Color Management for Dummies!?!

Hi, this is my first post in this forum. Having read through some of the previous posts I'm confident someone will be able to help me.

I shoot with a Canon 10d in RAW mode. I convert using PS Camera Raw directly into PS. I manipulate images (Tifs) in PS with the help of a couple of plug-ins (mostly Neat Image and CSpro Sharpen). I then export to Qimage for printing. Currently print at home on an HP 5550

I've spent the last 6 months learning the first part of this work flow and am now learning the joys of printing.

My prints seem to come out much darker than they appear on the screen, particularly when I print Tifs.

Should I be printings jpegs instead of tifs? Tifs should be better quality?
How can I get the colors accurate in my outputs?

What other things can I do to have a fair degree of confidence that what I see on my screen will be printed.

I've callabrated my screen using Adobe Gamma but don't even know where to start with other aspects of color management- have them turned off in Qimage because I don't understand the defaults.

Please help

i think the real answer has to do with printer profiles, but that stuff is over my head
but

most inkjets print in adobeRGB colorspace, but the default colorspace for PS is sRGB
try in edit> color settings> change RGB to adobeRGB instead of sRGB

feivel

Thanks feivel,
however I'd done that already.
Any idea how you develop printer profiles?

Bread

feivel said:

i think the real answer has to do with printer profiles, but that
stuff is over my head
but
most inkjets print in adobeRGB colorspace, but the default
colorspace for PS is sRGB
try in edit> color settings> change RGB to adobeRGB instead of sRGB

feivel

Click to expand...

if you have a flatbead scanner, you can use a program like Monaco EZ color to create a printer profile. Their instructions are a bit vague on some critical aspects in the process for createing the profile.

Also know that Adobe Gama will get you in the ballpark, but has its limits.

I would hightly recommend the book Photosho 7 Artistry by Barry Haynes. He goes over all of this. He hasn't come out with a new version for CS yet, but the current version will cover over 95% of CS.

I'm interested in your experience with Neat Image. What settings are you using, and are you using the plug in version?

--
Reid

Kodak Brownie
Argus 126
Quaker Oats Container Pinhole Camera

Adcbread said:

Thanks feivel,
however I'd done that already.
Any idea how you develop printer profiles?

Click to expand...

nope

im in blissful ignorance

walmart's fuji prints my photos very close to what i see onscreen, close enough to make me happy

my old color printer makes pics darker and greener than my screen, so when i occassionally use my printer i eyeball it and make my pics lighter and more magenta before sending to printer
that's my technique for color profiling

feivel

Adcbread said:

Should I be printings jpegs instead of tifs? Tifs should be better
quality?
How can I get the colors accurate in my outputs?
What other things can I do to have a fair degree of confidence that
what I see on my screen will be printed.

I've callabrated my screen using Adobe Gamma but don't even know
where to start with other aspects of color management- have them
turned off in Qimage because I don't understand the defaults.

Click to expand...

So many factors. Need to get printer and display calibrated, and verify certain windows/photoshop settings, so that you have some hope of your print to look SIMILAR (will never be exactly) to what you see on your display...and the degree to which you are able to match your prints to display is also dependent on the performance capabilities of printer and display as well, as well as the capabilities of the tools you use to calibrate each. For example, Adobe Gamma is better than nothing, but is rather limited in what it can do for you, and some displays are capable of higher performance than others, so that even with the best calibration tool you will see a clear difference compared to a relatively poor display.

Qimage is a fantastic program to print from, and you basically want to turn off monitor profile, turn on printer profile, and select the appropriate profile for your particular printer and paper combination, best if you use Profile Prism or other (such as Monaco as mentioned by another poster) to create your own custom profile, and then make certain that your printer settings have color management turned off.

Here is a link to a thread which might be of some help, follow my several postings and at least that will give you a bit more information on how I am set up.

--
-Dennis W.

3dwag said:

Here is a link to a thread which might be of some help, follow my
several postings and at least that will give you a bit more
information on how I am set up.

Click to expand...

Here is the thread...
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=7080859

--
-Dennis W.

