Rendering Intents

[ColinR2016]

Hi,

I'm fairly new to printing and am struggling to understand the concept of rendering intents as there appears to be a lot of contradictory information around. I have read that the concept only applies to out of gamut areas of the image. What confuses me is that at the soft proofing stage I can see a small difference on-screen between Perceptual and Relative in areas which are in gamut according to my editing software Affinity. The rendering intent which does make a big difference is "Absolute Colorimetric" which appears to change the white point considerably.

Thanks

 

[nickbatz]

My experience is that Affinity Photo's gamut check doesn't mean much, because pretty much everything is out of gamut! However, its soft proofing does (assuming that your monitor is calibrated reasonably well).

I print from Canon Pro Print & Layout, and just export TIFFs from Affinity Photo. Whichever rendering intent looks best in PP&L's preview is the one I use.

 

[Rand 47]

My experience is that Affinity Photo's gamut check doesn't mean much, because pretty much everything is out of gamut! However, its soft proofing does (assuming that your monitor is calibrated reasonably well).

I print from Canon Pro Print & Layout, and just export TIFFs from Affinity Photo. Whichever rendering intent looks best in PP&L's preview is the one I use.

Well, I think it depends on what Affinity is set up “to see.” So to speak. But I can add this much, gamut warnings in Lightroom Classic’s soft proofing are boolean. It “alerts” if something is “out of gamut” but doesn’t given any indication of “how much out of gamut.” And that can make a HUGE difference in what one might choose to do about it. There’s a huge difference between something that is tiny bit out of gamut, versus something that is WAY OUT of gamut. The conventional wisdom is to pretty much ignore (I turn it off) out of gamut warnings when soft proofing.

Rand

 

[nickbatz]

There’s a huge difference between something that is tiny bit out of gamut, versus something that is WAY OUT of gamut. The conventional wisdom is to pretty much ignore (I turn it off) out of gamut warnings when soft proofing.

Thanks.

Affinity Photo has two different things - a gamut check (which I don't use) and a Soft Proof adjustment layer.

I now work with the latter at the top of my layer stack all the time so that I can see what I've wrough, but my application isn't the photo editing normal people do, it's abstract art.

But I just asked on the Affinity forum whether the rendering intent in the program's settings is embedded when you export a TIFF, or (as you'd hope) it's just a display option. So far 28 people have seen the question and there's no reply.

 

[machoman]

How about this method - flick between Perceptual and Relative and choose the better rendition you see in soft proofing. I"m using that now. I find relative flattens the colors - that means i have to put in extra effort to bring the contrast up. And Perceptual gives me the closest rendition to what i see on the soft proofing screen to what i would like in the print...it's relative to the image though...so sometimes relative might be better...

 

[nickbatz]

How about this method - flick between Perceptual and Relative and choose the better rendition you see in soft proofing. I"m using that now.

Yup, that's the method I use too.

 

[Rand 47]

How about this method - flick between Perceptual and Relative and choose the better rendition you see in soft proofing. I"m using that now. I find relative flattens the colors - that means i have to put in extra effort to bring the contrast up. And Perceptual gives me the closest rendition to what i see on the soft proofing screen to what i would like in the print...it's relative to the image though...so sometimes relative might be better...

Be careful about concluding that relative flattens colors. Often what you are seeing are much better, more gradual, tonal transitions.

Rand

 

[machoman]

How about this method - flick between Perceptual and Relative and choose the better rendition you see in soft proofing. I"m using that now. I find relative flattens the colors - that means i have to put in extra effort to bring the contrast up. And Perceptual gives me the closest rendition to what i see on the soft proofing screen to what i would like in the print...it's relative to the image though...so sometimes relative might be better...

Be careful about concluding that relative flattens colors. Often what you are seeing are much better, more gradual, tonal transitions.

Rand

yes - tat could be right. THanks I'll keep an eye on it.

 

[wilberforce_1]

How about this method - flick between Perceptual and Relative and choose the better rendition you see in soft proofing. I"m using that now.

Yup, that's the method I use too.

If only it were that easy. Well, the flicking is easy.

 

[mujana]

Hi,

I'm fairly new to printing and am struggling to understand the concept of rendering

Don't overcomplicate things, keep it simple for now. For Portrait and Nature photography (printing) use sRGB color space and perceptual rendering intent.

Well, I think the opposite, use AdobeRGB and relative rendering intent as a default. SRGB is smaller space and perceptual often gives unexpected color shifts.

I use ProPhoto RGB (16-bit tiff). as default. and mostly relative rendering intent.