Softproofing with a regular monitor

[Bluzman]

Question I have regards adjustments made to an image after applying soft proofing to optimize the image before printing as described in Michael's From Camera to Print & Screen video tutorials.
 
I have a standard monitor, Viewsonic VX2739wm, I calibrate it with the Color Munki Photo unit. I am printing on a Epson R3000 using Epson ICC profiles  and a few custom profiles I have created with the Color Munki. I shoot with a Nikon D300, I use Lightroom 3.6 and Photoshop CS5 for processing on a Windows 7 machine.

IE: if the monitor I have is not capable of displaying all the colors of the printer/paper profile being used, wouldn't the changes I make to the image in the above scenario be in effect dumbing down to the monitor's gamut?

I have Color Think Pro 3.03 and when I look at the gamut for the Epson Luster R3000 ICC profile and the profile for the monitor I created with the Color Munki at the same time, the gamut for the printer/paper profile shows a considerable amount of colors outside the monitor profile.

I am matching print to screen in a color managed workflow now; the $64,000 question is: Am I clipping/discarding colors in my final print that may have been present in the image at times due to the limitation of my monitor when I use the soft proofing technique described above?

Three pictures attached, exports from Color Think. In the 2D image the red line is the Epson Luster paper profile, the green line is the monitor profile I created with the Color Munki. In the two 3D images, the wireframe is the Epson Luster profile and the smooth filled gamuts are the monitor profile.

Paul
Hendersonville, TN

[Schewe]

I am matching print to screen in a color managed workflow now; the $64,000 question is: Am I clipping/discarding colors in my final print that may have been present in the image at times due to the limitation of my monitor when I use the soft proofing technique described above?

Simple answer? Yes...and no. The bottom line is when you soft proof, does it help you achieve the optimal print? If so, then the odds are you are over thinking things...yes, your display is less than a wide gamut display. But if your display profile is good and your output profile is good, you'll "see" some reasonable indication of what the print will look like when printed–based on your chosen rendering intent. Does the spoft proofing help you achienve an optimal result? It does for me...

[pfigen]

In real world use, even the sRGB gamut monitors soft proof very effectively, and have for many years, as long as your calibrations, profiles and viewing conditions are in order.

More importantly, even though the newer printers with wider gamut media have the capability of printing more saturated colors, most images you make simply either don't contain them or not enough of them to make a noticeable difference.

The "surprises" I see still working with Sony Artisans are few and far between, with the only glaring problem being printing an industrial image with a worker in a blue lab coat, where that coat was just too blue and had to be toned down a bit and reprinted.

[Bluzman]

To be sure I am getting better results now than I ever have before by soft proofing. The new Epson printer had made a huge difference as well.

I suppose it is the product manager in me thinking this is another feature/benefit/reason for having a monitor that has or is very close to a full Adobe RGB gamut such as the NEC wide gamut monitors Jeff mentions in the video series.

It seems the weakest link effect is present in a color managed workflow for printing and right now that weakest link would be my monitor. And that I could expect even better results (at times/certain images) with a wide gamut monitor.

Thank you both for the feedback. I have learned more about color management, and more importantly, getting great prints from the Camera to Print video series (got the first one in 07 and the new one recently) than everything else I have read or seen combined.

[digitaldog]

There are all kinds of colors potentially described in lots of output color spaces that can’t be displayed on any display system. The wider gamut the display, the less that becomes an issue but nothing solves that basic condition. That and the fact a display is an emissive produce, a print reflective, you’ll never see 100% match. But the better a match, the less guess work, so don’t sweat the differences and strive for the best the technology can provide. Soft proofing isn’t perfect. But it is closer to perfection than no soft proofing.