Understanding Colour Correction

In this informative video, Karl wants to talk to you a little bit about making colour adjustments to images. Before you can really adjust or manipulated an image, you need to understand the process, the colours themselves, and how they interact.

Comments

  1. Hello. What are some useful resources in your opinion if I want to read more about color theory, as you mentioned at the 2:40 mark? Thank you!

  2. Hi Karl
    I’ve read that we also need to have good monitor to be able to correct colors. But for the beginner as I am it’s difficult to understand which of them is good and why. Could you please look through these points and say if they are true? I’ve read that: 1. first of all it should be any IPC monitor as this type has more or less accurate colors. 2. It should not be less then 24 inches as it’s not convenient for retouching to have smaller size. 3. It can be factory calibrated and you don’t need to buy calibrator. 4. Newer use laptop monitors as they have wrong color balance.
    If this is not true or you have anything to add please comment on this.

    1. Hi Anna,

      1. IPC is a type of display but display technologies are regularly changing and their are also new innovations with LED,LCD,HDR, the best colour accurate monitors are expensive and are made by Eizo or NEC, here’s a link to Eizo https://www.eizo.com/products/coloredge/
      2. I agree, and there is also the option for normal monitor or 4k monitors for a sharper picture
      3. No this is wrong, monitors need to be calibrated at least once every 3 weeks to maintain accuracy. You can do this with X-rite calibrators or some screens like the Eizos come with calibrators built in and they recalibrate automatically.
      4. Yes laptops are pretty rubbish screens for colour accuracy. Some of the newer Imac screens are OK but often too contrasty.
      It all comes down to cost though as top end monitors can be quite expensive, I’ve had my Eizo for about 5 years now and it is still working perfectly but I am considering changing to a 4K version soon.

      1. Thank you, Karl
        May I ask some further questions? Why could display loose accuracy so fast(I’m about calibrating every 3 weeks)? And also I looked through the link you gave me I can’t get this – with that calibrator can I calibrate any display or only dedicated ?
        And about 4k – if I use full frame (not medium format) – does that make sense for me to have 4k? I mean my pictures are not hi res, so how they would look on such display-it is almost full size of my picture, and on full size they usually look a little odd or blurry? And after that if I work with 4k and it’s sharper then other monitors will my pictures look blurry on standard displays?

        1. Hi Anna, all displays colours shift in time even if it slightly over a few weeks, it just depends how accurate you need to work. I calibrate my screen monthly. Yes Xrite work with most displays but you need to check compatability with xrite and your screen. No 4K is not essential, I’ve lived without it for 20 years. On my personal website my pictures are uploaded at about 2K and they still look good on a 4K monitor. Hope this helps Karl.

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