Apollo provides you with a color-calibration kit that will assist you in calibrating your monitor to the Apollo digital printers. An electronic “Shirley” file (Shirley.jpg) is provided. Download the kit, and then call customer service at 800-747-7371 to have a Shirley print sent to you.
We strongly recommend a colorimeter and professional monitor-calibrating software such as Eye-One Display 2 or ColorVision Spyder2Pro. It is the easiest and most accurate way to calibrate all monitors. To calibrate an LCD monitor, you must use professional software.
Set your target white point and gamma curve to 6500 K and gamma 2.2 (gamma 1.8 for Mac). 6500 K is the industry standard for Web viewing. However, the white point of photographic paper is not as bright and a bit warmer, so you may want to use a white point of 5000-5500 K.
After calibrating, you should open the electronic Shirley image (Shirley.jpg) in Photoshop to visually match the print to your monitor. This step helps you double check that your calibration was successful. You may have to adjust the controls on the front of your monitor to match, as closely as possible, the color and density of the Shirley print. The color of the light source you are using to view the print changes how the print appears to you. Most of your customers will view their portraits with a combination of natural and artificial light. You should keep this in mind when viewing the Shirley print.
Calibrate your monitor once every month. Monitors older than three or four years might may not calibrate accurately enough to use for color correcting. |