Photographs are a means to capture moments of this world. In reproduction or printing of these photographs, lab calibration is an important factor to be able to get prints of the best integrity.



Have you ever tried to printing or reproducing a photograph you took digitally only to find out that the print out lacks the luster and sharpness as compared to the image you see on your liquid crystal display monitor? In instances like this, you will clearly need the help of a professional through photo lab calibration.

The difference in reproduction output from the image you see on your screen is due to the fact that your monitor and printer are not calibrated to print the image in the best quality. If you calibrate your LCD monitor, it can provide you with a realistic simulation of what you would see on paper once the image has been printed.

There is a simple calibration method wherein you don't need the help of a professional for photo lab calibration. You simply have to manipulate and adjust your screen's output through its contrast and brightness settings. If in case this method does not work, you can use a special software that will calibrate your monitor, printer and other devices related to imaging and reproduction so that you can get more or less the same results in all of these devices. The use of this special calibrating software will give you lab calibration quality in your process of reproduction.

A lot of people can get stuck with just calibrating their monitor. This step is not enough though and you must calibrate not only your monitor, but your printer, scanner and even your camera so that you can achieve consistent imaging across all devices. This calibration across all devices is something that a professional photo lab does. This is why professionally reproduced images are able to maintain the clarity and vibrancy of the images you took. If the idea of calibrating your own monitor and other devices seem like a hassle, you can always just entrust your reproductions in the capable hands of a professional with their lab calibrated tools and processes. Although if you want the ease and control of being able to do your own reproductions and printing, it is quite easy to have your own home set up with lab calibrated tools to be able to get the most out of your captured images.

Color calibration is the process of adjusting the colors of your monitor and computers to fit the color of the printer that you will be using. Believe it or not, not all the colors that you see on screen will be the colors that will appear on the printer paper. Although of course the color will not change, the shade will either be lightened or darkened depending on the printer used.

How do you manage the color?

The first thing that a person should do when calibrating the color of your monitor screen is to check the device that you are using along with the computer. This include scanning devices, cameras and of course printers. Anything that deal with pictures and colors need to be checked and adjusted. In fact, DVD players and TV Screens are also being calibrated but of course, that's a different story.

Once you have studied the device, create an ICC profile. This involves the transforming of the characteristics into a language that all the devices will be able to understand. Often, this language is based on some mathematical formula that is often adjusted through calibration software. Some, however, adjust the color manually.

The best way to calibrate the color of the screen yourself without having to call a calibrating service is to use a device called the colorimeter. This reads the colors and the brightness of your computer and TV screen. These, however, can be inexpensive and will often require the use of another software. One example of this device is the ColorVision's Spyder PRO monitor calibrating colorimeter, which you can purchase online or in computer retail shops.

Printers are a little bit harder to calibrate since printers print differently. Also, the kind of paper that you will use in printing will also determine the kind of printout that you will have. Sometimes, when using a particular paper, you will have lighter results while another type of paper will produce darker prints.

Calibrating can be really complicated. A series of print outs will have to made and these color patches need to read through a color spectrophotometer. These values will then be compared to standard values.