When did you first understand the importance of color to the photographic process?
Actually it wasn’t until about year into running my business did I really get an appreciation of colour in its entirety. I create a lot of black and white imagery, and of course, this still needs colour managing. Sending my images out to labs to print was proving problematic until I started really investigating colour calibration and profile solutions.
What is the most important aspect of color management that an aspiring photographer should know?
I think it’s very easy to think that “filters” or “pre-sets” will do the colour management for you. It’s important to understand that even if you are using a 3rd party tool to finish the image, the colour management needs to be done accurately beforehand to ensure consistency throughout.
Give an example of the ways in which a solid knowledge of color management (or an accurate color environment) helped you – on a project? In a consultancy situation?
I’m lucky enough to have had my work displayed around the world and in particular at several exhibitions in Tokyo. Fujifilm will often request images of mine to print at very high sizes (three meters wide in some cases). In these situations, its imperative that I have a good understanding of how my image will look both in the digital displays, and the printed displays. In situations like this, Fujifilm will appreciate, and benefit from, a strong colour management procedure at my end.
How important are the latest color management tools in today’s industry? Why?
In a world where everybody is connected and everything is shared, it is so important to make your work stand out from the masses. Part of this opportunity is with the colour management. It is remarkably easy to use colour management tools across all our hardware and as professionals I think it should be a natural part of our workflow.
What does the (near) future hold for the photo industry, in your opinion? Do you think color management will be more or less important – why?
I think we will continue to see an increase in the appreciation of images from the “general public”. The Instagram generation, whilst sharing casually, have by inference, a greater understanding of the aesthetics of a picture. As we move forward, more and more people will become more phot-literate and the devices and techniques we use to share and distribute our images will become smaller, quicker and more affordable.
How is color management related to your artistic process?
Colour management is so important to me from an artistic point of view as I always want my imagery printed and shared. My work will often end up in a lustre album and if I don’t manage my colour procedures correctly those images will look incorrect, which will have a negative force on my brand and business.
Do you see color management as an advantage for saving money?
Absolutely. It makes sense to get procedures in place to manage colour correctly. From saving money on test prints, to simply saving time.