310- colour management

There are several different ways to get the colour of the image correct and to meet the client critera. The two elements are the Macbeth colour chart, which is placed in the image to be taken to give a colour reference, and the Pantone colour chart which will give the record of the item colour to be replicated in your photograph.

This image shows the Macbeth colour chart. Put this card in the picture to be taken and this gives a reference point to calibrate the image on the screen.

This image shows the Pantone colour range, and the technique to achieve the final result. An item has a colour reference, the colour sampler is taken from the area in the image, and this then can be used to correct the image.

Just a note here about Mono black and white prints and printing.

When you have gone to all the trouble to produce the perfect monochrome image you them want this to be replicated in yopur print. Photo printers use many different-coloured inks to produce colour images. The  printer blends these coloured inks in such a way that they produce shades of grey instead of colours, or at least try.However, variations in ink densities, the response of different papers to different ink colours, and any shortcomings in the printer driver software will combine to produce results which are at best variable, and can be unusable. even lighting can make a difference when viewing, due to phenomenon known as "metamerism", where different inks reflect light differently according to whether it's daylight, fluorescent light for example.

There are three principle solutions . first, you can attempt to calibrate the printer to remove any colour casts. secondly, you can use 'black only' ink replacements, from specialist companies, or thirdly, upgrade the printer that supports black and white printing explicitly. If alot of black and white printing is being done it may pay to invest in a "mono only" printer. In which case investment in grey ink will prove to produce better quality prints. This will save all the hassle of profiling the printer or investing in third party suppliers.

The choice of printer and solution will depend on the quantity of work being carried out.

310 - printing problems

There are several basic things to think about when avoiding problems with printing and should be carefully considered.
1 use suitable size of printer and inks to suit the project, whether owned or printed commercially. Make sure that for some printers the cartridges are in date.
2 Use sufficient pixels (for digital printing)  for the image requirement.
3 Locate a printer in a dust-free enviroment as much as possible. NB I was advised at my professional studio visit that they do not do picture framing on the premises due to the dust created ( see my seperate blog for images etc)
4 Do regularly maintain the printer/s eg check the nozzles are clear, clean the heads, perhaps once a month, as they do get clogged up, or when changing cartridges. Ensure the print heads are aligned and a routine is set in place to regularly check this.
5 Ensure that the correct inks are used for the type of image being produced. Keep a check on ink levels, as you do not want 1 colour to run out half way through a print. Special inks are required for archival use for instance.
6 Handle all items with care and with clean hands.
7 Store paper and inks at the right temperature and to manufactures recommendations.
8 Ensure the monitor, printer and paper are correctly calibrated to each other.
9 Before printing check that the printer is working, and the parameters of your print are correct to save errors, waste, eg portrait/landscape, print size. paper size.
10 Adhering to basic practice should save time and money in the printing process.
11 For longevity you need to purchase, and have printed, the best quality paper you can, and should match the make of printer that is being used as the manufacturer has done the engineering to provide the best possible print.
12 Let the prints dry, be very careful when hadling the print straight out of the printer.

There are however problems with printing and in a perfect world there should not be any. But there are, and even sending them away for printing is not perfect, as you have to match the outputs. Plus, due to the cost of having your own printer A3 for example, it becomes expensive.. Unless you are operating as a professional business then it is cheaper to send them away. but you still have to ensure that your monitor, printer and paper used is compatible.

 Some common problems.

Prints are lighter than expected, have white spots or horizontal lines - These are signs of a clogged head, and shopuld be cleaned using the printers utility programme. Sometimes you may have to leave the printer overnight to let the ink soften, then try cleaning it again. One solution could be to turn the printer off at night on the printer. Some models have a capping device that protects the nozzles. Sometimes you may have to run a test print prior to your print run saves ink in the long run.

Vertical lines are jagged - this is an indication that the print head is out of alignment. run the printers utilty to check this and correct.

Colours are missing, prints lack shadows and contrast-Colours can begin to print inconsistantly even before the printer tells you to replace the cartridge. try replacing them, this amy improve the colour quality. It could also be down to a clogged nozzle, so cleaning of the print head will be required. If the print lacks shadows and contrast the black ink may be at fault. Colour quality can sometimes suffer if not used for a while, in particular, 6 months. trty swapping with a new cartridge if cleaning has not solved the problem. Check to see if you have loaded the inks in the right slots!!

