Colour management is one of the cornerstones of digital photography, it is also one of the most misunderstood. Some photographers are experts, some try to ignore the subject, some don't seem to have heard of it, others have read about it on forums or blogs and (kind of) get it. Years ago when our lab went digital, we brought in the experts to help set up our systems and get the best results from our printers. This relationship was not a one-date wonder. Ian and Jessica from NZ Colour Management have consulted to us regularly ever since. One thing's certain. If you use our print-ready service you need a cm system too, at least if you want a reasonably accurate idea of how your prints will look BEFORE you send us the files! First you need a device to calibrate your screen. If you don't know what colours it's putting out, there's literally no way to know what the prints will look like from those images you're editing. We use the X-Rite I1 product, but the Spyder also has a very good reputation. The real issue is understanding how the equipment works, and how to use it regularly to get the best out of your screens etc. Training is the essence for this and again my advice would be to bring in the experts. Let's be honest, you can change the oil and water in your car, but if the timing is out you call a mechanic. The next step is to use your calibrated screen to soft proof your images as you edit them. This is the process your software uses to emulate the look of the final print. To do so you'll need our ICC profile. Use it for is soft-proofing only. Don't Convert or Assign: the files you send should be Adobe 98 or SRGB, nothing else. Also important is your working environment is, but I'll save that for next time! Meantime here's a link to our Knowledgebase articles on colour management. They're a straightforward introduction to the principles as they apply to photographers. Tell us what you think. Here's the next in the series. Cheers, Pete PS What if you're using our full colour service? In that case we do the colour correcting, of course, but it's still really handy for you to have a colour management system set up, as above, so you can see the true colours in your files as we will see them.