burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Neutral color balance can be achieved at very reasonable expense. A monitor calibration kit and some knowledge are the keys to nearly all of it. My satisfaction is in knowing that I have control over color and tone, and reasonably can be sure my work will at least look as intended on *most* devices. I no longer print much, but since I don't like the wasted time and expense of reprinting or reordering a lab print, calibration is the way I stay efficient and avoid dissatisfaction.

As I learned from working in the lab, it's almost never the lab's fault that a customer gets bad color. We were gracious and let them THINK it was our fault — the first time. After that, we had a conversation about calibration and profiling, white balance and post-processing... We believed in customer education at our seminars and sales meetings. It made us quite a few loyal clients.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

You can go on and on, but it won't change my mind.
Haven't had a recipient complain yet.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

The good 2700K LEDs (Cree, Philips...) are similar to incandescents, below about 100-Watt incandescent equivalent. Cheap LEDs aren't.

I prefer LEDs for most applications. We got rid of about 50 incandescent lamps around our house several years ago. LED lights use about 1/6 of the power that we did before the switch from incandescents. I think there are a couple of incandescents in the attic, but they are seldom used.

Good 5000K LEDs really look great around textiles and food.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

You have no control over what people use at home.
I prefer the warm LEDs but others might not or buy whatever is in the store.
So the point is no matter how lab perfect a print is in controller viewing of the lab, at home it is a wild hodge podge of lighting and paint and furniture and other wall hangings all making each room completely different as far as color. Even the direction you face in the room or what corner or center can vary color viewing.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

cahale Loc: San Angelo, TX

Do you expect to view/display your photos in a dark environment? Go from there. Besides, working with a monitor in a darkened room is not terribly good for your eyes. You do want to avoid reflections and glare, of course.

one_eyed_pete Loc: Colonie NY

If you calibrate your monitor with a external device like a Spyder the procedure will tell you not to have room light directly hitting the screen. The device measures the ambient light at the monitor and advise the recommended screen brightness setting. When the editing room lighting is brighter, the monitor is typically set brighter meaning prints you make or send out will be darker than you viewed them on your monitor which is backlit. I edit in a room usually darkened. I have a small spotlight turned to the side of my desk so as not to reflect on the monitors but provide enough diffuse light so I can see the keyboard and anything else on the desk. The majority of people have monitor brightness way too bright to give the image more pop (like in stores). Then they complain prints are too dark and manually fiddle with calibrated printers so the prints look better.

Dennis833 Loc: Australia

To do accurate editing you need to keep your room light level and colour temperature stable. I use a very diffused 5000K fluorescent tube. My walls are painted grey and the window are blocked out when editing.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Not gonna happen at my place.....

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Back in the "C" Print days maintaining color rcorrectness and density was quite the job. We had two "standards" to be concerned about. At the time, I was submitting lots of prints to varis competitions (PP of A., etc) where the trend was to "print down for more saturation and highlight detail- very dramatic. The entry firms specified a light eleven ad colrtemperture. If I gave a part like this to a client it would usually be considered too dark.

I did and still do many large portraot for corporate and institutional display. Sometimes the board room or lobby is expertly lighted to accommodate the permanent display. Other times they are very problematic. The could be recessed lights that wash down the walls but do not illuminate the prints and what's worse, they cast shadows from the frames. In some cases, I advise them to install track lights or "eyeball fixtures" at a good angle or incidence and distance to ligh the prints with reflections. Someof the government offices have an old dusty kind of board room- impressive wood panelig but tha haven't changed the ligh bulbs since 1944 (when I was born). I would joke that they still have Edison's original lamps in the sockets. It only takes one maintenance person to screw in a new light bulb but it is the GOVERNMENT- the paperwork is insurmountable! It has to be done by a certified electrician- after all, I do not want to be responsible for burning down a 250-year-old building! In one case we attaced old-fashioned picture lights to the frames but here were no outlets in the stone walls.

Modern buildings have better-designed lighting but some of the LEDs are extremely bright and visibally harsh and cold- like those newfangled headlights (not good).

We calibrate our monitors, printers and everything else but there are still vaitables. For commercial work for lithograph printing- so far so good- no complaints. Sometimes, with a new client, we run a few tests to see if our systems are somewhat compatible and, if required, we can make a few adjustments on big jobs.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Correct. But if you’re running a lab or presenting content to the general public, it makes sense to have a reference point of accurate color reproduction. If color balance is all over the color wheel, it becomes very noticeable, in a negative way.

Maybe I want a particular scene to be amber or blue biased, but if so, I want it to a controlled degree. And if a set of six scenes captured in the same place has six different color balances, it seems a bit amateurish.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

True enough, we can't account for or predict the display environment of every portrat we make or what is going to eventually happen to every file we submit for advertising reproduction. All we can do is try to accommodate each client by advising the best lighting or method of display. There is also the matter of preventing damage or fading of images due to light sources with high UV content or ones that generate excessive heat.

The corporate or institutional portraits we produce, especially the oes printed on Canva, are considered "poor man's" oil paintings (budget-wise) and of course, the are no oil paintings that do not necessarily have the same longevity as paintings. In these portraits, we are mostly concerned with accurate and pleasing skin tones and accurate color rendition of uniforms, decorations, other such regalia, and flags. Disply lighing has a great influence on those aspects.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

A. T.

Understood. I will probably get a small stand alone lamp to place in the corner of my editing room and place a 5000K daylight bulb in it for some light.