On Color Fidelity
William Geffert et al | Metmuseum Perspectives | 11th March 2026
Why do the colours of online images vary so wildly? This rather technical piece will more than satisfy your thirst for an explanation. In the film era, variations in film stock produced significant colour variations. Once digital photography arrived in the 1990’s colour checking could be done by the photographer on their device. Best practice technology now combines image and depth information – a 2D version of 3D. Progress, but still not quite enough to cope with the subtle interplay of light on the surface of an artwork.