You can pay three times as much for “Professional” calibrators, but as always, apply the 80/20 rule – if you can get 80% of the results for 20% of the cost, go for it. Color calibrating your monitor is a huge step – it gives you surety that what you see is as true a version of your image as you can, at least with the monitor you have. Keep in mind, better monitors will reproduce better and more accurate colors – but that’s an upgrade for down the road. No reason you can’t pay cash out of your own photography income to upgrade your tools – you’ll enjoy benefits both artistic and financial.

I’ve seen these things flying over on http://www.SlickDeals.net. I already have an original iPad, which I bought used, but if I was in the market for a dedicated photography portfolio / e-book reader / RSS reader, for $100 this looks like a steal.

Good luck on getting one if you go that route! Please do keep in touch and let me know how your search turns out, and thank you for your readership!

I have no doubts an iPad could pull it off, but at this point, it may be trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. It may not be the best option for the job.

But that’s from a rational perspective – sometimes, the right interface or tool for a job can make that job vastly more enjoyable, which means it gets done – not just done, but done with zeal. I’d rather lose 20% of my editing power/flexibility if it gained me 80% speed and enjoyment in doing the editing. This in mind, editing on an iPad may be just what you need to get the job done much faster and with more fun in the process.

You know you better than anyone, and honestly, I’ve found that with most Apple products, you have to use them for a week or two to fully appreciate what they can do and how they do it. I never dreamed I would grow to adore my iPhone as much as I do. The iPad is the same way.

If you can, I’d suggest borrowing one from a friend, or at least trying a variety of editing apps over the course of several visits to the Apple store, and see how well the experience turns out for you. Some don’t care for it, some love it.

A laptop will give you more power and versatility, but the value of an easy to use interface and enjoyment of your work can’t be ignored.

Let me know what you decide, and how it turns out for you.

Calibrating your monitor is one of the biggest (and easiest) steps you can take to separating yourself as a professional from a sea of less committed amateurs.

You have to keep in mind, without color calibration, any monitor is going to show an image differently – different color cast, different highlights and shadows, etc. To offer your best product, you want your digital files and prints to be as true to what you created as the artist as possible.

For example, if your monitor shifts blue because it is not calibrated, if a client were to look at the images on your laptop and buy them looking their best there, when they get them home, if they have a properly calibrated monitor, what looked perfect on your monitor will look orange on theirs. Or even farther from true if their monitor shifts toward a different color.

You can’t control your clients’ monitors, but you can control yours, and tell your client as much. I sell lots and lots of digital files, and I always tell my clients, “My monitor is color calibrated, but yours at home may not be. When you get home, these may appear to shift in color or in the highlights, but I can promise you that what you see here is what you’re getting on CD. I’m also calibrated to my lab for prints, so if you want to make prints from your files on CD, I suggest you use my lab’s consumer division.”

Education is key, but you have to start with as pure a product (properly color balanced and exposed digital file) as you can, so you can speak from a position of expertise and authority.

I use a $99 color calibration tool for my monitor. Not inexpensive, certainly not the best, but it’s given me excellent results. It’s a great early investment to ensure you’re giving your best work to your clients. About.com has a good resource on this subject to help you get started, and you can upgrade to a paid option as your business and profits allow.

Good color calibration / white balance in your photography starts in camera (either with custom settings, or the easier route I take of shooting RAW and adjusting in Photoshop after), but once it it’s on your computer, you’re at the mercy of the tool you’re using to view the images – and we all know that Auto White Balance in the camera or Auto White Balance in Photoshop leaves much to be desired. Your camera / Photoshop can’t tell a sunset-lit scene from a snow scene from a back-lit scene and will skew your colors all over the place at the first sign of complexity.

As with everything in this start-up phase, I repeat my father’s life motto: Do The Best You Can With What You’ve Got. Don’t let a lack of color calibration on your monitor hold you back from marketing, booking, shooting, and selling. With your first few clients, maybe your very first client, you’ll have earned enough cash to buy a calibration tool to last you for the next five or 10 years. Don’t let the mole hill turn into a mountain that intimidates and paralyzes your progress.

Kaizen – little improvements every day.

To share an anecdote, before I began calibrating my monitor, folks over and over again would ask me why all my photos I posted online (to MySpace, back in the day) were so orange. They looked great on my computer, so I told them they were crazy. I chalked it up to their untrained eyes. When I discovered monitor calibration, and that my images were, indeed, orange as an episode of CSI: Miami, I was royally embarrassed by my own arrogance and ignorance. But I learned, and I adjusted, and now I post with greater confidence – and an added dose of humility.

Slightly off-topic, but color calibration is another checkmark in the Pro column for in-person proofing. When you proof online, your images are left at the mercy of your client’s viewing apparatus, which often is the off-color, small, blurry, over-contrasty, completely uncalibrated monitor that came with their Dell or Gateway or eMachine. When you proof in-person, what your clients see is what you see, as perfect a representation of your work as exists – and you can explain that to them, so they know what to expect – or not expect – when they get home with their CD. This is a good time also to explain why one-hour photo labs like Walmart and Walgreens will shift green, purple, soft, and/or flat – compared to studio-purchased prints, or prints through the lab you recommend.