Dull colors on D70 - no matter what I do

Here is a link to a site with some good explanation why printer profiling is necessary: http://www.xritephoto.com/classroom/guide/

Go and read the above link first to understand a bit about color spaces and gamut, then continue reading this thread.

I also have a Canon i960 printer and I use the Monaco EZ Color system with their Monaco Optix XR colorimeter to profile my printer monitor and scanner with great success.

You have to use a color managed software to view and edit your images. Internet Explorer or Picasa isn't going to cut it. You will need Adobe Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro or ACDSee 7.0 or above to work in an ICC aware environment.

The first step in working in a color managed workflow is to calibrate and profile your monitor. Without it you're just randomly adjusting images without knowing what the real numbers represent. This is the single most important step. Once you got your monitor profiled (you should profile it once a week for CRL and less often for LCD) then you can start worrying about output device profiling.

By default the Canon printer driver expects images to be in sRGB color space and it will automatically map the sRGB color space onto the printer gamut using the built in printer profiles that are paper dependent. These profiles are generated by the manufacturer by pulling printers off the line and profiling them. Chances of your printer having the exact same nozzle size and ink volume as the calibrated one is slim to none. The default built-in profiles will give OK results for a lot of people but anyone who's serious about printing and don't want to waste a ton of paper should invest in a good quality printer profile. There are places that can profile your printer for about $40. You will have to send them a print sample of their test metering pattern and they will e-mail you the printer profile. Printer profiles are ink and paper dependent so you would have to send them a sample of every type of paper you would plan to print to. Since it's $40 per paper type it can get costly in a hurry.

I hope this helps to point you in the right direction......
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That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

On a side note, I'd also invest in some kind of CCD cleaning system if I were you, you have unacceptable number of dust bunnies .
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i know, it's getting worse every day i shoot. i tried to blow with a stream of compressed air from OfficeDepot on the CCD, but the dust particles are pretty bad, they seem to be sticked permanently to the sensor. I've already read about many ways of cleaning. Still, the method I hoped would work(blowing lightly or with compressed air) doesn't work at all. What are the writers in this thread using?
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an idea is salvation by imagination

here are the new punchy colors:





thanks to everyone for posting in this thread and participating in this great community.
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an idea is salvation by imagination

Any idea how to convert in Nikon Capture or Nikon Project?

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d-7-0 kit

Did you not see I said "Rule of thumb". Its meant to be something brief and easy to read.

GTakacs said:

lilwawa said:

1) Shoot the rest of the pictures for viewing on the web or on the
monitor on sRGB(I)

Click to expand...

Not neccessarily. Shoot whatever color profile your workflow
requires. If your client wants the deliverables in Adobe RGB, you
might as well start off in it. You can always convert to sRGB or
back to Adobe RGB as you please. Use the color space that gives you
the most streamlined process with the least amount of gamut
conversion.

GTakacs said:

2) Shoot Adobe RGB (II) if you want to print images on printer

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Wrong again. If you have your printer profiled you can shoot in
whatever you want and let the color gamut mapping take care of the
profile conversion. Did you also know that Adobe really extends the
gamut in the area of greens and a CYMK printer has no green
cartridge so its gamut is rather limited in the green region so you
would gain nothing by shooting and using Adobe RGB? If you have a
Canon i9900 or something that has 8 cartridges, you MIGHT get
better greens by using AdobeRGB but it will come at the cost of
rasterization in other colors. Since the color space volume of the
Adbove color space is much larger than sRGB (about 50% more) yet
you represent it with the exact same number of distinct colors
(16.7 million) you get a lot more holes in it, so it's not as dense
as the sRGB color space.

If your printer is not profiled or if you are sending off your
prints to a professional lab, you would want to have your images in
sRGB. Default printer profiles that are provided by the
manufacturer and comes with the printer driver assume that the data
they get is in sRGB format. So do most photo labs. More decents
labs will specify that they either want sRGB or they will also take
pictures converted to their printer profile (they provide you with
the profile) but I have yet to hear any that wants you to send in
Adobe RGB images. If you're working with a professional lab that
knows anything about color management and provides you with color
profiles you should better know what you're doing sending anything
else besides sRGB to them!

