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Author Topic: Color Management Confusion  (Read 1912 times)

cwdegidio

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Color Management Confusion
« on: September 20, 2007, 06:38:33 pm »

This is my first post here but have been reading the forums and site for quite sometime. I would like to also thank Michael and Jeff for there "From Camera to Print" videos, they have been a great help in understanding what my options are and the techniques used to color manage.

First let me state that being Photojournalism student, I am trying to work with what I have (another message board led to a discussion about all the new equipment that I would need to buy, which I can't nor do I think is the solution to the problem.)

Although I am just about finished with my photojournalism education, photography is an important part of my life. I don't mean just taking pictures and passing them off to an editor, I mean going all the way in my own time perfecting the craftsmanship (which is lacking in the experience of many young PJ's). I cut my teeth in photography with Zone System techniques and traditional darkroom work and have seen digital as a chance to bring back that same feeling of accomplishment we all have when we finally see a great print matted and framed.

Sorry for the long introduction, now onto my problem. First the equipment I am working with in my "digital darkroom":

Apple Cinema Display 23"
Canon ipf5000 w/ canon ink set
Colorvision Spyder2 and PrintFix Pro

I just recieved my print profiler and read all the documentation. I watched the video tutorial a few times trying to pick up any tips I could. So yesterday I recalibrated my monitor with the following settings: Gamma @ 2.2, White point @ 6500, Black point Compensation at Absolute, brightness at factory default. I then moved onto print profiling for the Canon ipf5000 w/ Moab Lasal Lustre. Now in the PrintFix Pro software, I used PhotoPlus Semi-Gloss as my starting point. I printed off the 3 sheets of test patches, made the readings, then built the profile. Following this, all excited that I finally managed to profile my workflow, I moved onto photoshop. I opened up an image that had nice shadows with detail, etc. I duplicated the file, hit soft proof and set it up as follows: Simulate black ink, black point compensation, relative colormetric and chose the profile for the Moab paper i had just made. Colors looked good, but dynamic range looked a touch flat compared to my original interpretation so I adjusted.

When the print came out, it looked all wrong. All shadow detail was gone, the print had an overall "dark" look compared to the screen. (I know the brightness difference should be expected due to the reflectance of the paper vs. the way the monitor projects it's light) The overall picture was shifting blue. I had photoshop manage the color with my new profile for this paper, turned off color management in the driver. This wasn't just a small difference between print and screen. The difference was enormous. So before I waste any more paper, I come to you guys to see if you could give me a bit of advice, hopefully that goes beyond (as folks in another message board have stated) buy new stuff...obviously not understanding that I don't have that kind of money/just bought the PrintFix after reading LL's review.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to give me a hand on this.....
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digitaldog

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Color Management Confusion
« Reply #1 on: September 20, 2007, 06:49:16 pm »

Do you have a generic profile you can also try? Its not out of the question that the profile you built is at fault. Comparing it to another might be useful.
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cwdegidio

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Color Management Confusion
« Reply #2 on: September 20, 2007, 06:59:36 pm »

Will do, going to try it in a minute, I'll write back and let you know.
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cwdegidio

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Color Management Confusion
« Reply #3 on: September 20, 2007, 07:35:41 pm »

Well, I did as you suggested and i think I have figured out the issue. Apparently, last night at some point, the driver reverted my No Color Management decision and was applying color management. When I used Moab's canned profile, the image looked close to the softproof (although their profile is a bit flat and not very rich), when i went back and decided to try my profile again, I made absolute sure that the No color management choice was applied. In the end the print from my profile came out looking how it should compared to the on screen soft proof...a bit flat tonality wise but nice color, added a touch of contrast while viewing the soft proof and got the print out of the printer the way both soft proof and i thought it should look. Thanks for the help, going back and going through the steps again was all I needed.
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