Rand: just for clarity - when you speak of "the drop in contrast, saturation, luminance etc.", what state is the "drop" from? No softproofing at all, or softproofing of this paper compared with another paper?
I do my softproofing and printing from Lr most of the time, as I did when I prepared the analyses of this paper and I agree with you that upon pressing "S", the change is quite remarkable - but that's exactly what I expected, because there is no "paper white" to speak of in this case. It's "paper grey" - very grey. And the reflectance is unusual for a PK paper, because the surface of the paper is much less reflective than we would find from a normal luster paper even though both use PK inks. I would be much more surprised if there were no surprise from the softproof.
Now, all that said, there would appear to be some limitation of what a softproof can tell us, especially when dealing with papers having characteristics that perhaps can't be fully replicated by the numbers and equations used in a softproofing exercise. So some disconnect between the softproof and the print should be expected, but I found the guidance from the softproof is still useful. One needs to make a couple of test prints of a decent printer evaluation target, compare the outcomes with the softproof and decide on what side to err when using the softproof as guidance for the print. I found that the softproof (with my custom profile) exaggerates the apparent toning down of luminance and saturation, such that the print which emerges is more lively than expected from the softproof. Knowing that, one exercises more conservatism on the adjustments one makes under softproof. It isn't ideal, but with specialty products like this experience indicates that one shouldn't expect 100% coherence between softproof and print.
Mark,
Yes, from a file that has been processed to my intent. Then softproof launched, and the box checked. As you say, BIG change. Part of the dramatic difference is probably due to using good custom profiles on papers like Ilford GFS, where the change is very very slight for most images. Another difference is that after one has softproofed a lot, the “go to” adjustments to start getting close become familiar, in general. But in softproofing this paper, my normal approaches were either dramatically less effective, or the wrong “general direction to go.” I’m still testing and learning.
Thanks for the feedback.
Rand
