Tools Needed To Create A Good Colour Management Environment

If you're setting up a colour management environment there's no point calibrating and setting up your monitor correctly if the room you're working in isn't set up right. So, to get you on the right colour management track, here are tools, other than your monitor, which you should look at and set-up correctly when setting up your colour management environment.

1. Lighting

By making the colour temperature of the light source used on a shoot as close to  5000 K as possible, and by using 5000 K as a yardstick in the white balance settings of the camera and in the RAW development, colours will be more consistent, producing better printed results. It's also important that images taken on the shoot should be compared with the actual subject under fluorescent lighting. 

If you are working in an environment where the light fixtures can't be changed, purchase a fluorescent desk lamp with a high colour rendering index. These will generate very little colour divergence between the LCD monitor screen, printed paper, and human colour recognition. When it comes to colour temperature, the ideal colour temperature for a fluorescent lamp is 4600-5400K (a daylight lamp).

2. Printer

To ensure the colours produced in prints match the colours you see on screen you need to use a printer that's designed for and dedicated to printing photo data (a printer using pigmented ink is best). You'll also need to select the correct colour matching settings of your printer. To find out why using a high quality printer that supports colour management is a worthwhile investment, have a read of this: Choosing The Right Printer For Colour Matching

3. Monitor Hood

If glare and light from an outside source or even a lamp in the room you're working in shines on your monitor, you won't achieve accurate results when calibrating the device. You'll also get light reflections which can make viewing the monitor screen difficult. To minimise the effects lighting has on your LCD monitor, fit a monitor hood. These are supplied free with EIZO monitors, but hoods can also be purchased for other brands. If you enjoy a bit of DIY you can also create your own hood but ensure vents aren't blocked otherwise heat will build up and damage your monitor. 

4. Grey Card

When accurate colour reproduction on screen and in prints is essential, a grey card is a tool you shouldn't be without. It's a tool that's useful in the studio as well as back at home in the room you do all of your editing in and as they're inexpensive, it makes sense for one to find a home in your camera bag. 

5. Monitor Cleaning Products

You don't want smudges, dust and other marks to obscure your view when editing photographs so knowing how to clean your monitor without causing damage is useful knowledge to have. We've put together a guide on cleaning monitors safely which includes tips on products you can use as well as advice on what cloths should be used. 

If you want to take a look at a range of monitors designed with colour management in-mind, take a look at the EIZO website.