Many people including me are captivated by everything Color. Many like me have made careers out of this topic, yet the subject confounds most, including those who are in the business of selling color in one form or another. For those in the printing business color is one thing that can be extremely profitable when  equipment, materials and knowledge are optimized to create a  production process that is understood and repeatable,

In many cases that is easier said than done. Many customers that I have had the pleasure of working with over the years are all to familiar with the seemingly never ending cycle of Calibrating and Color managing their systems only to have them deteriorate over time finally requiring the entire process to be repeated. This is caused by the fact that there isn't a complete understanding of Color by anyone responsible for maintaining the process, and the individual employees, while they may be very capable in their own area of expertise, don't understand the system as a whole.

It should be easier than it is most of the time! Technology can do really miraculous things, but if the system is "broken" then the perception is that the technology doesn't work. For many years I was responsible for training people in production on the latest and greatest technology. Rarely did I get the opportunity to teach anyone that they really didn't need the technology to optimize production and create extremely profitable color reproduction at the highest quality level. Don't get me wrong, when properly implemented and understood the technology is indispensable for realizing the utmost levels of production optimization, but most don't understand that the proper foundation must be laid before that technology will be effective, When the proper foundation is in place the profits and improvements in production and quality will easily justify the investment in the technology.

It is one of my favorite things to see a company embrace the fundamental steps required to obtain this state and realize all of the benefits that go along with it such as:

• Increased Product Quality.
• Increased Customer Satisfaction & Loyalty.
• Improved confidence and capabilities of everyone in the production process.
• Markedly improved production capacity.
• A continuous cycle of increased quality at faster throughput with reduced waste, 

There Ain't no VOODOO in Printing!

So what prevents most companies from reaching a state of stable and profitable Color Reproduction? Well, in one word the answer is COLOR! You would be surprised at the number of professionals in the printing business who believe that there must be Voodoo or other form of Magic in Color Reproduction.

Color is and should be a very objective and mechanical process - BUT - absent formal training and at least a basic understanding of the "Science of Color" by everyone involved in the production process, Color will remain an extremely Subjective and Emotional topic. 

A good friend of mine always said "there ain't no Voodoo in Printing". Those words have stuck with me over the years and I find them useful when people in production start to become defensive or distrustful. When someone from the "outside" comes in to help the perception is that they are  upsetting a system that took them a decade or more to learn how to react to when things go wrong.

It is Human Nature and to be successful people need to learn that the procedures that they just learned work and that those procedures will make their jobs easier. Most commonly everything does work great for awhile, but then in the heat of a hectic production schedule something WILL go wrong and people will react by reverting to whatever worked for them in the past. That is why it is essential that they get several follow up sessions where operators will learn how to properly deal with whatever issues they experienced correctly without throwing their hands up and reverting  to what "worked" last month!

In the current economical environment there is no better investment than optimizing your existing equipment, production process, and operator knowledge. While it can be a modest investment in both money and commitment it will ALWAYS produce an immediate and substantial return on investment. 

I would be very happy to help anyone interested in optimizing their processes in order to increase quality and profitability of the products being produced. Please feel free to contact me using the contact information provided on the business card below!

The Image above is an original image that was posted to my FLICKR account on January 8, 2007.

I was really hoping that the first genuine KoehlerCOLOR Blog Post would be about procedures or technical issues, Now I am thinking that it will be something that I am challenged with: Licensing images I want to sell.

I am just gathering an archive  of nearly 70,000 images that I have taken since the year 2006. Over the years I have sold a few images here and there, and I have even managed to sell a 30" x 40" Fine Art Print that is now hanging in an office in Ohio. But a handful  out of 70,000 isn't a great percentage at all. 

Over the years I have made several attempts at "marketing" my pictures. I got a FLICKR account in 2006, and not long after that I got a JPGMAG account as well. While it is fun taking pictures and then sharing them with people that have the same interests it sure doesn't work getting photos recognized by people that actually buy them! 

Then I was recognized by Getty Images who wanted include eight images on their FLICKR Contributor website. Since that time they have asked for 32 more images which they are offering for sale or license. Eventually I started a website and copied most of the stuff that was already posted on my FLICKR and JPGMAG accounts. Now I am in the process of working on my website to actually make it the core of a business and I am forced to think about how the site will be recognized. 

