Understanding chromaticity diagrams

Quantifying colour is difficult. You can’t be sure the hues and tones you see are exactly the same as those seen by anyone else and if you’re that uncertain, how can you be sure the pictures you take will communicate the colours you saw in the subject in a way that represents what you saw?

Because photographers communicate with images, accurate colour reproduction is important to convey the key ‘messages’ of pictures. Yet many people are confused by the different settings in the devices they use and few implement systems that can track and manage colour reproduction from capture through to output in order to ensure their images are reproduced as faithfully as possible.

What’s needed is a standard way to track colour reproduction from capture to output – and that’s where chromaticity diagrams can play an