soft proofing question

[adam_k]

I am making my first prints with my new epson 2400 and have a few questions. First off, Im working on a 23inch cinema display thats been calibrated a week ago.
I am trying a few test prints with the epson enhanced matte paper, When soft proofing with this my photo gets posterized and looks gross. Should i adjust the image until it looks good in the soft proof?

Also i saw there is a way to work in the proof colors by pressing "apple+Y" should i have that on when making corrections?

thanks for your help

[Mark D Segal]

I am making my first prints with my new epson 2400 and have a few questions. First off, Im working on a 23inch cinema display thats been calibrated a week ago.
I am trying a few test prints with the epson enhanced matte paper, When soft proofing with this my photo gets posterized and looks gross. Should i adjust the image until it looks good in the soft proof?

Also i saw there is a way to work in the proof colors by pressing "apple+Y" should i have that on when making corrections?

thanks for your help
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Yes and yes. The whole idea of soft-proofing is to show you on the monitor what the print will probably look like when it comes out of the printer. In your soft proof set-up, make sure that you have selected "Simulate Paper White", selected Black Point Compensation and make sure you have selected the same profile that will be managing the printing process. Also make sure in Print with Preview you have selected "Let Photoshop Determine Colors" and in the Epson Printer Drive you have selected "Color Management OFF." All selectable settings in your soft-proof should match the similar settings in the Print with Preview.

Once you have the soft proofing conditions set correctly, activate soft-proof and make your final luminosity and colour correction adjustments in soft proof mode. Do it all on Adjustment Layers (I find most of the time one Curves Adj layer does most of it, sometimes complemented by an HSB Adj layer), because that set of adjustments is only valid for those soft proof conditions. If you post to the web or change the paper, the soft proof conditions change and so will the required image adjustments, so you want to be able to chuck the old ones and make new ones easily without having to re-edit the actual pixels (Adjustment Layers don't permanently alter pixels).

[thompsonkirk]

Yes but....

There's really no consensus about selecting "simulate paper white"; better to try both ways & see which best matches the print.  

When checking to see, it's helpful to use a test file like PhotoDisk, or the one you'll find on Andrew Rodney's website.

[Mark D Segal]

Yes but....

There's really no consensus about selecting "simulate paper white"; better to try both ways & see which best matches the print. 

When checking to see, it's helpful to use a test file like PhotoDisk, or the one you'll find on Andrew Rodney's website.
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Ben Long's latest article for Creative Pro, which came out yesterday, also very much recommends checking "Simulate Paper White". Whether or not there is a consensus about this - perhaps not, but I am simply relating from my own experience what works best, and I use Epson Enhanced Matte extensively. Especially with an LCD monitor, one can be trumped by monitor brightness even with very good calibration and profiling, so simulating paper white is a good idea as a starting point. I agree that each person should test the alternatives and see what delivers the best results in their own computing environment.