Prints are blurry-The paper may be damp, very old or loaded the wrong way round. Try using different settings. These can be found in the print menu.

Prints are grainy-if all checks and cleaning have been done, then try switching to a higher quality setting, or to the manufacturers paper if using another brand. High quality paper and manufacturers inks give fewer problems.

Prints have tiny puddles of ink - referred to as puddling, this can occur if the wrong paper settings are selected, or used with incorrect paper, not designed for the printer. Occurs especially on glossy paper, so use the manufacturers paper. to address the problem open the print dialog box, switch to the print settings and verify the correct paper stock is selected.

Prints have bands of heavy ink - this is due to too higher a print resolution, especially on uncoated or art papers, as this causes the printer to use too much ink. Most printers don't let you select a resolution, so try alower print quality.

Black and White images have a colour tint- colour should be turned on when printing black and white as this will give smoother graduations and richer tones. many printers havce difficulty producing neutral grayscale images. wait until the print drys, even overnight. if not then try altering the colour balance in the printers colour management settings, if possible. Experimentation may be required.

Images are darker or lighter than expected- the first thing to do is to calibrate the monitor. if still a problem check the Gamma settings(which control the brightness of on-screen images) in the printer driver matches the one you used to calibrate your monitor. Because the way papers absorb ink, dark shades of grey may appear as solid black when printed. the print iamge may have to be adjusted to solve this.

Colour/tonal balance- the print is reflective and the screen is emmisive, therefore the print will be subtlely different to that on the screen. This is where the calibration methods come to the fore, along with  the various elements you can use eg white balance, exposure.

310 - Jewellery Final prints

Shown here are my Final Jewellery images.

Please refer to my earlier blog for the workflow and other details of my shoot. My shoot reflects the images that I researched, and I have kept to one consistent theme with the exception of the 7th image of a necklace as I like the different way that is an alternative to the others. All these items would be sent to get picture clipped so that they could be presented in a variety of ways and methods.

310 - workflow of an image

Here is a sequence for printing an image of Emma.

Here is the final image and printed on an HP Photosmart B9180 A3 printer and an actual print has been submitted. It shows a collection of images placed into one so that they can be viewed together.

The process of how this was achieved is noted below.

A new A3 document was created in Photoshop, then the images were dragged into the new document and resized to suit the layout by using the free transform tool once placed in the document. This is what you see above in the final outcome. The layout has to be preplanned to suit of course, and to suit any brief or requirement by others if this is to be part of any solution.

Shown now is the set up within the printer once the new document has been prepared, images added and set to print once all perameters and deatils have been checked and you are then ready to go.

This image shows the options that you have with regard to the paper sizes available. These options will vary depending on the make and model of the printer you are using. 

This next image shows the printer details that you are using. The printer is usually selected from the drop down list shown, especially if there are several printers available.

This shows a close of the selection screen

310 - Final prints for Emma

Below are the final prints for my theme with Emma.

I have chosen to show the work flow for one of the images, and I will also include 1 image printed on the college computer and 1 image from my home printer to show the comparison.

Here is the workflow for my chosen image.

This is a JPG version of the original RAW image in the camera, the reason for the jpg image is to load onto this blog. A polariser filter was used in natural light.

Here is a comparison of the image in 2 different forms to show the difference in the beginning of the post production. I do attempt to get the best image in the camera that I can to eliminate alot of post production work.

Here is the next image which shows the cropping I have chosen, which is to A3 proportions, along with some cloning to elimate the obstacles that do not add to the image eg the door pillar. Perhaps a slightly different view could have eliminated the door pillar for example in the original image to avoid some post treatment works.

This is the next part of the sequence where an adjustment was done in curves in this instance. there are many other means to achieve the desired effect eg addtional layers to alter the image, levels, colour management measures etc..

This shows how I achieved my final image with a final crop to tidy up any points that detract from the main theme of the image.

