Why Colour Accuracy Matters in Photography

As a professional landscape photographer, achieving accurate colours in my images is important for maintaining consistency across devices and platforms. It's also of paramount importance when printing. Whether I'm producing fine art prints, submitting to galleries or simply sharing my work online, colour accuracy helps convey my vision faithfully and professionally.

Calibration devices are designed to calibrate the colours of your monitor (or screen) so that they conform to the ICC colour standard (International Color Consortium). As all professional printing labs use this same standard, it means the colours in your images are likely to look almost identical on their monitors as they do on your own (once you've calibrated your own monitor of course). This means that if you send your image to a lab for printing, the colours in the print you receive should look far more accurate than if you hadn't calibrated your monitor. This can save on wasted paper, ink, time and money.

Although I own a few calibrators, my go to device is the Calibrite CCStudio (formerly X-Rite i1Studio) - a compact, all-in-one solution for calibrating my monitor, printer, and even a projector! The Calibrite CCStudio is not cheap but I like it because it not only calibrates your monitor but you can use the same device (and software) to create paper profiles. In this blog, I’ll walk you through how to use the Calibrite CCStudio to calibrate your monitor for colour consistency. In next month's blog, I'll explain how to create paper profiles for print accuracy.

If you're attending one of my Picture2Print workshops, we dive deeper into colour management but for those working from home, I hope this guide helps you take control of your colour workflow with confidence with whatever calibrator you use.

As with all the information I provide on my news pages, my recommendations come from personal experience of using them. Calibrite has not sponsored me in any way!

What You'll Need:

• Calibrite CCStudio device
• Calibrite CCStudio software (download from calibrite.com)
• Your display and/or printer
• A consistent lighting environment

Part 1: Monitor Calibration

Step 1: Install the CCStudio Software

• Download and install the latest version of the Calibrite CCStudio software from the official website.
• Restart your computer if prompted.

Step 2: Connect the CCStudio Device

• Plug the CCStudio colourimeter into a USB port on your computer.
• Launch the CCStudio software and select “Display Calibration” from the main menu.

Step 3: Select Your Display Type

• Choose the type of display you are calibrating (e.g., desktop or laptop screen).
• If you're using a dual-monitor setup, select the screen you want to calibrate (they will be named).

Step 4: Adjust Display Settings

• The software may ask you to adjust your display’s brightness, contrast, and colour temperature manually. A bar will appear with a green tick when the calibrator senses the correct monitor brightness (120 cd/m²).
• Aim for a white point of D65 (6500K) and a gamma of 2.2, which are industry standards for photography. If you choose the 'Photography' setting this will already be set.

Step 5: Place the Device on Your Screen

• Follow the on-screen instructions to position the device flush against the monitor. Most monitors allow the CCStudio to hang over the top edge using its built-in counterweight.
• Ensure the room lighting is dim or consistent to avoid glare.

Step 6: Start the Calibration

• The software will flash a series of coloured patches on your screen (120 in total) while the device measures them.
• This takes around 5–10 minutes.

Step 7: Save and Apply Profile

• Once complete, save the new ICC profile with an appropriate filename (I tend to add the date, the name of the calibrator and my initials so I can recognise it's my own profile).
• The software may offer a comparison between the “before” and “after” views (which can be an eye opener).

Tip: Although the software recommends the option to remind you to recalibrate every 1, 2, 3 or 4 weeks, I have not found this necessary. Once every six months to a year is more than ample in my opinion.