--
That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

Click to expand...

lilwawa said:

Did you not see I said "Rule of thumb". Its meant to be something
brief and easy to read.

Click to expand...

I did. But "rule of thumb" also implies correct information. I speficically refer to item number 2 which you were way off on.

Look here:

A large Giotto Rocket Blower is also a good idea.

Cheers

There ya go. Nice shots, good color, and all it took was a 30 second menu-romp ;-).

--
ShutterBugin
http://www.exposureproductions.smugmug.com

Amazing how weeks of frustration can be solved by months of experience condensed into seconds of action!

My thanks to all who contributed to this thread. It was a valuable lesson for me.
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• Jimi V

Mens et Manus

Don't EVER use can "compressed air" on your CCD sensor. Unless you want to send your camera and some cash to Nikon repair... I know some others have done it, but my careless use of one left residue on my sensor that took 9 sensor swabs to remove.

I'd like to hear from the experts if the dull colors noted shooting in mode 2 and posting are completely due to the fact that you are viewing in a non color aware program or is it more than that? I understand that the mode selection is more than a color space choice, but also impart a "look" to the picture. This was given as an explanation as to why purple flowers look blue if shot in aRGB and viewed on the computer, but look their actual color if shot in sRGB.

My photos look dull with Nikon view if taken in mode II, shouldnt Nikon View be colour space aware ? Sounds like sRGB is the best all round mode for non proffessionals - it is for me anyway.

Maris said:

My photos look dull with Nikon view if taken in mode II, shouldnt
Nikon View be colour space aware ?

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I'm afraid I don't know since I don't use it. Poke around in the setup and see if there is a place to specify your working space.

Maris said:

Sounds like sRGB is the best all
round mode for non proffessionals - it is for me anyway.

Click to expand...

That's true if you cannot comfortably deal with multiple color spaces.

Bob Peters

Neither would I claim myself an expert nor even try to give you a crash course, but I can point you to other resource:

http://www.normankoren.com/color_management.html

If really interested, dedicate some time and learn the subject.

From what I observed, color management is probably one of the most misunderstood subjects among digital imaging beginners (myself include).

At least I think she is your daughter.....sorry if I am wrong.

Just wanted to show you how easy it is to get keepers from your camera

Spend about 3 min on this picture.

Origonal:



Adjusted:



Roman
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http://www.pbase.com/romansphotos/

http://www.romanjohnston.com

Just use sRGB and the Factory Standard Curve with minimum contrast.

sRGB is the color mode compatible with web browsers and printing machines. Certain custom curves wash out colors.

UICUkie said:

Hello.
I'm confronted with the issue of dull colors on my D70. I want more
punch to it, or at least more lifelike skin tones, greens and
reds(and blues and yellows for that matter). Nothing works
I downloaded sReala curve, set Optimize Image to Custom and the
following:

Sharpenin -1
Tone Comp - Custom (sReala)
Color II
Saturation Moderate
Hue 3*

Here's what i'm getting now:









All the pictures taken in under Californian sunlight around noon
today.

Please help me with whatever you can.
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an idea is salvation by imagination

Click to expand...

my sister whose picture this is loved your version of this photo. You truly are a master of post-processing, Roman!
--
an idea is salvation by imagination

Being relativly new to editing photos for the better, any chance you could give us a breakdown of what steps you took to improve this photo, Roman?

Thanks.

So what were your final settings?

Break out your wallet....and buy the book called "Photoshop Lab Color" " A canyon conundrum"

Dan Margulis

If your new to photoshop....theirs a TON of books you COULD buy.

This is one of the jewels in a sea of monotony.

It will have you doing more with the first chaptor than seasoned vetrans who are afraid of the Lab color space.

I have lots of photoshop books....if I had this first...I would have never bought the others.

Its that good.

Roman
--
http://www.pbase.com/romansphotos/

http://www.romanjohnston.com