Prints vs screen viewing - newbie question

[daz777]

Hi guys,
Im new to printing but not so new to photography. I had my Canon 1 Pro printer sitting at my desk for a couple of years, unused completely.
All I was shooting was for digital only. Recently I printed a few prints. and I think I managed to get the colour profiles and all the setting right, as there was no issue at all, colour wise.
Prints went great. Im happy with it. Not many of them are done yet, sx only but I love it seeing printed.

What surprised me though, is that one of the prints looks almost like a 3D print. The photo shows flowers and really, a couple of people told me this already that the flowers pop from the paper and look like actual flowers being glued to it and not printed at all.
Strange thing is, that on screen there is no such effect.
That suprised me completly. At first I thought must be the lighting used, but that would not explain why there is no such effect on the screen.
The photo itself looked so-so and rather flat on the monitor but after printing - oh boy, it left me speechless.

Is it normal and if so, what causes this effect to appear and why is it seen only after printing and not on the screen? Also, why on one of the photographs only? I keep scratching my head.
Does it depend on the particular lens used, printer or some other factors?

If someone knows, or had similar experience, let me know.
Thanks!

[kers]

for me it is hard to tell from here, since have not seen anything and do not know exactly what you did and about your system and viewing environment.
but some general remarks: 1 your printer is doing well being so long unused and apparently without any penalty. bravo Canon!
(i ususally would recommend to print once in a while to keep the printer alive...)

second ; A print is different than a screen. some qualities are more apparant on screen and some are more in print.
for instance; Dark color values that are looking great on a screen may turn soaked in the black in print.
grainy photos on a screen look less grainy in print...


basis to get a grip:
I would recommend to have all settings right ( write-print them with the target) and printer in good shape ( nozzles open and heads aligned etc)  and the make a reference print from a target with all kind of images on a standard Canon paper with its profile (you can download a reference file if you like - search LL)
With that in in your hand, in the future you can always check for oddities.

[MichaelKoerner]

Glad you had the experience this way (and not the other way: Bright colours on screen vs. dull print ;-).

Depending on your monitor's technology and calibration status, this sounds plausible, especially if you printed an image with large gamut (for example a RAW from Lightroom).

A similar effect opened my eyes regarding using AdobeRGB (large gamut) vs.  sRGB (smaller gamut) for printing some years ago.

I had ordered prints from my local print shop, in sRGB as usual. But I damaged one of them, and when I exported the image for reprinting, I used AdobeRGB accidentally.

The resulting image "popped out" as you describe it and convinced me in using large gamuts for high end printing from that on.

[daz777]

Yes, I was quite afraid that the nozzles may not be working or that some other problems may crop out. Fortunately, It just hummed for a couple of minutes, made the ususal cleaning cycle and started up like nothing happened. That was a nice surprise.
I've spent some time before printing reading about right settings and calibrating for the right results, so getting the colour was not a huge problem. Or maybe I was just lucky. Took me maybe 6 or 7 test prints on a smaller paper to finally to get to the setting and profiles that would work best on the paper I used.

Now, the 3D effect that surprised me so much with just one of the photos is even more peculiar, as all files were using the same exact colour gamut, final format and the profile and even the printer setting and the paper. Also, all were shot with the same digital back and using the same lights. Only thing that differed were different lenses used and the dominant subject colour.
Unfortunately, for the life of me, I cannot recall what lens I used to get this specific photo and I did not save it in the file itself.

Frankly, I did not expect such a big difference between the screen view and the print in just one of the prints. The rest basically look the same on screen and on paper, but not this one.
Im wondering if it may have something to do with specific colour palette and some ink combination giving this effect or is it just a mix of lens characteristic, chromatic aberration, noise and colours not being apparent on screen but popping out when printed.

I think that this small excercise got me hooked on printing. I may now start printing like crazy and buying ink like candies
I only now wish it was an A2+ printer and not a A3+ only printer.
Also, In the future, I will try to record all the settings and gear used just in case magic like this happening again.

[MichaelKoerner]

If you like, you could send a) one of the "normal" printing files, b) the "3D" printing file and c) the ICC profile in use. I'd like to analyze them concerning gamut and to check whether some of the file's colours where inside/outside the used printer/ink/paper's capabilities.