Today I received the October / November Prescott Woman magazine. Very cool, not only did I have the cover image for this issue, but several other images were also included in the pages.
I was a little concerned about the cover color quality before sending along my image to the magazine. I’ve noted the covers are a little “muted” in my mind. So, there was a touch of concern. And sure enough, the proof I did here with my calibrated monitors and printer is a good distance from the final product.
Now, this is not to complain. Not all presses out there are hard core about color quality. And that means something to photographers, painters, and any other artistic folks who reproduce their work through print and press companies. You want your work represented as you created it. Anything else is not a meaningful representation of what you do.
In my case I’ve found the inside pages to be better on color quality, but not right on it. My hope though is that folks who see the images will stop by my website, or better yet stop by the studio. Once again, you can’t control other people’s monitors. If they’re not calibrated properly then potential clients still don’t get a total feel for the quality of a photographer’s work. Recently I calibrated a customer’s monitor, and the before and after quality was light years apart. They were amazed! And they understood why their prints never looked like what they saw on screen.
The lesson? Find a great reproduction specialist for those important images. Don’t rely on the quick and cheap. Color quality is so important presenting your work. Come see me when you’ve got that all important image that’s got to be right on it! 🙂