Hi Connie,
Colour management is a huge challenge for most photographers.
Twenty years ago most photographers would take their films into a lab and rely on the person sitting behind the printer machine to get the colours right. What was interesting then, was that the colours in your print would often vary depending on the operator or the printing machine you got on the day. For that reason, most photographers often requested certain operators print their photographs for them.
Nowadays it is the photographer and not the lab who is in charge of getting the colours in a photograph right; most labs are simply there to print the photos, and it is you, the photographer that has to make sure the colours in the photo are the way you want them before you leave home with the file.
Lots of big books have been written on the subject of colour management, but the best way to ensure the colours in your photographs are going to be consistent from your camera through to the printer is to invest in a colour calibration device… one such device is called a ColorMunki.
During calibration this device is stuck onto the computer screen using suction cups and it looks at a series of colours being generated by a test program. The program then relies on feedback from the ColorMunki to adjust the colours to what they should be. Once you have run the calibration, the blacks, whites and grays in a black and white photo should appear neutral, and warm tones, like in this sunset picture should appear pleasingly warm.
There are a few different colour calibration devices about but I think soon you might be able to buy a device called a ColorMunki Smile… it is a consumer level device that should be more affordable than some of the other devices on the market.
As for this image… I think the colour looks good for the moment… about the only adjustment I would like to make to it is to change the cropping from horizontal to square.
Cheers for now, Anthony.
Image Doctor's edited version
