LASER LIGHT UPDATE Fall 2002Newsletter PHOTOPLUS Expo Laser Light's New Service: Mounting your Prints Color Calibration   PHOTOPLUS EXPO Come see our new booth, and talk to Bill or Erik at the PHOTOPLUS Expo. We'll be at the Javits Center in New York October 31st to November 2nd 2002. See you there! Don't forget, we need to recieve your order by November 15th to qualify for the Photo Expo special offer!!! Laser Light's New Service: Mounting your Prints We now offer two services for mounting your Laser Light prints: black gator board or fiberboard with matte lamination. We can flush mount in-house images up to 24x36 inches (including borders) on 3/16" black gator board. We use thick black Gator Foam sealed with a plastic coating on the back. This board is warp-free. With a black cross section, it is ideal for display presentation of larger prints. We also offer two options for flush mounting onto fiberboard with black beveled edges and over lamination with a matte vinyl. This great way to display your images requires no further framing: ready-to-hang. To learn more about these services, see our "mounting" page. Color Calibration What is color calibration, and why is it important? Color calibration is the way to make sure that the colors you see on your computer screen are as close as possible to other calibrated monitors and printers.  At Laser Light, we calibrate all of our monitors to assure dependable colors on your files, and use printer profiles to make sure that our printed results are the best possible match to the on-screen color of your image.    Color calibration allows you to standardize the color you see on your monitor with what is represented digitally in your file.  If you are sending us ready-to-print digital files, and you want our prints to match the color you have on your computer screen, you need to be working with a color-calibrated monitor in an assigned color space. How does color calibration work? Color calibration is like an agreement between your software and hardware to represent color accurately.  At Laser Light, we use ColorVision software to control our calibration process, and an X-Rite or Spyder colorimeter to verify the color output of our monitor.  The colorimeter used depends on the type of monitor.  For CRTs, a colorimeter with a suction cup is applied directly to the glass of the tube.  For our Apple Cinema Displays (or other LCD flat screens) we must use a specially designed colorimeter that will not put pressure on the LCD.   (Other software and hardware options, as well as expert color workflow consulting, are available at Rods and Cones, and the other resources listed below.) The process of calibration goes something like this:  First, we start up the software and follow its instructions for the brightness and contrast settings on our monitor.  Next, it asks us for two important settings – gamma, which we set at 1.8, and color temperature, which we set to 6500 K.  If you are using calibration software and want to match the Laser Light workflow, it is important that you set your gamma and color temperature to match ours.  Setting the color temperature to 6500 K is critical for best results. Next, the software asks us to use the colorimeter on the monitor, then commands the monitor to display specific colors to the best of its abilities.  The colorimeter reads what the monitor actually displays.  The software compares this reading to the expected color, and then creates a calibration profile so that the color the monitor displays most closely matches the color expected by the software.  Color calibration is fairly simple once you have the right software and hardware.  It only takes about 15 minutes for the initial calibration process, and only about five minutes to refresh your color calibration.    Monitor color can shift with time.  We recommend that you refresh your color calibration every two weeks if you have a CRT monitor, or every month for an LCD monitor.  Of course, what you see can be limited by the capability of your monitor to display colors.  The better your monitor, the more accurately it displays the colors in your file.  Laser Light’s color workflow ensures the best possible match of the colors in your ready-to-print file to the colors in your Laser Light print. What is a color space? Color space is the range of colors that can be accurately represented by a given process.  The human eye is limited to a certain range of color wavelengths it can see.  Most monitors and printers are even more constrained in what colors they can reproduce. If you have a calibrated monitor, it has been standardized so that the colors you see match colors in your file provided you are working in a defined color space.  Digital cameras and image editing software like Photoshop have defined color spaces.  If you are not working in a defined color space, it is possible to make changes to the colors represented digitally in your file that will not be displayed on your screen.  You might push the colors in your file beyond what your monitor is capable of showing you, and you’d have no way of knowing what colors are actually in your file.  We recommend that you work on your files using Adobe RGB 1998 color space.  You must have a defined color space for your ready-to-print files, so that what we receive and print matches what you expect to see from your file. What else can affect the colors I see? Photographers understand the importance of lighting when shooting an image.  The effects of light on what you see do not end when the film is processed.  The light you use to view your transparencies can change what you see.  The ambient light in the room where your print is displayed can affect how the print looks. What this means for digital image processing is that you must always be conscious of the light situation when you work on your image.  It is preferable to have very subdued lighting, without glare from bright light sources, when you look at your image on a computer screen.  If you can’t control the lighting for the whole room, you should use a hood around your monitor to block outside light sources.  The less interference from ambient light, the easier it is for your eyes to accurately judge the color on your monitor. If you are doing your own scanning or trying to match your transparency accurately, you must also consider the light used to view your original.  Light tables vary, and slide projectors do not accurately project what is on your film.  A color-balanced light box is the best way to view your transparencies. Other Color Resources Rods and Cones: www.rodsandcones.com Chromix: www.chromix.com Digital Attributes: www.digitalattributes.com Profile City: www.profilecity.com Apple Color Sync: www.apple.com/colorsync