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Author Topic: Print color not correct after slide scanning  (Read 2509 times)

Lynn Williams

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Print color not correct after slide scanning
« on: January 23, 2018, 10:59:06 am »

Work flow: Nikon Coolscan scanner, Lightroom and Photoshop CS6, Epson 7600 and 4900. Good nozzle checks on both. Epson Premium Luster paper.

Here's my issue. My family has been diving all over the world for the past 30 years. I have literally thousands of underwater slides. With the above set up, I decided to scan and print some of my best slides. Most of what I consider to be my best, involve a color that I would call "deep ocean blue". In scanning the slides I have the settings recommended in the book "The Vuescan Bible". The scan looks perfect on the screen, but when I print it, the print will not reproduce the deep blue on the scan. The monitor is calibrated, I used the the Epson media print profiles and tried letting the printer manage the color all with the same result. I printed from both Lightroom and Photoshop...same result. Both printers also produce the washed out blue effect so I don't think it's the printers. I also re-scanned the slide changing the color gamut with no difference. I adjusted the color with the sliders in LR and got some really strange results. The color in the rest of my printing efforts is good to excellent with pretty much WYSIWYG.

I'm pretty sure the issue has something to do with the information contained in the scan, but what? I have attached a couple of pictures taken with my cell phone. One of the screen picture and the other of the printed picture. I apologize for the quality of the pictures, but I think you will get the point. The deep blue is just not there.

Any ideas would be appreciated.
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digitaldog

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Re: Print color not correct after slide scanning
« Reply #1 on: January 23, 2018, 11:58:25 am »

It's possible the blue is out of color gamut, it's possible it's the output profile (they can have issues with blues). If blue is out of display gamut, and or printer gamut, nothing much you can do.
For WYSIWYG between display and print, best to use a color reference image for such testing: http://www.digitaldog.net/files/2014PrinterTestFileFlat.tif.zip
Nail that as close as you can, then we can move onto the specific images thereafter. In terms of getting a match, this video may help:


Why are my prints too dark?
A video update to a written piece on subject from 2013

In this 24 minute video, I'll cover:
Are your prints really too dark?
Display calibration and WYSIWYG
Proper print viewing conditions
Trouble shooting to get a match
Avoiding kludges that don't solve the problem

High resolution: http://digitaldog.net/files/Why_are_my_prints_too_dark.mp4
Low resolution: https://youtu.be/iS6sjZmxjY4
« Last Edit: January 23, 2018, 12:08:12 pm by digitaldog »
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Author "Color Management for Photographers".

Lynn Williams

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Re: Print color not correct after slide scanning
« Reply #2 on: January 23, 2018, 01:50:51 pm »

Ok...I downloaded your calibration sheet, opened it in Lightroom and printed it on premium luster. I then compared it to the screen version. I am somewhat off, but the deep blues that I am looking for are there. So, that would maybe point to the scanner not providing accurate color information...or me having it set wrong.

I have a professionally done print of one of my slides that was done several years ago. It has the deep blue that I'm looking for. I think I will take it outside, take a picture of it with my D90 and then print it and see if the blues reproduce. If so, then it pretty much has to be the scans.

Can you tell me what basic settings you use in Lightroom to print your test profile?

Again...I took a picture of your test print and my monitor (Apple Thunderbolt) version with my cell phone....:-). I have attached it here.

Off to take a picture and then re-calibrate everything.

Thank you for your reply......really informative video.
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digitaldog

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Re: Print color not correct after slide scanning
« Reply #3 on: January 23, 2018, 02:23:03 pm »

Ok...I downloaded your calibration sheet, opened it in Lightroom and printed it on premium luster. I then compared it to the screen version. I am somewhat off, but the deep blues that I am looking for are there. So, that would maybe point to the scanner not providing accurate color information...or me having it set wrong.
It seems so at this point since blue's in the test file output to your satisfaction. What is the color space of the scans?
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Lynn Williams

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Re: Print color not correct after slide scanning
« Reply #4 on: January 23, 2018, 04:56:09 pm »

Photoshop, in the top left corner says "RGB". The scanned image says PhotoRGB.....? I might try rescanning in another color space and see if that helps.

I use Colormunki for calibration. I am going to recalibrate the monitor and both printers and then see what happens.

Thanks again for all the help.
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digitaldog

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Re: Print color not correct after slide scanning
« Reply #5 on: January 23, 2018, 06:34:34 pm »

 ProPhoto RGB shouldn’t be an issue. Just wanted to make sure it wasn't something like sRGB which could clip some colors.
Photoshop can show you any open document's color space if you toggle the little fly out triangle in the lower left of the image:



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Lynn Williams

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Re: Print color not correct after slide scanning
« Reply #6 on: January 24, 2018, 05:49:53 pm »

After more investigation, here is where I am now. This morning I moved the image that I have been working with over to "Photos". I printed the image from there and it printed nearly perfect with the "deep blues" present. This afternoon I loaded the image onto a stick and took it over to an artist friend of mine's studio. We loaded the image into PS and printed it on his Epson large format printer. The image printed perfectly, so it's not the scan or the scanner.

So..as I have problems printing this image from both PS and LR, in both my 9600 and 4900........something in the interface for both seems to be messed up. The 4900 is wired directly via USB and the 9600 in connected through my home network. I am using a fairly new Mac Mini and a 4TB LaCie external disk.

Maybe I should erase the drivers for both printers and reload them.

I usually let LR or PS control the color of the prints using the Epson profiles for my specific media. Maybe somehow, the printer and the the PS/LR application are both trying to control the color output? Seems a very clear choice in PS but LR, not so clear. The problem with this theory is that my set up printed your test sheet almost perfectly...granted it wasn't completely perfect, but fairly close.

Progress, but driving me nuts.

Thanks
« Last Edit: January 24, 2018, 05:55:07 pm by Lynn Williams »
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