CHAPTER 12 HOW COMPUTERS AND PRINTERS CREATE PHOTOGRAPHS^185
In visual perception a color is almost never seen as
it really is—as it physically is. This fact makes color
the most relative medium in art.
Josef AlbersYOUdon’t get exhibited in the Guggenheim, as Josef Albers did, unless you know a little about color. But you
don’t have to know as much as Albers, who literally made a career out of painting the same squares different colors.
To experience the capriciousness of color, all you have to do is twiddle with the controls for your computer monitor.
Turn off all the lights in the room, and call up the screen that lets you adjust brightness, contrast, gamma, and the
amounts of red, blue, and green used to create all—remember that—allthe colors of the universe. Now display any
of several test screens for adjusting color. You’ll find a good assortment on one of Norman Koren’s pages
(http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html) and at the Digital Dog (http://www.digitaldog.net/
tips/index.shtml), where you’ll also find an excellent collection of articles on all the pesky aspects of color. Adjust
the screen so that what should look white looks as white as you can get it. You can use only your eyes and best
judgment.
Now turn off the first monitor and if you have another monitor handy, hook it up and repeat the procedure. If you
don’t have a second computer monitor, try the screen on a laptop, even a TV—whatever you can find in place of the
test screen. When you’re done, put the two test screens next to each other, and turn them on. The chance of white
looking exactly alike on both screens is about the same as that of photographing a masterpiece by running your
delayed shutter timer and tossing your camera in the air.
The problem is this: Us. We humans have a remarkable ability to know what color something shouldbe and then
convince to ourselves that we see is what we think we should be seeing. Any photographer already knows about this.
That’s why there are different types of film for indoors and outdoors and white balance adjustments on digital cam-
eras. Most photographers have by now accepted that trick of the universe and learned how to deal with it. The trou-
ble is that digital camera image sensors, monitors, scanners, and printers each have their own alternate universe,
although they’re called something else: color spaces. A color space includes each and every hue, shade, and inten-
sity that particular equipment can capture or reproduce. Of course, no one color space matches any other color
space. A color space for just one device might not match itself over time. The color spaces change as phosphors
fade, and paper yellows, and pigments settle. What it comes down to is this: If you want your photograph to display
the same colors you saw when you snapped the picture or the same color on your screen when you Photoshopped it,
check out this chapter to get an idea of all that’s involved in making white white.