Pro tricks for mastering colour
The Professional Photoshop Book 21
EVEN WHITE NEEDS WORK
Perhaps surprisingly, Jon Westwood says that one of
his most challenging images in terms of colour
management was Winter Town, an image that is
largely white. This was because “the tones and values
needed to reflect the conditions of the environment in
the painting, but also needed to be manipulated into
what I wanted the viewer to experience from it. In this
case, even though the painting would depict a harsh,
cold snowstorm, I wanted the viewer to feel warm
when they imagined themselves there. This was
achieved mostly through atmospheric perspective and
colour temperature.”
“Colours are very much associated with
temperature; reds, yellows, and oranges
describing a warmer temperature and violets,
blues, and cool greens describing cooler
temperatures. It was very important in this piece
to give the illusion of cool colours, while notactually including any, which I think helped to produce
the feeling of cosiness in an otherwise harsh
environment. As long as colours are seen in relation to
one another, and stay within the predetermined colour
gamut, a warm colour like a reddish-grey can look like a
cool green if it’s placed adjacent to a bunch of very warm
colours that look white (like the greenish area of snow in
the bottom right).”
Westwood also uses atmospheric perspective, which
is “the perception of objects as they approach the
background as a result of the atmosphere they’re placed
in. In this case, the build-up of snow in the air helps to
establish a very discernible atmospheric gradation. I
flattened warm tones and values as the foreground
receded, steadily transitioning them into a single tone
neutral grey, which in combination with the change of
warm colours in the foreground to cooler colours in the
background helped to achieve that illusion.”USE A HOOD
The missing link, once you have taken control of
the colour calibration of your monitor and printer,”
notes X-Rite’s Simon Prais,” is the conditions
under which you are viewing your screen and the
illumination of your physical prints. Professional
top grade monitors tend to include a monitor
hood – this is for a good reason, the surrounding
light and reflections will affect what you see. Also,
a hood creates a tunnel effect resulting the ability
to set the monitor brightness at a lower level
which can provide a more realistic representation
of a print whilst also reducing the risk of eye
strain. If such a monitor is out of budget, it is also
possible to add a monitor hood separately. The PC
Hood is a versatile and sturdy product that fits
most monitors from 15” up to 27” and includes a
cable access space for when connecting a
monitor calibrator.”ALWAYS CHECK
COLOUR SETTINGS
The key consideration when it comes to colour
management is “to determine the primary use of the
final imagery. Is it to be viewed on-screen, online or in
print?” says X-Rite’s Simon Prais. As long as you have
that in mind, colour management can become a simple
check list of considerations that you always have in the
back of your mind. His advises: “1: Select Adobe colour
settings appropriate to your work requirements. 2:
Calibrate your monitor to the suggested default settings
(and your printer if applicable). 3: Compare the screen
display to that of your profiled print, ideally with a hood
on the monitor and a correctly illuminated print. 4: If you
are using a GrafiLite, rather than a professional viewing
booth, adjust the brightness of the monitor to achieve a
comparable contrast display to that of the illuminated
print, this is easiest achieved when using a
monochrome test image. And 5: Recalibrate the
monitor without adjusting the brightness in order to
achieve a colour correct calibration to match the
brightness and contrast of your printed image.”Establish your gamut: “A gamut is a range of
predetermined colours that are used in a painting,” explains Westwood. “Oftentimes good colour choices
in a composition come not just from what is included but from what is left out. Think of it as a small musical
ensemble. If the composition is composed correctly, a trio consisting of a broad range of instruments can
have just as much aesthetic impact as a full orchestra, and can be much more intimate and meaningful”Sky’s the limit: “The eye gets tricked into thinking it’s
looking at a cool colour in a painting completely composed of warm colours,” says Westwood. “That’s
why it was important for the coolest colour in the composition to be a neutral grey (the sky in the
background) rather than an actual blue or green”Hiding your light under a bushel: “The
only truly ‘cool’ colour in the composition is the hidden blue building in the very
centre (actually very near a neutral grey),” says Westwood, “which when
placed next to the warm yellow of the light shining on the building, helps to
push that warmth”Where to work: “I use sRGB colour working space
(rather than Adobe RGB 1998),” says Westwood, “for documents because it provides the best gamut for
both web and print which is where the majority of my work is viewed rather than on specialized monitors. I
have an Asus ProArt monitor that is factory calibrated specifically for digital art”© Jon Westwood© X-RITE© X-RITE016-027 Colour Feature.indd 21 06/10/2015 16:08