[MUSIC] We're going to talk about calibrating for consistency, and get started with the printer. When it comes to print calibration, things can get a bit tricky for the same reasons as we saw with monitor calibration. Just as with a monitor, we have three choices as to how to approach calibration of our printer. One being by trusting our eye, and one being by trusting a device and software, and a third by just saying, I'm going to bag it and just accept whatever comes out of the printer. Well you can probably already guess which one I think is best, But there's a third issue that comes into play in this area, different from the monitor, and that is the cost of color print calibration. Let's see what our options are. One thing that you can count on is that the print image and the screen image will always look somewhat different. One important thing impacting this situation is that we view a print by reflected light and we view an image on a screen as transmitted light. The transmitted light of the monitor is also affected by the brightness of the ambient light in the room. But to a lesser extent than the differences such lighting will have on the range of brightness in the print. In addition, the monitor image has a resolution of about 72 pixels per inch while the print resolution would be at about 300 pixels per inch. Various papers have different colors and reflectance characteristics. And different inks have different densities and qualities, and yes there's more. On top of that, you already know that the color of the light source reviewing the print under will have a tremendous effect on the colors that we can perceive in the print. It's almost as if the print were a chameleon. Changing colours under fluorescent, tungsten and day light which our eyes and minds and certainly our camera sensors can see but that part of our mind tries to block out. One do-it-yourself way to calibrate your monitor and prints, whether you're making them yourself or having prints made at the local one hour photo is to simply compare the print image with that on the screen. Using Photoshop or another image processing software. Just as Julia, my student, is here. You'll see differences between the two and have some basis for further decision making to adjust the settings so your prints are satisfactory. Here she's holding a print that has four things that we call test strips on it. To save on paper and ink costs, she first adjusted for different picture image files to the size she wanted to print them. And made sure that all of them were at a resolution of 300 dpi. The maximum resolution her printer could handle. Then she created a new Photoshop document of 8.5x11 inches at 300 DPI. Lastly, she copied strips from each of the pictures in dimensions to assure that they would all fit on the same single piece of paper when it was printed. She tried to include in each of those strips areas of both dark and light and middle tones and then pasted them one by one onto this new blank document. By adding them together in one document she created tests for four pictures. In the time that it would take to make a print of a test for one picture. With everyone living such busy lives, I'll bet you're joining me in giving a big thumbs up to that idea. The next step was to compare each of those strips to the full screen image to determine the difference between the ways that they both looked and what our expectations for the final print were. She could then make adjustments in Photoshop to increase or decrease the darkness, contract or color elements by estimating how much change was necessary from her initial test printing and comparing that to the monitor. This is called calibration by eye balls and it's only as good as the consistency of the lighting in the room and the accuracy of the eye of the photographer in assessing how much to change the initial print settings to achieve their goals. A more accurate and consistent set of results can be had by purchasing a device and software such us a ColorMunki Photo. You remember that devices such as the ColorMunki Smile at about $90 would give you accurate monitor calibration. But when we want to add a printer to our calibration routine we need a device that will not only read light emitting from a screen, we need a device that will read light reflecting from paper and that is what ups the price in a substantial way, currently about $400 US. Is it worth it in in terms of the headaches you can avoid, the paper that she'll save, the printing time you won't have to spend, and the satisfaction gained from having beautiful prints that express your creative vision with one shot? Only you and your wallet can answer that question. We start with the same type of calibration software, adjusting our monitor first while reading the array of color swatches the software provides us to measure for hue, saturation, and screen brightness. The difference then comes in the process when we use them to not only calibrate the monitor, but then to send the information to our printer to create special color check prints. The closes the loop of the entire color management system with Adobe Photoshop or other image software, taking into account the color profiles of our camera, the calibration software adjusting both the monitor and the printer to work in sync together. We can have the highest confidence that, as close as possible, our prints and monitor relate in terms of what's called WYSIWYG. In other words what you see is what you get. A system which links the monitor to the printer in such a way that is very consistent can give you consistent print results. And those can be had with minimal waste of time and materials. A final piece of the calibration puzzle if you want to follow through and make the printing process as predictable and consistent as possible, is to have strict control of the color light source under which you are viewing your test prints and your final prints, too. In our classroom and in your home or studio, the color of these ceiling lights can change over time, or sometimes not so subtly if a bulb suddenly goes bad. This makes it extremely difficult to consistently create color prints of the same quality. Now you may wonder whether it is even remotely possible for everyone in the world to use the same color light to view prints with. But in fact, in many fine art galleries and in the homes of collectors and certainly in the professional printing world, that consistent lighting is actually quite a normal part of everyday life. Viewing works under light that has a white balance of 5,000 degrees Kelvin has long been an industry standard for printers and professionally managed art galleries too. In the world of professional printing viewing stations, such as those manufactured by the fine American company, GTI graphic technology, are standard equipment. Each station is equipped with full-spectrum 5000 degree Kelvin temperature lightbulbs and users know that their prints will be viewed under this standard across the world in critical professional settings. Where even the ceiling lights are calibrated for that same 5,000 degree Kelvin balance. Smaller units that sit right next to the computer monitor are ideal for making the sort of critical comparisons between the image displayed by a calibrated monitor on the one hand, and a print from a calibrated printer on the other. By following the steps of calibration to assure the closest match between image and printer output, and viewing under a standard lighting condition, you'll have the ultimate in consistency. While the units you'll find in professional print labs can be quite pricy, for most of us a smaller and less expensive version such as this one, the PDV model from GTI, that are portable and easy to store when they're not in use, those would be good options. A do-it-yourself, or DIY option, is quite simple and easy to do also. Just go out and purchase 5,000-degree Kelvin light bulbs, such as this spiral CFL unit that I found at www.1000bulbs.com for about $5 in the US. You may not have a professional viewing environment available in your home yet, but if print making is an important part of what you do now or what you'd like to do in the future, it may be something that you'll be considering sooner than you think and at $5 a bulb, it's easy to get started. Closing the loop of consistency from calibrating the monitor and the printer, to controlling the viewing light, and operating to standards that are the accepted universal norm, will bring a level of professionalism to your work that will be appreciated by others. And you'll know that your work is being seen the way you want it to be, no matter where in the world it is. [MUSIC]