Please refer to my blog dated Monday 8th November 2010, which covers the day of the car shoot. This also shows my reserarch into car/model photography. The main influences were from Manfred Reinfried and Gabriele Rigon. I choose the above images based upon an adaption of the images that these photographers produced and shown on the previous blog. I would like to redo these images later on the year as November is perhaps not the best time of the year to do this sort of shoot, although we had glorious sunshine all day. we did use additinal lighting which is noted in other blogs below.

I will be printing off my home printer to show how this printer performs in relation to the printer used at College. At home I use compatible inks with Tesco Super glossy A4 inkjet photo paper (260gsm) which provides an acceptable print, but is not up to exhibition standard. At college I will be using a HP Photosmart B9180 printer, which is calibrated from the monitor, to the printer to the paper used. The paper used HP Satin Matt A3+ 250g/m2(Q5462A) which produces an exhibition quality print.

and here is the final image

EMMA

Set out below are the other final 9 images to complete the set. A similar workflow has been done on these to that above.

This also shows some of the jewellery that Emma was using. I had a separate theme to this one of Emma herself.

This image also links into the other theme I have been working on as it shows Emma's jewellery that I asked her to wear. The other theme is only of the jewellery itself, but this another way to present the jwellery, depending on the client need.The jewellery was her own and this image is in line with my research on how to photograph jewellery. The light has been reflected here onto Emma.

I have provided an A2 portfolio with the above prints slipped inside. The presentation of these images is to illustrate the final putcome of the workflow, from idea through planning, costing, preplanning of the shoot amnd finally the shoot itself. From there the images have been downloaded and produced and are now set out in the portfolio.

Alex Chamberlain - Southampton Sensation

THIS IS JUST FOR ME TO REMEMBER, NOTHING TO DO WITH THE COURSE

310 - final images and workflow

Listed below are the final images that I have chosen.

310 - Jewellery shoot

I had this brief chosen as I had not carried out this type of work before, and found it to be a challenge and different at the the same time. My initial thought was how as I to carry out this task, so I set out to plan it. First of all I needed to source the jewellery from the client, to match the other half of my brief. Once I had sourced my items I then started to put together a plan. I investigated how to go about this and decided to use a light table with flash lighting, and use the studio, which I subsequently booked. I then refered to my crib sheet (see earlier blog for general crib sheet). Once I had the items and studio I then went about photographing them, both in the studio and at my home studio.
Noted is the estimate for this shoot.

Estimate for Jewellery shoot.

Qty	Description	Rate £	Total £
	Fee for Miriad studio to produce 10 images of selected Jewellery . To be shot on 2 days in a studio, to be licensed as per the agreed contract.	2000.00	2000.00
1	Hire of studio for 1 day	250.00	250.00
1	Hire of additional studio lighting	150.00	150.00
2	Assistant	150.00	300.00
2	Cleaning materials etc	50.00	100.00
3	Post production for 3 days	150.00	450.00
	Cost of picture clipping	50.00	50.00
	Costs of home studio	100.00	100.00
	Additional lighting hire	100.00	100.00
	Other post production costs including printing	100.00	100.00
		Total £	£3600.00

Here are my initial images from my Jewellery shoot, from which I will choose 10. There is a variety of pieces, borrowed form several good trusting ladies, all taken on a light table or light box, but there is another alternative, not used, is what is known as a light cube. The light cube has diffused light (lit from outside the cover), not direct light as I have used for my images. These are the 3 main methods of producing images for this type of product, and they can and do vary by manufacturer, in size and other details.

I have used a variety of styles as well, as personally I do not like the stark bland lighting that is used generally for this type of photography. However I have included for this option. I will now select from these my final 10 images. Further below I have included some images that I have seen and been interested in, but when I came to do my own I changed the images that I had in my mind to suit the material I had and to show the different ways that jewellery can be shown. Each type of image will reflect on how the brief appears and is required, and to the use the image is to be put to.

