I try to provide the highest quality images that I can come up with. Every individual photo is adjusted by hand to ensure the highest quality. In particular, every photo has been color adjusted and tagged with color profiles, so that it may be viewed correctly by color aware applications. Further, the images are sharpened taking into assumption an average LCD monitor with about 100 PPI resolution.
More about color profiles
Every photo on my site is color adjusted and tagged with the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profile, which is the default for web based graphics. The sRGB de-facto standard approximates the behavior of most consumer monitors and has a reasonably mild (not saturated) gamut that most consumer monitors and printers are capable of reproducing.
Unfortunately, most web browsers and applications are not color aware and don’t know how to properly interpret the RGB values that are in the images correctly. Further, most computer monitors are not even properly calibrated! The only color aware web browsers that I know of are all on the Macintosh platform, namely Safari, Omniweb and Internet Explorer (for Mac, now discontinued). None of the other browsers are color aware – not Internet Explorer (any version including IE7, though support for IE7 is planned) for Windows, nor Firefox for any platform.
Fortunately, the use of the sRGB de-facto standard means that even color un-aware applications can still display *reasonably* correct color. But, if you’re interested in correct color, calibrate your screen and use a color aware application like Adobe Photoshop to view the images on this site.
More about sharpening
My sharpening routines assume an LCD monitor of about 100 PPI. Most screens match this requirement closely (give or take about 20 PPI), but if you are using an older monitor with lower resolution, then the sharpening may appear a little garish. Conversely, if you are using a new high density monitor, then the sharpening may appear a little soft. CRTs are inherently not as sharp as LCD displays, and if you have one, then the sharpening may also appear soft. With so many variations, I try to optimize for the middle, most common cases only.
Note also that some web browsers and photo viewing applications may provide zoom features which stretches or reduces the size of the images to fit your monitor. Doing this destroys the sharpening that I have carefully used and as a result, the image may appear softer than usual or have harsh jaggy lines. Whenever possible, please do try to view the images at 100PPI or thereabouts.
