Colour problems

gman

gman

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Graham
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Having a small issue here and wondering if anyone could help out.

Monitor is calibrated using Huey Pro, photo paper is Illford's and I'm using their profile for the paper and my printer. All colour management settings in dialogues etc are all set yet when printing they are not coming out accurately. It's not like the colours are wrong and they all seem to be reflected accordingly when compared to on screen but the prints are very a fair bit duller and not quite as warm - almost like a very slight green tint, most noticeable in the skin tones.

Thing is, when viewed under a desk lamp instead of daylight the prints look too warm! lol

Any ideas what's going on here? :help:
 
assuming you are using Photoshop or similar try soft proofing with the paper profile and see if the screen gives you the same effect as the print. If it does then it's a simple adjustment at the soft proof stage will cure the problem.

The next point I would look at is the parameters that you have calibrated your screen to. Now I'm not familiar with the Huey as I use a Eye-1 myself, but it may be that the screen brightness is to bright for your viewing conditions. If I remember correctly the Huey measures ambiant light levels and then sets the screen brightness accordingly. This may be where the problem lies if the prints are constantly dark. If you can adjust your screen brightness to a given level. If you can set it to between 120-140 cd/m2.and see if this helps. Also see what white point you have. I have mine set to 6500K which is reasonable for the UK.

Finally whilst "canned" profiles do a god general job they are generic, so a custom profile may be the answer. But try the above first
 
Jesus, I didn't even know about soft proof! The screen is now looking just like the print. Thanks very much and another thing learned! :)
 
Chappers, I've been having similar problems getting decent prints from my set-up. I had the printer profiled but the prints have always been darker than the image on the monitor and had a rather dirty colour cast to them. The only way I could get decent prints was to ignore the profile altogether.

Having seen your post here, I've discovered a whole new batch of settings in photoshop CS2 -ie those under "view" in the menu across the top. If I click on that, and then "proof setup", then "custom", I see a whole list of profiles which I didn't know existed, including the printer profile.

I click on that and the colour balance on the image on the screeen changes completely. ie becomes a lot closer to those on the prints I've been getting with the profile.

The image on the monitor ordinarily is much better, incidentally.

Have you any idea what settings I should be using? I just can't get my head around all this stuff! Where do I do the simple adjustment that you mention in your post?

I'd be really grateful for your expertise on this!
 
Jerry

That's the soft proofing options I mentioned in the above post. What is happening is Photoshop is taking the printer profile into account when it displays the image. It shows how the printer will print the image.

All you need to do is select your printer profile within that option and make adjustments to get a better print. Now I would always suggest you switch on the gamut warning, just in case you end up by trying to print "out of gamut" colours.

Is your monitor calibrated and profiled. If not you may still get some screen to print mismatches

Hope this helps

John C
 
John,

OK ..... so I use the printer profile setting and get a horrible colour balance on the monitor, adjust that in photoshop till it looks good again, then print?

I understand what I need to do, and why I've been getting such awful prints using the printer profile, but it seems like a bizarre way of going about things. Could the printer profile be wrong?

The monitor is calibrated. I use a Spyder and do it myself.

Gamut warning! Haven't noticed one of those so far .....

Most grateful:clap:

jerry
 
Then there's always the other options in that box -

If I untick "preserve RGB numbers", it looks a lot better.

...and Rendering Intent, and Black Point Compensation.

Both change the image slightly, depending on which option I choose.

Perhaps if I had these set incorrectly when I had the printer profile done, it would have been wrong?

It feels like I'm on the right track to sort out my printing problems, but MG, its a nightmare if you don't know what you're doing .....
 
Jerry

Changing the rendering intent will change things slightly. The options you should look at are perceptual, and relative colorimetric.

Yes the preserve RGB colours should be unticked, I think it is by default. ticking it will make the prints look awful.

I've attached a link to Ian Lyons web site that gives the set up procedure for CS2

http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps9_colour/ps9_1.htm

Here's the one for CS3

http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps10_colour/ps10_1.htm

Finally check the stupid things. Sometimes when you are struggling to sort a problem out you sometimes miss something or change a parameter and forget to change things back. Make sure the CM settings in Photoshop are correct. I've overlooked something like this in the past.

Ian Lyons web site has set up procedures for Epson printers so if you have one of these it may help. No point me going through it, when Ian does a better job.

http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps10_print/ps10_print_1.htm

Let me know how it goes..

John C


A final thought. If you un check preserve RGB settings and then soft proof does the screen look like the print, however bad it is. If it does it indicates that most of the setting should be OK. If the screen/print still looks awfull I might start to suspect the profile.. What printer/paper/ink combination are you using?
 
Somehow the "Preserve RGB numbers" box had got ticked, and it looks like that may have been the problem. The prints did look awful. Don't know how it happened.... I'd never been in there before!

I'll have a look at the link you suggested and make sure everything else is OK, then I'll try printing something out. Fingers crossed!:)

Thanks very much for your help.

jerry
 
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