Summary: Photo printers. Printing photos from digital camera files requires some knowledge of the printing process and the basic terminology involved. In layman terms PORTRAITSECRETS explains monitor calibration, color space, ICC profiles, color gamuts and photo workflow issues and what they mean to you.

    Words like color space, ICC profiles, calibration and workflow can overwhelm photographers at all levels of skill and experience.

    Getting a grip on the terminology of the digital photography world can be confusing, but there are many sources available

This is a color chart rendering and is not to be used for calibration purposes.

• Color management  In the old days of film there were transparency films like Kodachrome, Ektachrome, Fujichrome that produced screaming colors on the pages of international publications. Development of negative films like Vericolor, Ektapress and Fujicolor  captured the colorful hues of people, faces, expressions and the lush details of scenic landscapes. The process of developing the films and the printing process, chemical in nature, rendered an accurate portrayal of the subject. Sometimes, the film itself, through advances made possible by the magic of chemistry, rendered the subject and their surroundings in even richer hues and tones of cyan, magenta and yellow. Now, in the digital realm, you or your photofinisher have to do much of that rendering yourself. That process of controlling the hues, tones, contrast, sharpness and saturation is called color management.

• Monitor calibration  Justification for calibrating your monitor is easy. To produce quality photographic prints from your system you must be able to trust the monitor's ability to render color information accurately. State of the art calibration software is available for under $300 and Adobe Photoshop includes a calibration system (Adobe Gamma) that is less reliable but still better than no calibration. A simplistic explanation of calibration is that the process establishes a white point, black point and adjusts the monitor's gamma.

• ICC profiles  Profiles established by the International Color Consortium are in the form of tables that define the color space rendered by devices. These devices are broken into three categories: input devices (digital cameras/scanners), display devices (monitors) and output devices (printers). Mathematic computations establish the color valuations and their nuance. In simple terms the ICC profile establishes the value of blue, as an example. Not the blue you see in the sky, but the math equivalent of blue displayed in any of the three aforementioned devices. These profiles, that capture all colors in the visible spectrum, reduce the trial and error method of printing photos to get the results you want in the finished product.

• Color gamut  Gamut is the range of color from the vivid red hues to the deepest and most saturated violets of the visible light spectrum. Gamut is defined as the range of color your printer will print and color that your printer will not print. For instance, the information toolbox in Adobe Photoshop displays a triangular box with an exclamation point  when color is included in a photo that will not print. That warning is a result of the gamut attached to the printer profile. This may explain why colors displayed on your monitor do not print well on your home computer printer.

• Color space  Much of the explanation of gamut (above) is included in the explanation of color space. Color space can be determined in cameras, scanners and monitors and is important in determining output in the form of prints and even internet display.

  An example of color space using the primary red, green and blue circles. At points of intersection cyan, magenta and yellow are visible.

  For example, internet display falls within the sRGB color space. So, if your primary use is the internet, your camera/scanner should be set in the sRGB color mode, if your camera/scanner allows adjustment. On the other hand, if your photos are going to be printed, the Adobe II RGB mode is best, again, if your camera/scanner allows adjustment in the color mode.  Establishing the color space of your monitor and printer to optimize production is step forward in workflow management.

• Workflow management  All aspects of your photography from camera equipment cleaning and maintenance to printing photos is part of the workflow. Consistency in handling digital photo files for printing and eventual storage reflects directly on you, so establishing a system that works well for you is important.