Digital Photography - Colour Management.

Understanding Colour With Digital Photography.

Colours seldom match when transferred between different digital devices, but the loss of colour can be restored thanks to digital technology. The main tool for correcting colour in digital photography is your ability to use your image manipulation software.

Most image manipulation software will allow you to control the colour of your image and more advanced software will allow you to control the hue and saturation. Dull images can be transformed into bright images, but before you start to experiment with colour you will need to calibrate and make sure your monitor is perfect.

If the colours on your monitor are not accurate the chances are that the colour in your print will also be off. You will also need to make sure that the lighting in the room is correct and that there is no glare, direct sunlight or reflections on your screen. The calibration of your computer should be done every week.

The colours in your image are rarely cast-free and will need correction. This may occur due to different light sources on a scene, or be the result of poorly taken images. Controlling colour balance can be quite difficult at the best of times but the real hard part is defining the right course of action.

The following are two digital tools to use in correcting your image colour - these apply to Adobe Photoshop.

Adjusting brightness. Levels: Your levels control is the ideal tool to adjust the overall brightness in your image. This control can change the tones in your image by correcting and controlling the highlights and shadows.. Avoid using the auto levels button - this is not an accurate way of fixing colour.

Correct colour balance. Curves: is an ideal tool for adjusting contrast, colour and brightness. Instead of a histogram, a dialogue box appears with a diagonal line in the centre. Moving the diagonal line allows you to change part or all of the image.

The best colour mode to work in is RGB. RGB is the easiest to understand and stands for red, green and blue. All colour can be attained by combining different amounts of red, green and blue.

You can add different colours easily by applying Photoshop. Opening up the colour correction dialogue box allows you to change most colours. A great example of this is increasing red - this will warm up your image and give your images more punch.

Colour images can also be turned into black and white. There are hundreds of different things that can be achieved with image software and changing colour is just the beginning. For most people starting to use Photoshop for the first time, it may seem like a daunting task. The best part of learning how to use image manipulation software is seeing the great results through your images.

Adobe Photoshop is the perfect software to use for beginners, and gives you all the tools that you need to correct or change colour. Adobe also has more advance software for the professional photographer.

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