio setup and had images shot on location. Our workflow was simple. We shot with a Phase one P20 connected to a G5 through C1 Pro. We white balanced our strobes, set the lighting for even exposure, shot the GMB Color Checker SG and processed the file through the Phase One’s No Color Correction profile giving us as “un-colormanaged” a file you can get. We then ran the target through GMB Profile Maker Pro software to build a profile, then put the profile back into the C1 Pro workflow. Once the files were captured we processed them to come into Photoshop where we converted to our working space of Abobe RGB 1998. We also built a custom ICC profile of our La Cie CRT and built an RGB output profile to our Epson 4000. It was a great seminar and everyone learned something. I will gladly do it again. Special thanks goes out to the guys at CAPIC for our amazing Indian Dinner and conversation and to Dirk Erkau for his support and drive to get me up to Canada.

Next stop Vancouver eh?

ASMP Lecture at Ray Street Studios

ASMP Lecture at Ray Street Studios
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

I will be speaking to individuals from the American Society of Media Photographers at Ray Street Studios, 3426 Ray Street, San Diego in North Park on Tuesday Februrary 28th. The lecture will be about color management, including Microsoft’s recent development in Vista to evolve the current color management system. This new system is called WCS, Windows Color System. I will also discuss The Mysteries of CMYK, do a CS2 Color Managed demo, talk about today’s photographic roles, discuss the questions photographers need to ask their clients, and finally give some personal recomendations. If your interested in attending this informal discussion pplease vsit the ASMP-SD site.

ASMP promotes photographers’ rights, educates photographers in better business practices, produces business publications for photographers and helps buyers find professional photographers. ASMP was founded in 1944 by a handful of the world’s leading photojournalists and is recognized internationally for its leadership role. ASMP has over 5,000 members, including many of the world’s greatest photographers, in 40 chapters nationwide.

Thanks to Jamie Smith, William Morton, Fred Greaves, and Ray Street Studios for making this event possible.