Turning 5.

Mary Sparrow · 05-07-2004, 12:10 PM

OK, here the same picture. Does that paper still look blue to you?

Holly Snyder · 05-07-2004, 12:24 PM

Yeah, the image looks the same to me. You probably go the library a lot with your little kids? I would first look at your website on a computer there and see if it looks the same as at home.

Calibrating a monitor can be done in a basic way, by eye, or one can spend the money for a software/hardware package to do it. It'd be cool to be able to do it the latter way, maybe someday! : )

In any case, for the basic way, there should be buttons on the front of your monitor panel. There should be a menu, that will allow you to select the color temperature (usually either 6500K or 9300K), choose what you like best. Also, there are channels for R G B (red green blue), and you can adjust the levels of these. They should be on the factory default settings (check your monitor manual for the settings).

Then if you have Photoshop or Photoshop Elements installed, you can use a program called Adobe Gamma. If you're using windows, it will be in the control panels. Run the program using the wizard, it will guide you step-by-step in calibrating your monitor.

Holly

Kimberly Dow · 05-07-2004, 06:36 PM

Looks blue to me - here is a link someone gave me to calibrate your monitor - you can add this to your website so people can calibrate to your paintings - Dang - be right back with that url
http://members.aol.com/wa8lmf/screencal/screencal.htm

Garth Herrick · 05-08-2004, 12:42 AM

Mary,

I took your JPEG image into Photoshop to convert the blue paper to brown-green. This gives me a clue to the way your pastel really looks.

It looks fine to me. All the browns, pinks and oranges are stronger, and the shirt is less bluish.

I would check like others said whether your monitor needs any color calibration. I know mine is pretty reliable, and the paper color appeared a soft and muted blue green.

Garth

Mary Sparrow · 05-08-2004, 07:05 AM

Look at this. I swiped this color chip off of www.finartstore.com (which by the way, has THE BEST color charts for all of the pastels) This is the color the portrait is. Yikes! no wonder everyone keeps telling me how cool things are. I feel like such a dunce that I never really put the two together til now that you weren't seeing it as is!

I think this color chip is pretty accurate, much closer to the real piece of paper than what you are seeing.

I have calibrated my monitor, and I do see more of a bluish tint than I did. But I also think part of the problem is photo itself, I need to figure out what I am doing wrong with this camera.

Garth Herrick · 05-08-2004, 07:12 AM

Hi Mary,

This does look just like the color you described exactly to me.

Garth

Mary Sparrow · 05-08-2004, 07:14 AM

I tried to match the swatch as close to the portrait as I could. Is this better? (now if I could just go back and re-do ALL of the portraits I have submitted

)

Holly Snyder · 05-08-2004, 09:05 AM

Hi Mary,

This looks very nice now, much warmer and more life like.

If the image from your digital camera has this bluish cast to it, it's your white balance. I seem to remember that you just bought a camera, I don't remember what it was though. Check the manual to see if you can set the white balance with a grey card. If you don't already have one, you can buy one from a camera shop for around $10. That should give you the right color cast.

Cheers,
Holly

Jean Kelly · 05-08-2004, 09:08 AM

What a difference! Much better. Check the WB setting first. What settings are you using otherwise? I think we have the same camera, e-mail me and I might be able to help some.

Jean

Mike McCarty · 05-08-2004, 10:45 AM

http://www.camerabugdigital.com/instructions.htm

Mary,

The above link may be of some use to you. It talks about some of the issues you bring up. I found it buried in my photo resource archives.