tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27557058.post1499518824671246565..comments2024-01-18T05:34:40.549-07:00Comments on Behind The Lens: Soft ProofingGeorge Barrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06745541057122821349noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27557058.post-38679792877319909322010-06-15T06:23:29.185-06:002010-06-15T06:23:29.185-06:00a printer which employs a printing process that us...a printer which employs a printing process that uses heat to transfer dye to a medium such as a plastic card, paper or canvas. The process is usually to <a href="http://www.thenerds.net/Electronics_GPS_Navigation_Systems_Store.html" rel="nofollow"> Portable GPS </a> lay one colour at a time using a ribbon that has colour panels. Dye-sub printers are intended primarily for high-quality colour applications, including colour photography; and are less well-suited for textAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27557058.post-13524325780694908442008-06-22T08:04:00.000-06:002008-06-22T08:04:00.000-06:00Good Job! :)Good Job! :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27557058.post-20553268799711592332008-01-07T13:22:00.000-07:002008-01-07T13:22:00.000-07:00George, Yes they do, so they are limited to pretty...George, Yes they do, so they are limited to pretty much sRGB.<BR/><BR/>But inspired by your lab I called around in Toronto and found a lab that no only offers the Epson 9800 but also the new Epson 11000 series printer (will arrive today).<BR/><BR/>But talking with the tech there he was saying that depending on the paper you are still limited to aRGB.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27557058.post-73093273481579936482008-01-07T12:14:00.000-07:002008-01-07T12:14:00.000-07:00David:aren't the printers you mention outputing to...David:<BR/><BR/>aren't the printers you mention outputing to chemical processed photographic paper rather than printing inkjet? I know that ABL offers both lightjet and inkjet output.<BR/><BR/>GeorgeGeorge Barrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06745541057122821349noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27557058.post-52468385623796287742008-01-07T12:10:00.000-07:002008-01-07T12:10:00.000-07:00Must be nice! lol I'm in Ontario and here there is...Must be nice! lol I'm in Ontario and here there is a huge selection of labs but most just use the high output machine like Noritsu or the Fuji Frontier. These machines don't even read embedded ICC profiles, to get acqurite results you really need to convert you image to the printers profile.<BR/><BR/>But here is a funny situation. A lot of "Pro" labs in Toronto use these machines....so does Costco lol.<BR/><BR/>Maybe I should be looking around a little more in my area. For my wedding and portrait work Costco is very worth while, but it would be real nice to produce some high quality fine art prints.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27557058.post-29553451540297956872008-01-07T12:03:00.000-07:002008-01-07T12:03:00.000-07:00Checked with my local professional printer, ABL, h...Checked with my local professional printer, ABL, here in Calgary. They are printing to an Epson 9800 and use Adobe 1998 as their standard colour space. they do not supply profiles for soft proofing though with Epson I suspect that if you used a canned profile for soft proofing, you'd do very well.George Barrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06745541057122821349noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27557058.post-78813144826266899712008-01-07T11:38:00.000-07:002008-01-07T11:38:00.000-07:00You are very right George and that is why I captur...You are very right George and that is why I capture in RAW, that gives me the option on later using larger Colour Spaces. But one thing you are not taking to account is that the printing industry is behind on the colour space thing.<BR/>Yes printer today are able to produce a colour gamut equal to Adobe RGB and some as high as ProPhoto, but that doesn't mean the labs that use them take advantage of that fact. In fact most labs in North America and all in my area calibrate their machines for the sRGB colour space....yes even the so called "Pro" labs. They may advertise that they except aRGB, but as soon as they get them the first thing they do is convert them to their printers profile which has a gamut no bigger then sRGB. The main reason they do this is for technical reasons, they just don't want to deal with the headaches a large gamut would produce.<BR/><BR/>If you are lucky enough to afford a wide format printer at home you are in a better situation the us "Lab Rats" because most mid to high range printers from companies like Canon, Epson and HP can handle Adobe RGB and both Epson and Canon have come out with wide format printers that can produce 16-bit Prophoto prints...but those printers start at around $8000 range.