ABSTRACT
Color Management is an extremely complex topic and one that has haunted digital photographers since its inception. Most students’ eyes glaze over when this topic comes up in my Workshops. “Extensive, confusing,
© Leslie Alsheimer
technical” and most of all “BORING” are the comments we hear in its wake. Color management was explained to me several times by several diff erent Photoshop experts before it all integrated eff ectively into my workfl ow. As an honor student in my undergraduate studies, as well as my graduate work, I typically do not consider myself particularly stupid, but this color management stuff twisted my head into knots for quite some time – so much that I just decided to skip it for awhile. As an experiential learner, I love to jump into new things with both feet, and as a result, I often end up doing things the wrong way fi rst. Although I did have more fun in the beginning of my digital learning process, I eventually learned the hard way that skipping over color management was defi nitely not the best choice. Color management is without a doubt an absolutely essential piece of the workfl ow process. Although not the most exciting topic, color management is the foundation upon which everything in the digital darkroom process is built. So whether you work in color or black and white, learning the basics up front will serve you well in the digital process.
