Should you do your own color correcting?

FACT: 1 out of 255 women and 1 out of 12 men have some form of color vision deficiency.

I recently was linked to this test on the Xrite website... I used Xrite for years in photo labs. Basically it is the industry standard in color correction. In a lab you use calibrations and tools from Xrite to make sure your printing colors correctly (and that the chemicals being used where within correct specs because that effects color)

This was really interesting to me, knowing what I do about Xrite, and how people see color differently. Now with so much editing going on before your prints even make it to a lab... people are experiencing a whole slew of new quality issues!

Computer screens are not always "true" or balanced for color corrections - if you do a lot of editing you should really look into finding a color balance tool for your computer. But even more of the issues being seen from labs are - people issues. I know shocker right?

So many people adjust color and density (light/darkness of a print) when they have no experience, training or knowlage of what makes a good print!  It really begs the question... should YOU be making those color corrections - or should you be taking your images to a professional to do it for you!

That is what this test is all about!

I LOVED it! I will tell you I took the test with one eye because all of a sudden my right contact is the wrong prescription.. and that eye is seriously blurry...I forgot to put in my other contact this morning, making it hard to sit and type much less do detail work with color! But I am happy to report I still scored a 18 (lower being better 0 being perfect the highest being 1520) without putting much effort into it at all.. for some reason I was thinking it was a speed drill (like the pro tests I used to take) rather then just a color test. But WHOOHOO! It makes me want to do it again and without the speed pressure!

So do you want to know if you have what it takes to color correct your own images?

http://www.xrite.com/custom_page.aspx?PageID=77&Lang=en


Let me know how you do!