The images below were taken in the college studio on a light table, with varying lighting and f stops to record the image. One of the main issues I had with using the light table at college was that the surface of the table was very damaged and scratched, which meant that quite alot of post production work had to be done to sort this out. It would not have been to much of a problem(apart from a professional point of view) if the image had been due to be sent for what is known as picture clipping, as the image would then be isolated from the background. For my home studio I used a light box, but this was only powered by a small set of bulbs. it is meant to view slides and suchlike but did allow me to produce some acceptable images.
The use of my 50mm lens has produced some very good images including allowing me to adjust better for the depth of field given the size of the apertures used. When using my home studio I used my 24 to 105mm lens so as to be able to get a little closer to my subject given the small area to work with, and I found it easier to use in this situation, and I got the right results. I have now ordered my own light table so that I can continue with this type of work.

The images below are for discussion and have little or no work done to the image, except to change them to JPG from RAW. This is the initial sort of some of the images I took.
In all cases each image was taken with a Canon 5D MKII.

f5.6-1/125-ISO=100-50mm lens-AWB

This was the first image I took and I like the lighting on this rather than plain white background.

f5.6-1/125-ISO=100-50mm lens-AWB  but with lighting adjusted

I have changed the lighting and this does give a different view of the necklace. The above is a better representation of the necklace from my point of view. But this view does have merit for display purposes and it is down to personal preference. 

f5.6-1/125-ISO=100-50mm lens-AWB

This is a different necklace with the same lighting as above.

f5.6-1/125-ISO=100-50mm lens-AWB

A slightly more subtle lighting was used for this watch image to cope with the reflections.

f5.6-1/125-ISO=100-50mm lens-AWB

using 2 watches as a pair.

f10-1/125-ISO=100-50mm lens-AWB

Separate watch.

f10-1/125-ISO=100-50mm lens-AWB

th other separate watch

f10-1/125-ISO=100-50mm lens-AWB

a necklace with the same lighting along with a bracelet

f10-1/125-ISO=100-50mm lens-AWB

A slightly different type of necklace with a slightly brighter lighting

The lighting here was quite bright as I was trying to aviod much post production.

f5.6-1/125-ISO=100-50mm lens-AWB

these are ideal for picture clipping exercise.

The following images were taken using a small light box and stand alone flash units in my home studio - the dining room table.

f14-1/160-ISO=400-105mm lens-AWB

These hand images are an experiment to see how the items look.

f13-1/160-ISO=400-65mm lens-AWB

f18-1/160-ISO=400-105mm lens-AWB

f14-1/160-ISO=400-105mm lens-AWB

These are 2 images of the same brooch, but showing the back and front.

f18-1/160-ISO=400-105mm lens-AWB

f13-1/160-ISO=400-105mm lens-AWB

Below are sample images I have seen that have given me some idea of how to present and meet the brief, with different lighting styles and presentation methods.

There is evidence here that this image has been clipped so as to make it available for many different uses in advertising.

This image may have been "produced" a clipped image on a different background and a reflection added.

This may have been taken on alit background as the shadow is quite subtle, as are some on my images above.

Difficult to work out if this is a "produced" image

this shows several varieties of how to present the product.

This is another way to present the item, but can only be used in this one context. Unless the item is to be clipped as well.

With jewellery the image can be used in many forms and in many types of advertising, and therefore there is a system for isolating the image from the background that it has been upon. This is called picture clipping, which is a technique used to draw around the image. This is usually done over the Internet by a specialist firm, as it is quite an involved job. Below is an illustration of this technique.
Generally Jewellery is photographed on a plain background and shot for multiple use, as the article can then be used in a variety of ways, eg in magazines, on a web site, on a poster, and be placed on a large selection of backgrounds, as the client wants.

I visited the V&A recently and I show below some images of Jewellery that I saw, and the way that they display them.All the images are as shot with no adjustment except to reduce the size and change to jpg.

This jewellery is displayed in the new section of the V&A, and is very impressive in it's layout. The lighting is very subdued and each article is individually lit, but contained in a glass case.

This is a splendid glass necklace dispayed in the same area. This was photographed in a glass case.

This is part of a display of modern Jewellery in a seperate part to the new gallery. It is a modern piece and I have included the disply images as well, but all behind glass

This is in the same section as above and shows another necklace, with a photograph showing how it is worn, incase you are unsure!

This is a bracelet, based on the same comments as above.

These are shots of the display cases showing the way the items are displayed in the shop.

There will be a separate item to explain the final 10 images and how I came to the conclusions that I have come to.