As many people comment on the colors of images here, those who haven't already, should consider calibrating their monitors. That way, if an image is red; everyone will see the same red, not pink or burgundy (or any number of thousands of shades in between).
Monitors need to be properly calibrated and profiled to accurately display color and tone. ISO standards for digital imaging state that a monitor should have a white balance of 6500K and a gamma of 2.2. The most accurate method of calibration is to use a colorimeter or a spectrophotometer; however these are costly pieces of hardware. The easiest and least expensive methods are:
- Adobe Gamma utility (If you have Photoshop or Elements, found in the Windows Control Panel) (It’s really simple and will walk you through the calibration steps)
- Apple Colorsync utility.
If you don’t have either of these, search the internet for “monitor calibration” and you will find a plethora of fairly accurate color calibration techniques.
Some tips for accurate image editing/viewing:
- Disable screensavers and monitor sleep functions, and wait at least 1 hour after turning on a CRT or 20 min for an LCD before editing images. (To allow the colors to stabilize)
- Re-calibrate at least once a month to ensure accuracy.
- Enable Photoshop's color management (allows devices like a camera, monitor, printer, etc. to “see” the same colors.)
- Work in subdued lighting (no bright, direct light hitting the screen)
NOTE: The monitor will seem awfully yellow at first, once you get used to it, the normal setting of 9300K appears to be way too white.
All of these methods with the exception of the colorimeter and spectrophotometer are not 100% accurate; they are as close as one can get without shelling out a few hundred for a good calibration device.
Monitors need to be properly calibrated and profiled to accurately display color and tone. ISO standards for digital imaging state that a monitor should have a white balance of 6500K and a gamma of 2.2. The most accurate method of calibration is to use a colorimeter or a spectrophotometer; however these are costly pieces of hardware. The easiest and least expensive methods are:
- Adobe Gamma utility (If you have Photoshop or Elements, found in the Windows Control Panel) (It’s really simple and will walk you through the calibration steps)
- Apple Colorsync utility.
If you don’t have either of these, search the internet for “monitor calibration” and you will find a plethora of fairly accurate color calibration techniques.
Some tips for accurate image editing/viewing:
- Disable screensavers and monitor sleep functions, and wait at least 1 hour after turning on a CRT or 20 min for an LCD before editing images. (To allow the colors to stabilize)
- Re-calibrate at least once a month to ensure accuracy.
- Enable Photoshop's color management (allows devices like a camera, monitor, printer, etc. to “see” the same colors.)
- Work in subdued lighting (no bright, direct light hitting the screen)
NOTE: The monitor will seem awfully yellow at first, once you get used to it, the normal setting of 9300K appears to be way too white.
All of these methods with the exception of the colorimeter and spectrophotometer are not 100% accurate; they are as close as one can get without shelling out a few hundred for a good calibration device.