Reid,

Thanks for your help. I find Neat Image great. I use an old version which does not plug-in to PS but this is more because I'm too tight to upgrade than anything else.

I downloaded neat image profiles for my 10d for ISO 100 through to 3200 and use them with only minor eye ball adjustments on every image I want to save and print - whether it looks like it needs it or not.

I develped my workflow in general from reading forum posts and asking questions about what the professionals use. Just when I think I'm happy I'll post a couple of shots on http://www.photoblink.com and have them critiqued- then I start all over again.

reid thaler said:

if you have a flatbead scanner, you can use a program like Monaco
EZ color to create a printer profile. Their instructions are a bit
vague on some critical aspects in the process for createing the
profile.

Also know that Adobe Gama will get you in the ballpark, but has its
limits.

I would hightly recommend the book Photosho 7 Artistry by Barry
Haynes. He goes over all of this. He hasn't come out with a new
version for CS yet, but the current version will cover over 95% of
CS.

I'm interested in your experience with Neat Image. What settings
are you using, and are you using the plug in version?

--
Reid

Kodak Brownie
Argus 126
Quaker Oats Container Pinhole Camera

Click to expand...

This is by far the best book out there on color mangement it clearly explains the color theory, calibration procedures (interestingly they recommend a D65 white balance and a 2.2 gamma -- this is actually pretty close to the output characteristics for inkjet printer - so you might just want to try this).

http://www.photoshift.com/printing.html

Its cuts through all the voodoo -- there is no rational reason why TIFF's or JPEGS should print differently in photshop if you are printing them with the same embedded color space (this is possible this is changeing when you convert to JPEG) and with the same printer settings -- The one thing to realize is that a CRT has different color capabilities than a printer color space.

This book should help you solve your issues.

Adcbread said:

Hi, this is my first post in this forum. Having read through some
of the previous posts I'm confident someone will be able to help me.

I shoot with a Canon 10d in RAW mode. I convert using PS Camera Raw
directly into PS. I manipulate images (Tifs) in PS with the help of
a couple of plug-ins (mostly Neat Image and CSpro Sharpen). I then
export to Qimage for printing. Currently print at home on an HP 5550

I've spent the last 6 months learning the first part of this work
flow and am now learning the joys of printing.

My prints seem to come out much darker than they appear on the
screen, particularly when I print Tifs.

Should I be printings jpegs instead of tifs? Tifs should be better
quality?
How can I get the colors accurate in my outputs?
What other things can I do to have a fair degree of confidence that
what I see on my screen will be printed.

I've callabrated my screen using Adobe Gamma but don't even know
where to start with other aspects of color management- have them
turned off in Qimage because I don't understand the defaults.

Please help

Click to expand...

Thanks,
And reasonably priced also- my steep learning curve continues.

mark Stephan said:

http://www.photoshift.com/printing.html

Its cuts through all the voodoo -- there is no rational reason why
TIFF's or JPEGS should print differently in photshop if you are
printing them with the same embedded color space (this is possible
this is changeing when you convert to JPEG) and with the same
printer settings -- The one thing to realize is that a CRT has
different color capabilities than a printer color space.

This book should help you solve your issues.

Adcbread said:

Hi, this is my first post in this forum. Having read through some
of the previous posts I'm confident someone will be able to help me.

I shoot with a Canon 10d in RAW mode. I convert using PS Camera Raw
directly into PS. I manipulate images (Tifs) in PS with the help of
a couple of plug-ins (mostly Neat Image and CSpro Sharpen). I then
export to Qimage for printing. Currently print at home on an HP 5550

I've spent the last 6 months learning the first part of this work
flow and am now learning the joys of printing.

My prints seem to come out much darker than they appear on the
screen, particularly when I print Tifs.

Should I be printings jpegs instead of tifs? Tifs should be better
quality?
How can I get the colors accurate in my outputs?
What other things can I do to have a fair degree of confidence that
what I see on my screen will be printed.

I've callabrated my screen using Adobe Gamma but don't even know
where to start with other aspects of color management- have them
turned off in Qimage because I don't understand the defaults.

Please help

Click to expand...

Click to expand...