Khromagery

Colour Management

Modern colour management technology lets us maintain accurate colour throughout the digital imaging workflow, from capture to print. One of the services Khromagery provides is consulting and education in colour management, and we sell some related hardware products to our clients. We have been working with the practice and theory of colour management for many years (existing customers include professional photographers, photo labs, camera clubs, amateur photographers, and tertiary colleges) and have the expertise and equipment required to get you set up.


The first and most important step in managing colour with ICC profiles involves having an accurate and up-to-date colour profile for your monitor, and using profile aware software (e.g. Photoshop, Lightroom, etc). To maintain the colour control through to prints needs accurate profiles for the printer(s). If you're using a lab they should provide those for you, but if you're printing to your own printer then that's somethign for you to sort out.

We can provide the following products/services. If you have more-complicated needs, please contact us.

Printer profiling

We can generate custom profiles for your home printer, or in fact any printer you send RGB data to. You carefully print out specific test patterns, post them to us, and we email the resulting profiles back to you. For full details, see this page.

One pair of A4 test patterns (a total of 918 colour patches) is used to generate profiles for most papers.

With some printers it is possible to implement colour management for CD/DVD printing. If you're interested in doing this, see this page.

Monitor calibrators
Having up-to-date profiles for your monitors is the lynchpin of a good colour workflow.
We can provide Huey and Spyder2express calibrators if you want something "cheap and simple", and Eye-One Display 2 and Spyder2PRO calibrators if you're serious about your colour. We use and recommend the Eye-One Display 2.
Projector profiling

If you have a data projector and attached computer (e.g. laptop) we can profile them for you on-site. We usually use an Eye-One Beamer when calibrating projectors. If you have a Spyder2PRO monitor calibrator you can do this yourself, but with the Spyder2PRO it's an awkward and slow process involving running a USB cable out to the Spyder2 mounted on a tripod just in front of the projection screen (which doesn't work in large venues).

The lot

With this service we visit your premises for 4 hours, and in this time:

  • Work with you to set up your studio environment for optimal colour work. This includes looking at the lighting and monitor placement.
  • Calibrate and profile your monitor(s) either using your own calibrator, with one we supply, or with our own equipment as a one-off (although it is highly recommended that you get your own and regularly recalibrate the monitor).
  • Profile your printer with your favourite paper. At the end of this you will have custom profiles for two configurations, and be familiar with obtaining and installing additional profiles. The charge for any additional printer profiles generated as part of an on-site visit is discounted by 10%.
  • Generate a custom profile for your reflective flatbed scanner.
  • If you have a data projector set up, the calibration & profiling of this can be done during the on-site visit.

With all these profiles in place we will show you how to achieve consistent and accurate colours when processing your photography.


Prices and Ordering

Payments can be made by cheque or money order (in Australian Dollars), by credit card, or by direct deposit. The "Add to Basket" options below will build up a shopping basket with PayPal, with which you can pay with credit cards or other PayPal funds. For the other payment options, see our payments page.

Monitor calibrators (shipping is $15 within Australia)
X-Rite Eye-One Display 2 AU$400 +shipping
Eye-One Display 2 rental
This service only available in Melbourne (credit card imprint required).
If you order an Eye-One Display when you return the rental unit (not a week later) the rental fees are credited towards the purchase price: "try before you buy".
$50/day
$80/weekend
ColorVision Spyder2PRO AU$390 +shipping
ColorVision Spyder2express AU$155 +shipping
Upgrade a Spyder2express to a Spyder2PRO AU$280 +shipping
Huey AU$140 +shipping
Printer profiles
Colour profiles
Instructions
AU$60 each
B&W profiles AU$40 each
Services
Colour Management Setup ("The lot")
 Profile monitors, scanners, data projector,
 two printer profiles
AU$350 (4-hour onsite visit)
Calibrate a data projector AU$180 (onsite visit)
AU$40 for each additional computer
Belt of Venus
Belt of Venus near Kosciusko

Our studio is located in Box Hill (a suburb of Melbourne, Vic). The above "onsite" services can be conducted at your premises, up to 30 minutes drive from our base. More travel is possible, but would incur an additional charge.

The above prices all include GST.

Unless otherwise noted, all text and images on this website are Copyright 2006-2008 Khromagery and may not be used for any purpose without prior consent.