There are plenty of people who like the Images that I produce and there have been more than a few requests for them over the years. Several years ago I was contacted by someone who wanted a print of one of my images, It wasn't a particularly good shot because I had taken it through a window and it has reflections of illuminated buildings in the dark sky. I fixed the reflections and then I put a Creative Commons license on it on my FLICKR account which made it possible for the other party to download it and print it without further license or inquiry. 

A few years went by and then I was contacted by someone else who wanted the same image and they told me they had seen it on Wikipedia as a photo used to identify Atlanta's tallest buildings. I looked and sure enough here is what I found:

This is great news - my images are being recognized by a big audience. I have followed the history of this image over the years, and have had several inquiries for permission to use it although the license doesn't require that. The license simply states that if the image is used that the original author shall be credited. This is very good because from Wikipedia people can pick it up and use it for whatever reason and essentially promoting the work at the same time. 

After several more years these are the results of  doing a simple Google Search:

On the first two pages of the  Google Search Images  roughly 200 individual results are displayed. Some are repeats of the same sites so there are probably 150 separate usages listed. Of the 150 results only about half of the users gave attribution. Of the uses that don't give attribution the ones that concern me the most are like these:

It is ironic that I am trying to figure out how to best use a website and the internet to promote the Images that I have to offer and in the process discover that there are already people using my images to make money for themselves. More disturbing is that these people are using the benefits that Creative Commons Licensing afford without complying with the requirements that are clearly stipulated.

I am still conflicted over how - or if - to use a Creative Commons License on more images. There are several options you can apply to images (or other creative products) including some that are applicable only for  non-commercial uses. My original license didn't stipulate a non-commercial use, but as in all forms of the Creative Commons License Attribution is the principle aspect. So what can you expect if people disregard the Attribution requirement of the Licenses why would they comply with non-commercial aspects?

On the other hand I think that there are ways to use the popularity and exposure that the Image has generated to funnel people back to my site. 

Chuck Koehler
KoehlerCOLOR.com

I started taking Photos in my early teens, and entered into a related profession because of my deep rooted interested in the ART of Photography. I was brought up in an industrial town where we were generally discouraged from entertaining anything that may actually be enjoyable as a profession. When I had to decide on a course of study in a Technical School I was going to there were two Program options for a wannabe Photographer: 

1) Commercial Art - There I would have to compete with countless other creative types in a Program that had very little Photography and much more design. At that time I was convinced that Actual Art - like Drawing, Illustration and Painting was well beyond my capabilities.

2) Graphic Arts - Now there it was, a program that was very technical and also had the biggest Camera I had ever seen. As an added plus the Graphic Arts program was responsible for the production of the school's yearbook including the photography!

Graphic Arts it was - and to stay as close to Photography as possible I specialized in Color Reproduction. Not only did Color pay better, but I started working at a Color Separator that also had a Professional Photo Lab attached and it was my job to do professional photography work in addition to my Graphic Arts responsibilities. Back then the two professions were intricately linked in any case. 

And so it was I learned my Profession and also had a lot of fun throughout my career. I never really worried about staying employed because I was always so engrossed in perfecting my trade and adapting to one of the fastest changing industries there is. If responsibilities in my core profession became monotonous or boring I would focus on the photographic aspects always incorporating one expertise with the other. 

At some imperceptible point in time it stopped being fun! Wait - I'll take that last statement back and rephrase it. 

My career had inevitably advanced in the atmosphere of Corporate America  to a point where my strengths based in Technical Capabilities were no longer assets enough to survive superiors who didn't understand what a Technical Asset was. Those superiors were part of a Corporate Hierarchy that demanded that numbers on a spread sheet agreed with their profit projections regardless of what was actually required to provide professional services to it's customers. The job became providing and manipulating numbers instead of providing technical expertise that the profession desperately needs more now than ever. That is NOT enjoyable at all!

So now there is KoehlerCOLOR.com, a site where you can find images that are not only visually striking, but also technically exceptional and perfect for any Color Reproduction method or end use. Not only will you find exceptional Images on KoehlerCOLOR, but you will also find useful information about Photography and/or Color. 

Thanks for reading the very first KoehlerCOLOR Blog Posting and check back soon for more!

Chuck Koehler