I know you take a photo of the painting, color correct (what is that process like?) the image, and then scale for printing. But do you need special equipment (cameras, lenses, printers) or software? My understanding is that the goal of color correction is to make sure the print comes out so it matches the actual painting, which might not be accurately represented on your computer screen, but the process is a mystery to me.
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For color correcting – you can use a white balance and color correcting cards combined with calibrating your monitor and editing program to get as close as possible to real life. It’s been a long time since I’ve done it so it may have changed since then however you photograph the cards in the setting you’ll take your photos and then use that to get an accurate white balance to match your scene/subject. There’s a dropper tool in photo editing software that allows you to do this. You can then apply that setting to all other photos from that photo session. Artificial lighting is helpful since it’s controllable however it’s totally doable in natural light you just have to be mindful of how the time of day affects how colors appear IRL. If you’re shooting for long periods of time outdoors with only natural light you will need multiple card shots to maintain that accuracy.
Sorry if this is long winded. Been a bit since I’ve talked about this stuff but I still find it interesting and fun lol.
You’re right it’s never going to be 100% accurate on a screen even if everything is calibrated as perfectly as we can. The screen is a light source vs the print is reflecting light into your eyes. But there’s also color matching systems like Pantone that standardize color representation so if you’re trying to recreate x color in a photo you can find the exact RGB combo for it. It’s not perfect but gets as close as it can. Brands will have specific color designations sometimes too. Like Coca Cola red, Tiffany blue, etc.
Current workflow is something like this.
Photograph painting with color and grey bar target in large gamut color space like Adobe RGB or Profoto.
Use software to read the color chips and produce profile which brings the colors closer to the real object. Set your photos to use this profile. Color correct further in software if necessary.
Correcting color – adjust contrast, brightness, hue saturation, etc. Make the yellow banana less red yellow etc.
Save as Adobe RGB color space file. This file can now be used for online after converting to sRGB (with loss of very vivid colors because sRGB color space is smaller than Adobe RGB).
Either one:
1. Pass RGB file to printer. Since they print using dull CMYK colors, there will be a large loss of vivid colors. They will use software to convert the file to CMYK (using profiles called ‘device link’), that tries to map the colors from the impossible to print vivid colors of the file to an achievable, printable CMYK print. Printer staff further tune the original RGB file after test prints to achieve closer match for the print.
2. Alternatively, if you produce a magazine or book, the layout software will convert the page to an industry standard CMYK print profile (so you need to use a inkjet color proofer to proof out (in simulated CMYK) and adjust the RGB file to get it the way you want it after conversion). The printer just makes sure he prints to the industry standard in this case.
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