Essential Lighting Tips For Colour Management

When setting up an environment for colour matching, there's a few points worth remembering about lighting which will help you ensure images are always evaluated under the same conditions.

1. Fluorescent light tubes with a high colour rendering index and a colour temperature of 5000 K are recommended for room lighting.

2. It is necessary to adjust the environmental light to 5000 K, the standard colour temperature for printing, in order to establish a colour matching environment.

3. Confirm your prints using fluorescent light with a colour rendering index greater than RA 90. 

Also, it's worth noting that even if colour matching has been successfully performed between on-screen and printed photos under indoor lighting conditions in the evening, they may look different under outside light during the daytime. Hence why it's important to adjust the lighting conditions and to control the environmental light in the room you are working in as this will ensure consistency.

To further help with this, you may want to invest in a monitor hood which blocks outside light and reflections from the screen. We've previously discussed the advantages of using a monitor hood here: What's An LCD Hood & Why You Should Use One

For more information on EIZO's monitor hoods, other accessories and monitors, visit the EIZO website.