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Author Topic: LR4 Softproof vs CS5  (Read 3003 times)

walter.sk

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LR4 Softproof vs CS5
« on: January 23, 2012, 03:57:31 pm »

I have a couple of questions about the LR4 softproofing compared to that of CS5.  My last version of LR was 2.7, at which point I found little real advantage for me of using LR, since I do so much work in CS5 plus 3rd party filters.  I softproof in CS5 and use adjustment layers to make the softproofed image look as close as I can get it to the original image, with the two of them side-by-side.  I use Qimage for printing, which gives a fairly accurate softproofed view of the image, and I compare that with the printed image which I view in a dimmable lightbox (Just Normlicht.)  The reason I use Qimage is that it seems that I can easily override the size limitations of my Epson 4900 printer, and there are some other aspects of Qimage that I find more helpful than printing from CS5.

I still have no overriding reason to use LR, but I have tried the LR4 beta.  As far as I can tell, the only advantage it has over the softproofing in CS5 has to do with the convenience of setting up the side-by-side pair of images, but I would be more likely to get LR4 if:

1) The accuracy of the softproofing is higher than that of CS5 (some new paradigm in simulating the softproof from the printer profile), and,

2) Would there be a way of exporting the image with the softproof adjustments to Qimage?  Or would I still have to open the original image and the softproofed virtual copy in CS5 and somehow make the adjusted softproofed virtual copy into a layer or layer group on top of my original image, which would add steps to the workflow?
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digitaldog

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Re: LR4 Softproof vs CS5
« Reply #1 on: January 23, 2012, 04:02:37 pm »

Accuracy of the soft proof in the beta is a tad buggy, certainly in terms of OOG overlay. It is a beta.

Advantages however over Photoshop are numerous. Once the Out of Gamut for display bug is fixed, that will be real darn useful to see what isn’t visisble in the output color space that is in gamut in the destination for editing. All edits are parametric unlike those in Photoshop. The before and after is much better. The UI is better (the simulate paper and ink don’t look anywhere as shocking as they update thanks to the way the white bkgnd updates and the overall UI). Virtual Copies with output specific edits for printing are super useful and take up on extra space on disk. You don’t have to even remember the rendering intent used when printing, the print module is smart enough to set itself based on what you picked in Develop. In short, soft proofing and printing in Photoshop is a slower and frustrating exercise LR4 users no longer have to put up with.

You can export the VC with the edits as a TIFF or PSD.
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walter.sk

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Re: LR4 Softproof vs CS5
« Reply #2 on: January 23, 2012, 10:51:24 pm »

Thanks for the reply.  The advantages in LR sound tempting, and the ability to export the virtual copy as a tiff will accomplish what I need to get the file into Qimage, and I would be able to delete the file rather than saving a copy of it, since the VC would still be there in LR.  I suppose it is also just as easy to create several VC's, one for each paper on which I will be printing, and stack them for storage.  That would give me a parallel to making a layer group for each paper in CS5.

I had never even though in terms of seeing which colors in the file are not in my monitor's gamut, either.  I'm not sure how vital that would be, but it certainly has potential.
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Ch-Jaeger

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Re: LR4 Softproof vs CS5
« Reply #3 on: January 29, 2012, 03:39:25 pm »

I can't make lightroom show me the blurb ICC profile, which I downloaded from the blurb website. Any idea why that is? Is lightroom limited to rgb profiles in the softproof?

I'm also a little disappointed that there is no automatic blurb-softproofing in the book module. The way that it is right now, I have to send out the images and hope for the best, which makes it pretty useless.

--
Christoph
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digitaldog

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Re: LR4 Softproof vs CS5
« Reply #4 on: January 29, 2012, 03:42:15 pm »

I can't make lightroom show me the blurb ICC profile, which I downloaded from the blurb website. Any idea why that is? Is lightroom limited to rgb profiles in the softproof?

It is a CMYK profile, LR doesn’t support this color model in any way.

Quote
I'm also a little disappointed that there is no automatic blurb-softproofing in the book module. The way that it is right now, I have to send out the images and hope for the best, which makes it pretty useless.

As is their profile which doesn’t describe much. For example, they offer differing papers right? So there is no way one profile can describe all those conditions. IOW, you can’t soft proof in LR but it is moot in the case of Blurb. They don’t supply profiles for all their print conditions. Kind of a lose/lose proposition.
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Ch-Jaeger

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Re: LR4 Softproof vs CS5
« Reply #5 on: January 29, 2012, 05:17:52 pm »

It is a CMYK profile, LR doesn’t support this color model in any way.

I kind of suspected that, thanks for making it clear.

As is their profile which doesn’t describe much. For example, they offer differing papers right? So there is no way one profile can describe all those conditions. IOW, you can’t soft proof in LR but it is moot in the case of Blurb. They don’t supply profiles for all their print conditions. Kind of a lose/lose proposition.

...making the book module only interesting for casual printing, although I really like the layout functionality.

--
Christoph
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Pete_G

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Re: LR4 Softproof vs CS5
« Reply #6 on: January 30, 2012, 06:24:37 am »

In answer to the original question, I've been spending some time getting used to soft proofing in LR4 rather than CS5 and I'm finding that I'm getting a closer match between the original file and the soft proofed copy using LR. Having easy access to all the LR sliders is very useful.
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