Luminous Landscape Forum

Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: Shirley Bracken on December 10, 2009, 05:24:46 pm

Title: Dark cast with the Epson 4880
Post by: Shirley Bracken on December 10, 2009, 05:24:46 pm

I have a 4880 Epson Stylist pro.  A mac computer.  Can't get rid of the dark cast on the prints.  Using EpsonVelvet Fine Art Paper.  Am shooting with Raw and have tried with and without adjusting the white balance on the camera.  I've also turned off the printer color manager, still dark.  I'm editing in Photoshop CS and have tried it through Iphoto.  I'm printing my fine art watercolor paintings.  Good lighting... tungsten bulbs.  Good camera.  I would appreciate any help.  Do I need the Photoshop 3 or 4?  I'm about to throw this printer out the window... or just jump myself!  help...

Title: Dark cast with the Epson 4880
Post by: KeithR on December 10, 2009, 06:12:05 pm

Quote from: Bumperjack

I have a 4880 Epson Stylist pro.  A mac computer.  Can't get rid of the dark cast on the prints.  Using EpsonVelvet Fine Art Paper.  Am shooting with Raw and have tried with and without adjusting the white balance on the camera.  I've also turned off the printer color manager, still dark.  I'm editing in Photoshop CS and have tried it through Iphoto.  I'm printing my fine art watercolor paintings.  Good lighting... tungsten bulbs.  Good camera.  I would appreciate any help.  Do I need the Photoshop 3 or 4?  I'm about to throw this printer out the window... or just jump myself!  help...

Don't throw the printer out the window! Just package it up and send it to me
But seriously, you don't indicate what kind of color management you use. Is your monitor calibrated? Is your printer and paper profiled? What profiles are you using? Have you applied them correctly? Have you soft proofed. And if you are still using CS you may want to seriously consider upgrading to CS4 before CS5 comes out. If you wait, you may not be able to upgrade from CS to CS5.

Title: Dark cast with the Epson 4880
Post by: Shirley Bracken on December 10, 2009, 06:30:36 pm

Quote from: KeithR

Don't throw the printer out the window! Just package it up and send it to me
But seriously, you don't indicate what kind of color management you use. Is your monitor calibrated? Is your printer and paper profiled? What profiles are you using? Have you applied them correctly? Have you soft proofed. And if you are still using CS you may want to seriously consider upgrading to CS4 before CS5 comes out. If you wait, you may not be able to upgrade from CS to CS5.

I must confess, I am new to the Epson printer I bought.  You have given me some things to research.  Anything you can tell me to keep me from the beginner first mistakes, I would appreciate!  I found the CS4 for about $700. is that par?

Title: Dark cast with the Epson 4880
Post by: Wayne Fox on December 10, 2009, 08:40:34 pm

You might start by doing a google search for color management primers or some such term, since you are very new to this.

the most common elements missed by those new are setting up a consistent viewing station to judge their prints by, and understanding the relationship of the brightness of the monitor to that viewing station.  One of the most common questions on the internet is why are my prints too dark, and the answer is almost always because their display is much too bright so their resulting files are too dense.  I assume you will find this in your research.

While your application is somewhat unique and different, the video offered here on this site, From Camera to Print, I believe would be a very good primer as it guides you through all the steps of exposing properly, adjusting the resulting RAW file, profiling your display and printers and printing.

http://luminous-landscape.com/videos/camera-print.sht (http://luminous-landscape.com/videos/camera-print.sht)

Title: Dark cast with the Epson 4880
Post by: Schewe on December 10, 2009, 08:47:02 pm

Quote from: Bumperjack

I found the CS4 for about $700. is that par?

If you OWN Photoshop CS, you can buy the upgrade to CS4 for about $199. And, you DO want to be doing that soon'ish because Adobe's upgrade policy is now to offer upgrade pricing for version 3 versions old. So, CS would still be able to upgrade to CS4, but would NOT be able to upgrade to CS5 when it comes out...

Title: Dark cast with the Epson 4880
Post by: Shirley Bracken on December 11, 2009, 06:48:41 am

Thank you Wayne for heading me in the right direction.  I am going to buy that tutorial.  I know you sighed when you saw my question.  I just need the structure you can give me to learn this.  I will study this tutorial and get back to get the next puzzle piece.  Thanks!

Schewe, Thank you, I will buy the upgrade today.  

This is some of the 2D work I need to photograph and print.  This is 22"X30".

I appreciate the assistance.