Few landscape photographers are as successful as Australian photographer, Ken Duncan OAM, who runs one of the country’s most successful imaging businesses. Internationally recognised for his pioneering panoramic landscape photography and limited edition photographic prints, he is both prolific and multi-talented. His photographs appear in calendars, cards and jigsaw puzzles and large ‘limited edition’ prints. The latter are showcased in his own galleries and many grace the walls of businesses all round the world. Currently there are five Ken Duncan galleries in Australia displaying and selling Duncan’s work to tourists and corporate enterprises.

In addition to the shopfront galleries in Erina, Sydney, Melbourne, the Hunter Valley and Cairns, Ken has an active online gallery at www.kenduncan.com. He also runs a busy book publishing enterprise which, since 1992, has produced more than 30 books under the Ken Duncan Panographs trademark.
Faithful reproduction of the colourful and dramatic images he captures is critical to every aspect of Ken Duncan’s business. Consequently, a great deal of time and research has been devoted to creating the colour-accurate workflows that underpin his success. At each stage of the process from capture to output, he has invested in state-of-the-art equipment.

For shooting his photographs, Ken swaps between film and digital, depending on the nature of the subject and how the image will be utilised.
Regardless of how the images have been recorded, when they come to the CFL (Created for Life) Print Studio in Erina on the NSW Central Coast for printing, additional post-capture editing is required to ensure they reproduce satisfactorily. The studio’s editing area has been specially designed with neutral grey walls and subdued lighting to minimise reflections and provide the best environment for working on the images. Five workstations are arranged around the room, each with one or two Eizo monitors.

Although initially sceptical about the importance of monitors in his colour workflow, Ken Duncan became an instant convert once he saw what the Eizo monitors could do. “Seeing is believing’, he explains. “Before [we acquired our Eizos], we had to make mental colour corrections to the images on the screen and often had to produce several proof prints to be sure the colours were accurate. But now the prints coming out of the printer look like what you’re looking at on the screen.”

Because the studio produces both prints and books, it has to be capable of handling both RGB and CYMK workflows. Staff members often need to swap between profiles at short notice, depending on whether the output will be CMYK page proofs or RBG ‘limited edition’ prints. The Eizo monitors have made this process fast and easy.

The studio takes full advantage of the built-in ColorNavigator software to save different calibration profiles for each colour workflow. This software, says Glenn McKimmin, the manager of CFL Print Studio, has been a wonderful time-saver. It has also reduced the number of times images are printed as proofs. According to McKimmin, the additional features in ColorNavigator have significantly improved the way the monitors are calibrated.

“The beauty of working with the Eizo monitors”, he adds, “is that we’re now able to produce profiles for both workflows with just one monitor using ColorNavigator. The profiles are so accurate we can switch between CYMK and RGB workflows at any time and be sure output colours won’t be changed...the Eizo monitors have revolutionised the lab from a colour workflow point of view.

Before, we were working ‘blind’, getting proofs that didn’t look like the images on-screen. Now what we see is what we get. Ken can come in and sit behind us and, if there’s any adjustment required, it’s all done on the screen.”

Why Eizo?

“Seeing is believing...before we acquired our Eizos, we had to make mental colour corrections to the images on the screen and often had to produce several proof prints to be sure the colours were accurate. But now the prints coming out of the printer look like what you’re looking at on the screen.”

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