Help with print (color cast/ambient lighting)

[KernowChris]

Last week I sent off an image for printing and what I got back is a little disappointing.

This is smaller/resized copy of the file I sent...


The resulting print has what I would describe as a 'magenta colour cast' and has lost a lot of the detail in the 'dark' areas of the rocks on the left and rightside. Admittedly, I don't have a calibrated monitor, but using by 27" mac with the brightness reduced to 50% I can still see the detail whilst the rest of the image is noticeably darker than the print. It's the first time I've used this lab, thought I would try someone different for a change. I 'ticked' their 'color-calibration-check' box in case that might help get a good result.

It's not a resolution thing, it was to be printed 16x16 and the file was 300dpi 4800x4800, it's just lost detail in the dark areas whilst not being over-dark in general and got this color cast.

What could I have missed?

Chris

 

[Chappers]

First thing is what does their colour correction check box mean.I assume it means sort the colour out for me. Part of the problem may be that the display is not calibrated. OK you've turned the brightness down by 50% which is a good start. My calibrated iMac is around that value. However this may not accurately reflect your viewing conditions , hence the mismatch. But what has not been set is the contrast, so this may be out. What colour space did you send the image to the lab in. A miss match here may have some bearing on the result The magenta cast could be a a couple of things. First the image could have that cast on it. However looking at the image you sent it looks fairly neutral. The other problem may be that the image is printed on photographic paper, which I know from personal experience an give a cast, usually in the green/ magenta direction if the printing is not handled carefully. Does the back of the paper have any identity on it as this can be a clue.

I would suggest you contact the lab and ask for their advice. They may have some suggestions how to avoid these problems.

 

[KernowChris]

Thanks for the reply. The photo was printed on Fuji Lustre (C-Type) and the color cast is definitely not in the original photo. HOWEVER, I think I may have gotten to what is having an effect on the color cast and that is the ambient light I'm viewing it under. At the time of writing the original post I was at work where we have old style T8 fluorescent tubes ( a mixture of colours). Looking at the photo in daylight or under other lighting sources, it does not have the color cast.

I had some other mono prints at home, one printed on the same paper by another lab and one on a completely different paper by a local chap (un-branded paper/kodak printer) and get some surprising (to me) results...

These photos are taken using my iPhone, the lab-printed-fuji-paper is on the RIGHT.

This one is under CFL lighting...





This one is under some 'cool led' lighting...




And finally this one is under those little halogen/incandescent spots (natural daylight gives the same)...





So now it seems that as well as all the other factors I need to consider when printing, I also need to consider the lighting it will be viewed under!

I will give the lab and call and see what they suggest for this.

Chris

 

[Harlequin565]

Interestingly I just ran a series of test prints off last night on the Epson signature papers. Using proper profiles for each paper, I had a dramatically magenta cast to the Hot Press range of papers and it looks very similar to your photos above (see bottom). Same photo on other papers was fine. Even a quick glance at all of my test papers shows very different paper colours (and most of these are cotton rag)

It's down to the icc profiles, I think. I've printed the same image out on almost 30 sheets of different paper, and probably about 5 or 6 have different colour castes. Below shows the same b&w image on different papers. If you're sending a B&W print to a printer, it should come back black & white! Yes - it might look warm under a lamp, or colder under a fluorescent light, but these images below were all viewed under the same light and show a very distinct caste (the yellow is caused by a table lamp off to the side, so teh magenta caste appears much worse to the naked eye). Something is telling the printer to spray some Magenta, and that can only be the icc profile - assuming your image is properly desaturated in your pp app.
e.g.

My suggestion would be to try a different paper, or even somewhere like Ilford... Hope this helps - but it was too relvant to what I was messing around with last night to ignore.

 

[Harlequin565]

Edit to add: As to the shadow detail, this can sometimes be caused by using photo black inks on matt papers. I'm assuming the Fuji Lustre paper is not a matt paper?

 

[Musicman]

So now it seems that as well as all the other factors I need to consider when printing, I also need to consider the lighting it will be viewed under!

The phenomenon is known as metamerism, and can be particularly pronounced where the print is run off with a regular CMYK printer. The inks will probably be set up for daylight viewing, which is why it looks OK in those conditions. It can be minimised with black-only printing, but as Harlequin565 has noted, the paper stock has an influence too, especially if it contains optical brighteners (which convert UV into visible light to enhance the whites).