Posted by Robert Helms on April 28, 2006 at 9:33 AM
I'm curious as to what time of day others work on their images whether for posting on NPN , printing or uploading to your site? I posted an image late last night and felt the colors looked good. Today I viewed some images and now that there is light in my room the colors seem too dull on my own image.
I usually work on my images in a pretty dark room at night with a very dim light from a lamp. My pc room has an east facing window and does get rather bright in the morning time, even with the blind closed.
I can't say they I have a specific time of day to work on images. Really it's whenever I have time for it and how eager I am to process new work. I have experienced the same thing though - working on images in the dark or under artificial light, I often realize they are not quite "right" under standard/natural lighting conditions even when proofed under daylight balanced lamps.
Guy
Posted by Randy Beacham on April 28, 2006 at 12:08 PM
I also tend to work on images at all times of the day. I really work on keeping the ambient light as even as possible by keeping as much sunlight out as I can during the day. Lately I've had problems sleeping all night and have done some late night/early morning work. While the colors seem okay I've found myself making weird mistakes--like supersaturating a photo or even writing down in an image I posted "nikon 5000 scanner" when I was posting a digital capture Not as awake as I thought I guess. Randy
Posted by Robert Helms on April 28, 2006 at 2:07 PM
Thanks guys. I was thinking that most people probally view images online after dark; then it struck me that a lot of us view them while at work during the day. Sadly, I do not get this luxury. I was just wondering how best to please the masses.
The room lighting does greatly change things for me. I think I'll just make myself a dark cloth for my monitor
Do you work in a darkened room when editing and posting?
Do you calibrate your monitor regularly with a tool such as a Pantone Spyder or Monaco Color Monitoring System.
Anytime you have sunlight directly or indirectly hitting the monitor, you will see a slight difference.
I calibrate my monitor at least once a month if not more and I definately draw the shades tight in the day and have a very low light illuminating the room at night. I never have any strong direct light of any sort in my studio/office.
Robert,
I've experienced the same thing you're talking about. My office is windowless, and I used to work on images with hardly any other light in the room. I got many comments on my images that they looked "dark" or "not enough contrast", and I realized that it was at least partly because I got such a different look when I worked on them in a dark room. Now, I generally have a little more light on in the room, and I generally step back, turn on some more lights, and take another look at the image before I post it. You definitely get a brighter image if the only light is what is coming through the image, so I have to increase contrast to account for any other lighting.
Interesting phenomenom.....
Discussion
5 repliesI usually work on my images in a pretty dark room at night with a very dim light from a lamp. My pc room has an east facing window and does get rather bright in the morning time, even with the blind closed.
Thanks
Robert
Guy
The room lighting does greatly change things for me. I think I'll just make myself a dark cloth for my monitor
Question(s)
Do you work in a darkened room when editing and posting?
Do you calibrate your monitor regularly with a tool such as a Pantone Spyder or Monaco Color Monitoring System.
Anytime you have sunlight directly or indirectly hitting the monitor, you will see a slight difference.
I calibrate my monitor at least once a month if not more and I definately draw the shades tight in the day and have a very low light illuminating the room at night. I never have any strong direct light of any sort in my studio/office.
Martin
I've experienced the same thing you're talking about. My office is windowless, and I used to work on images with hardly any other light in the room. I got many comments on my images that they looked "dark" or "not enough contrast", and I realized that it was at least partly because I got such a different look when I worked on them in a dark room. Now, I generally have a little more light on in the room, and I generally step back, turn on some more lights, and take another look at the image before I post it. You definitely get a brighter image if the only light is what is coming through the image, so I have to increase contrast to account for any other lighting.
Interesting phenomenom.....