I have been visiting these forums many times but this is my first post. I have an Epson R2880 and I am still exploring the world of paper and printing. I am very happy with the printer and so far it has really produced stunning prints. I recently purchased a set of Hahnemuhle PhotoRag 308g - I really like the feel of this paper but the reds give me an issue. Skin tones become way too pink compared to the screen.
I am using a calibrated monitor and I have checked my color management setup more times than I care to think about. I can get output to closely match the screen on Epson Ultra Premium Lustre and Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Silk but with the PhotoRag I am just stuck. The PhotoRag profile is downloaded from Hahnemuhle's web page. I have read their printing instructions numerous times and I am pretty certain that I have all the settings nailed. I print from Lightroom 3.
Out of curiosity I tried adjusting the color balance in Photoshop and when I apply about 7 degrees of hue shift towards yellows for reds in the range of 15-25 degrees it looks better (on the printer but like c**p on the screen) - but hey wasn't color management supposed to take care of this?
I now suspect that the Hahnemule profile is not accurate for my printer (but the Epson and Ilford profiles are good with the nod going to Epson). Does anybody else with R2880 printing on PhotoRag have the same issue? I guess that the simplest solution would be to go B&W or just lower my expectations However, I guess that I may have to resign my self to having a custom profile cooked.
Any comments, feedback or ideas are welcome.
Thanks
Tore
When softproofing three different "PhotoRag"-profiles, I get the worst (or least pleasant) result from the generic Hahn profile. But more to orange in the reds. And that's problaby the famous "Red-turns-orange-blue-turns-purple" problem, due to the curved radius in CIE-Lab.
Which is easy to edit when building the profile.
Have you tried different rendering intents?
Maybe it's worth a few bucks for a custom-made?
/Sven
PS It's also a huge different in gamut volume between the paper-types you mention.
Measured from the same inkset, Ultrachrome K3+Vivid Magenta:
HahnPhotoRag(from your used profile): 513.987
Epson HotPress: 999.306
Epson Exhibition: 1.457.917
A higher figure means more saturated colors, so the HahnPR should show a lower saturation but with the correct hue.