<BR/><BR/>So till the Labs catch up with the colour space there is no real advantage to even dealing with aRGB or ProPhoto...the Labs jsut can produce the colour gamut that these spaces use. Just like images for the web, if the image is only gonna be use on the web, what is the use of even using a large colour space?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27557058.post-84624267880593067242008-01-06T22:31:00.000-07:002008-01-06T22:31:00.000-07:00It's not too surprising that you have a reasonable...It's not too surprising that you have a reasonable match since sRGB is such a small colourspace that there are virtually no printers not capable of reproducing it. Problem is, you are significantly limiting yourself by doing so - basically saying I will never work with really saturated colours so I can't miss what I never saw. Most cameras are capable of significantly better and assuming you are shooting raw, are capable of outputing in Adobe RGB which is significantly bigger space or as I and a lot of others do, into Prophoto RGB which takes absolute maximum advantage of the really good printers and inks of the last year or two.George Barrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06745541057122821349noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27557058.post-60891673738049090952008-01-06T22:11:00.000-07:002008-01-06T22:11:00.000-07:00I always thought I knew a lot about printing, but ...I always thought I knew a lot about printing, but when I started looking into soft proofing and such I found that the process works differently with different printers. I print at a lab where the printer can not read the ICC profile so the steps I have to do is<BR/><BR/>-Edit in sRGB and get the image looking good.<BR/><BR/>-Soft Proof using the labs printer profile. 9times out of 10 the print looks really good and there are no gamma warnings. If there is then I just adjust the problem colours saturation and luminosity time I have tamed it.<BR/><BR/>-Convert the image to my labs printer profile.<BR/><BR/>-send it in<BR/><BR/>I have a good batting average this way and the only colour I have a problem with is yellow and I have heard that is because the Fuji paper my lab uses has problems with yellow.<BR/>But when printed I get a very close print compared to my monitorAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27557058.post-42511330279490574142008-01-05T01:51:00.000-07:002008-01-05T01:51:00.000-07:00Are you soft proofing with Simulate PAPER WHITE tu...Are you soft proofing with Simulate PAPER WHITE turned on? It could be that you are only seeing the effect of Photoshop turning off simulate PAPER WHITE when CONVERT TO PROFILE is used. This feature has nothing to do with the eventual print quality.alwhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00520846903581278433noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27557058.post-75740076476520835782008-01-04T11:06:00.000-07:002008-01-04T11:06:00.000-07:00That's a really interesting question. To be honest...That's a really interesting question. To be honest, I don't know the working of colour enough to give you a technical answer of what's going on, but a simple experiment gave me the practical answer - no. When I converted an image to my enhanced matte profile, the image got brighter but shadows didn't get weaker as one would expect when representing a matte paper and it looked nothing like the soft proof image.George Barrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06745541057122821349noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27557058.post-59729372521163108542008-01-04T10:43:00.000-07:002008-01-04T10:43:00.000-07:00Is it not possible instead to use Photoshop's CONV...Is it not possible instead to use Photoshop's CONVERT TO PROFILE (i.e. convert to the desired printer-paper profile), work the resulting screen image and finally print that image with NO COLOR MANAGED?alwhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00520846903581278433noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27557058.post-44056763743898523092007-12-29T14:58:00.000-07:002007-12-29T14:58:00.000-07:00Agreed, of course there is a bigger gap between th...Agreed, of course there is a bigger gap between the original and the soft proof with matte papers because of the reduced dynamic range and scattered light coming off the colour and affecting both hue and saturation of the colours. I note that with the Harman FBAL gloss paper, there is very little (but some) difference when you turn on soft proofing. Getting back to the original has got to be simpler and easier.George Barrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06745541057122821349noreply@blogger.com