Curiosity...

[Michael Cardenas]

I read somewhere that it would benefit me to buy monitor calibrating software and a colorimeter. My goal right now is to become a freelancer or get a steady part-time job in the photography industry. For those of you that have experience, will it be necessary to buy these products or will I be able to develop a quality portfolio without them?

 

[Solarflare]

Well ... that really depends upon the work in question.

Fashion, portraiture, anything in which exact color output matters: yes, definitely. Get a great monitor (and printer), get it color checked, and also use a color checker whenever you can.

Reportage, event photography, sports, ... - not really. You'll probably be fine with a decent monitor. Reporters specifically use a straight flash on the camera (very poor lighting, but this way you get the shot), use only JPEG instead of RAW, often dont edit their photos at all (IIRC Reuters for example demands OOC JPEGs without any edits).

 

[Overread]

Computer monitors are typically very overly vibrant and contrasty straight out of the box because people often like that. Furthermore their calibration always drifts over time and is not fixed. As a result a hardware based colour calibrator (like a colour monkey or spyder) is a good tool for helping you ensure that your monitors output is calibrated and consistent. It gives you a stable point of reference to work with that makes it easier to generally deal with editing. If you get into printing it can be a big help, but even just for online display its a good solid tool that will last you years. There's very modest advance in the technology so many times once you've got one you won't need to upgrade it for a seriously long time.

 

[Call_me_Tom]

Well ... that really depends upon the work in question.

Fashion, portraiture, anything in which exact color output matters: yes, definitely. Get a great monitor (and printer), get it color checked, and also use a color checker whenever you can.

Reportage, event photography, sports, ... - not really. You'll probably be fine with a decent monitor. Reporters specifically use a straight flash on the camera (very poor lighting, but this way you get the shot), use only JPEG instead of RAW, often dont edit their photos at all (IIRC Reuters for example demands OOC JPEGs without any edits).

US military want jpeg’s straight out of the camera as well.

 

[Call_me_Tom]

I don’t see the point of a calibrated monitor unless you’re doing prints.

If you’re just emailing photos and sense everyone has different types of monitors and sense they all look different why go through the trouble.

 

[Overread]

I don’t see the point of a calibrated monitor unless you’re doing prints.

If you’re just emailing photos and sense everyone has different types of monitors and sense they all look different why go through the trouble.

Honestly outside of the cost to get a calibrator there isn't much trouble; you hang it infront of the screen, it does its thing and you might adjust one or two on-monitor settings and then you're done. It's not much both to get a basic calibration setup - its more complex yes if you want it for specific print styles or outputs, but at its most basic its very straight forward.

Part of it is also achiving a known appearance and standard that remains the same. By having your screen calibrated and updated regularly (every 2 weeks or so) you ensure that when you view things on your screen its the same colours, brightness etc... every time. This means you can edit and achieve a certain result that you can repeat over and over again without variation caused by monitor calibration drift; but also if you use more than one machine (eg field laptop and home desktop)

 

[Grandpa Ron]

As mentioned your monitor may be calibrated but friends an family, probably not.

One would expect those organization that deal with photographs like magazine and news rooms would have calibrated gear.

So it get down to who is viewing your photos and are they worth spending the money. Like many things in photography, this often evolves with time and experience.