For Christmas this year, Brian got me a monitor color calibrator. Honestly, these things always seemed like a luxury item to me, and while I wanted one more than I wanted a new lens for my camera (let’s face it, I barely switch between the two I have now), I didn’t think he’d actually get me one.
Not only that, he got me the professional version, like real photographers use.
I love it. I love that I can finally be confident in my color, so what I am seeing on screen is how it would be printed with professional services. I love that it adjusted my brightness for me based on the lighting around me in the room (I am sure I had it way too high).
The result is subtle — maybe you wouldn’t know that I had made color adjustments, though I haven’t posted many photos since the change. But I am certain that I notice it, and that my photos in particular won’t be way too dark, which seemed to happen when I got them printed.
Before you say that this seems like an extraneous purchase for an amateur photographer, I will take a moment to remind those of you who dealt with me while I was planning my wedding and my issues with color and matching. I have a little bit of a problem with this. It is why I will forever purchase furniture sets, rather than eclectic pieces put together like they do in HGTV homes. It’s just my thing.
But I do feel like I need to step up my photography as a result. I need to play more with manual mode. Would you believe me if I told you I use a program mode that is automatic with an ISO limit so my photos won’t be too grainy? All the work happens on editing front, and I am not sure that’s a good thing, even if I can still get reasonably good results.
So far, the picture a day project is continuing, though I haven’t uploaded in a while. Right now, the photography is taking a back seat to actually just dealing with the day to day, so I haven’t made any progress in taking better photos thus far. Right now, a huge part of my day is focused on not eating too much. Did you know that when you restrict your calories, you feel hungry all the time? It makes a food loving lady sad…
Have a happy weekend everyone. Winter has come back to Cleveland (finally) so we’re hoping to take pictures in the snow this weekend again. Also, Brian’s dad’s birthday was this week, so we’re celebrating with pizza tonight. One slice for me.