When did you first understand the importance of color to the photographic process?
I understood the importance of color to the photographic process the very first time I tried to develop a digital negative in my personal computer, the colors didn’t match between camera lcd and monitor… it was very frustrating!
What is the most important aspect of color management that an aspiring photographer should know?
The most important aspect of color management is the correct white balance setting and the monitor plus printer calibration and this is not just for aspiring photographer is exactly the same for worldwide renowned photographers.
Give an example of the ways in which a solid knowledge of color management (or an accurate color environment) helped you – on a project? In a consultancy situation?
I’m working both in studio and location taking b&w and full colors images, I tried very useful to setup correctly white balance point in location above all because my style is to mix ambient light with flash so it’s very difficult to find a good white balance of a orange sunset light mixed up with a daylight balanced flash. A colorchecker will solve this problem in a few seconds and final results will be awesome! Obviously you should have your monitor calibrated and profiled correctly… ;)
Why are you committed to using X-Rite products?
I’m committed to use X-Rite products just because there is nothing better and at the end because I need to manage correctly and accurately my entire workflow.
How important are the latest color management tools in today’s industry? Why?
I think color management tools as a must have for every serious photographer, it doesn’t have any sense to not manage colors in your workflow at this time. Honestly I think that the best improvement it was about price, now almost every serious photographer could afford a complete kit like a Colorchecker passport + Colormunki photo in order to correctly manage the entire workflow profiling camera, set a correct white balance point, calibrating monitor and printer… that’s it, great result on easy way!
What does the (near) future hold for the photo industry, in your opinion? Do you think color management will be more or less important – why?
This is a good question… I think it will depends on sensor manufacturer, speaking about medium format camera Kodak recently sells his sensor manufacturer industry and the only competitor at this time is Dalsa… it would be interesting how they will produce future sensors because color management will be more important in the future, so important that maybe it could be integrated inside the camera, so we could read our target and profile the camera directly without the use of a computer.
How is color management related to your artistic process?
In my case color management related as a good starting point for my artist process, I’m not scared to change colors, skin tones or whatever in order to reach the final goal: a pleasant, good looking image.
Do you see color management as an advantage for saving money?
Absolutely, if you are able to manage colors by yourself you’ll save a lot of money on consultants to fix your workflow’s mismatching problems.