This article appeared in the September/October 2003 issue of PT. To purchase this issue and receive this and other valuable articles in this issue, CLICK HERE: Ship within the U.S. | Ship outside the U.S.

Calibrating the Digital Darkroom
by Paul Schranz and Kelly Blok

This is the first of three articles examining the complexities and controversies of calibrating digital images. This article covers monitors, monitor calibration, and viewing environments. The second will concern photographers who still use film, but scan their images for output on inkjet printers. The final installment will serve as a guide to photographers who use a high-end digital camera and send their images to a professional lab for output.

Overwhelming amount of information
The amount of information on profiles and digital color management seems endless, highly opinionated, and mostly out-of-date. It also incorporates different standards for a variety of applications. While the digital world gives us capabilities that conventional photography does not, they come with a greater set of responsibilities. Quality digital work is no more automatic than quality conventional photography. All the subtleties that go into making a brilliant silver print are equally complex in producing a quality digitally based photograph. Our intentions are to simplify all of this.

Another issue is Photoshop. Photoshop is an easy program to do a lot of things wrong. It’s also an excellent and complex program that does things very right. Too many people neither appreciate nor take the time to learn the fine qualities of this program. If you’re going to do serious digital photography, learn Photoshop. Not a little—a lot.

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