This is consistently the most common first question I am asked in my Digital Printing course at www.ppsop.com. This is true even among photographers who understand the need, and have taken the time to calibrate and profile their monitors.

Your monitor is THE device you use to judge the progress of editing your images and preparing them for printing. Unfortunately, you cannot rely on your eyes to calibrate and profile it for good colour reproduction; your eye-brain visual system is just too good at to adapting to different lighting conditions to be a good objective judge of colour. To do this properly, you have to use a good hardware-software calibration tool such as the X-rite Eye-One Display (available from Adorama.com for about $200, (follow this link.)

Even when used properly a monitor calibration and profiling solution like the X-rite is not a big help when it comes to choosing the proper luminance level (brightness level) for your monitor. (see note below) The reason for is that the proper luminance level for your monitor is largely dependent on the illumination level in your work area. If you work under typical residential lighting, you will find that a lower luminance level for your monitor is best. If you work in a typical office environment, a higher luminance level will be needed. What will seem too bright in a darker work area will seem just right when the room illumination is higher (Ever try watching TV in a completely darkened room? Usually we are more comfortable watching TV with at least some room illumination.

So why is the luminance level of your monitor so important? For the simple reason that when it is too high, we tend to adjust our images darker to compensate. When these images are sent to a printer in an otherwise properly colour managed system… dark prints result.

Setting a correct luminance level for your work area

When you calibrate your monitor with a tool like the X-rite Eye-One, you get to choose a target for the luminance of your monitor. This is measured in candelas per square meter (cd/m2), but we will simply refer to it as a “luminance number”. In most residential environments, I recommend a starting target of 110 – 120; in brighter office environments – 140 will be a good starting point. The X-rite will measure and display the luminance number of your monitor… you can then adjust the brightness controls to achieve the target you have chosen.

Once you have completed the process of calibrating and profiling your monitor using the X-rite Eye-One, you still need to determine if the luminance level you have chosen is appropriate for your work area illumination. The easiest way to do this is to check it visually using a step-wedge: an image you can create in Photoshop using a series of squares from pure black through dark grey, such as the one illustrated here (a downloadable version is provided as part of the course).

(Note that all the steps here may appear either as all black in your web-browser, or not; the difference between each step is very subtle, and web-browsers are generally not capable of good colour management). The idea is to load this image into Photoshop, and then turn all the Photoshop UI elements off by hitting the “F” key twice. You will be looking at a pure black screen with the step-wedge image in the center. You should NOT be able to see a difference between the black square (marked with a “0”, on the left) and the background of your monitor. If you can, your luminance level is too high. Dial the brightness down until the black square just merges with the background, and re-profile your monitor. If you can’t see all of the steps to the right of pure black, don’t despair. Many consumer level LCD monitors are not capable of distinguishing between very dark tones. You can try increasing your monitor’s luminance level in an effort to see more of the steps, but just don’t go too far an lose your pure black.

This problem of overly bright monitors has become more of an issue of late as we have all been converting to LCD monitors from the older CRT (tube-type) monitors. LCD monitors are capable of FAR higher luminance levels than any CRT monitor could ever hope for; in fact the latest iMAC monitors are so bright that many people are finding it difficult to get down to anything approaching a reasonable luminance level. There is a shareware utility available known as “shades” which will readjust the video card levels so than your can get down to a reasonable level, but I don’t recommend it for colour critical work as it tends to mess with the tonal gradations of your monitor. If you are having difficulty achieving a reasonable luminance level with your iMAC, the only thing you can do is to boost the ambient illumination in your work area.

from “The Art of Printing and Selling Your Art” at www.ppsop.com

(Note: The X-rite can measure the ambient light in your work area and tell you how far off your work area is from ISO norm 3664 (the international standard for workplace illumination for photography and graphic arts)… the average home will be a long way away off this standard.)

Two of the most common ‘mistakes’ a see among beginning photographers are; shooting at the wrong time of day, and choosing a boring point of view.

The best time of day to shoot pictures is in the warm light of early morning, or late afternoon. Unfortunately, when we travel with family or non-photographer friends we can’t always control the time of day when we will find ourselves in an attractive area. We can however spend a minute or two considering the best vantage point for our images.

Most beginners and casual shooters never go farther than the “tour-bus shot”. You’ve all seen these I’m sure: those pictures that were obviously shot from a standing eye-level position, from the first spot the photographer landed on as they stepped off the “tour bus”.

Boring!

Why not try a different point of view? Drop down on your knees. Look for an elevated vantage point… a flight of stairs or a balcony, perhaps. Is there something interesting you can place in the foreground to provide more visual interest and tell the viewer something more than they would learn from the tour-bus shot?

In and around the neighbourhood of Montmartre in Paris you will find many restaurants, shops, and street vendors selling work by local artists and art reproductions of all types. My original plan on this trip was to visit this area late in the day, and then continue to shoot until well after sunset as the street lights came on. However, an unfortunately timed remark by the desk clerk in our hotel convinced my wife that she wanted no part of being out after dark in this part of Paris; so it was that I found myself in Montmartre around 11 am the next morning.

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But, despite this I was determined to come away with at least a few good images of my visit to this historic neighbourhood.

This picturesque little restaurant Le Consulat”, in Montmartre is one of the most often photographed in Paris and has even “starred” in a number of Hollywood movies. It immediately caught my eye.

The first image above is the basic tour-bus shot. It suffers from a boring point of view and a lot of distracting visual clutter.

In the second image below, figuring that the art reproductions displayed for sale at the shop on the left would make an interesting foreground for a picture, I moved over close to the display, and dropping to my knees, zoomed my lens to its widest-angle setting. This allowed me to compose an image that included the display from an unusual point of view (near street level) and show the restaurant “Le Consulat” as a background element.

The result is a stronger, more interesting image.

Images of places are always made stronger if you look for something interesting to put in the foreground. What makes this image work are the strong lines created by the rows of the art display leading your eye to the buildings in the background. To get this effect I had to get low to the sidewalk to make the display become an important part of the image. You couldn’t shoot this image standing up and shooting at eye level.

The next time you are out with your camera, spend a few extra minutes thinking about where you might find an interesting point of view!

from the Digital SnapShooter’s Guide to Great Pictures at www.ppsop.com”