Color Management – getting closer

BK
Posted By
Barb_K
Jan 9, 2004
Views
275
Replies
6
Status
Closed
OK – I’m running Win XP and PSE2. My monitor is calibrated with Adobe Gamma. I have the Ignore Exif utility. In PSE2, when I open one my photos from my camera, it looks much better with Full Color Management turned on than it does off so rather than doing additional correcting in PE2, I now I do a save as and check the box to embed Abobe RGB 1998. When printing to my Epson Photo Stylus 820, I am using Color Controls in Standard mode (instead of Epson Vivid Color) and I have tried both Same as Source and Printer Color Management in the print space. I have tested on both Epson heavy weight matte paper and Epson Premium Glossy changing the media type accordingly. In both cases, Same as Source produced less vibrant colors. Printer Color Management was more vibrant, but more so than what I see on the screen. Ideally, I’d like to be somewhere in between. Is it time to start adjusting the sliders in the color controls?

Thanks for any advice!

-Barb
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RobertHJones
Jan 9, 2004
Barb,

If your 830 came with a specific icc printer profile, you might try using that as well before making your decision.

My Epson printer is a different model than yours but a printer specific icc profile was installed with the printer driver and that gives me good results with my setup. Look at the drop down list where you selected your profile and see if there is one named for your printer.

Bob
BK
Barb_K
Jan 9, 2004
I do have an Espon 820 profile that I believe came with PIM but I have not had good results with it although I do not have my complete notes with me to confirm whether I used all the same variables I mentioned. I’ll check into it.

Thanks.
BB
brent_bertram
Jan 9, 2004
Barb,
I think you are on the right track with adjusting the color controls. Before I bought Monaco EZcolor and started creating my own profiles, I used the color controls method, and the "Printer Color Management" as the output space . I saved the color slider settings for each paper setting seperately ( because the papers do react differently ) . I was reasonably happy with the results .

For this to work successfully, you will want to be working in either limited or full color management mode ( so your image is in a defined colorspace ) . If you read Ian Lyons’ tutorial on printing in Photoshop , he mentions that kprinting to the "Printer Color Management" output space from the defined color space is "probably the best method for novice Photoshop users ". < http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps7_print/ps7_print_mac_2.h tm> .

🙂

Brent
BK
Barb_K
Jan 9, 2004
Brent-

Thanks for the reply. I saw many of your posts telling people to leave the sliders alone that I didn’t know whether to jump in there. I realize this too will take some trial and error but do you recall how sensitive the settings are… meaning would I see much of a change with a plus or minus 2 or would it take more, generally speaking.
BB
brent_bertram
Jan 9, 2004
Barb,
The "sliders alone" comments are a result of some tests done by Andrew Rodney and Ian Lyons with the Epson drive a couple years ago. They were trying to get the best color "bandwidth" through the driver. They found that using the "color slider" mode gave good color rendition , so that became a respectable option. It was not meant to imply, though, that you shouldn’t move the sliders, simply that you didn’t HAVE to move the sliders to benefit from using that printing mode of the Epson driver.

I ( and others ) have found that moving the sliders is a good way to deal with persistent color casts or deviations, but its best done in a systematic manner, saving the settings as custom configurations, and "touching them up" and resaving them as necessary.

A profiling package gives your substantially better control over the printed output, but I can understand how spending the $$ might not seem worthwhile. If I weren’t such a "nut" , I certainly wouldn’t have spent the money, but I think this is quite a bit of fun.

I tended to adjust the sliders in increments of 5 units to start with. I always practiced on the Epson Matte paper, it takes color well and is relatively inexpensive.

🙂

Brent
B
Bobs
Jan 9, 2004
On Fri, 9 Jan 2004 08:30:18 -0800, wrote:

OK – I’m running Win XP and PSE2. My monitor is calibrated with Adobe Gamma. I have the Ignore Exif utility. In PSE2, when I open one my photos from my camera, it looks much better with Full Color Management turned on than it does off so rather than doing additional correcting in PE2, I now I do a save as and check the box to embed Abobe RGB 1998. When printing to my Epson Photo Stylus 820, I am using Color Controls in Standard mode (instead of Epson Vivid Color) and I have tried both Same as Source and Printer Color Management in the print space. I have tested on both Epson heavy weight matte paper and Epson Premium Glossy changing the media type accordingly. In both cases, Same as Source produced less vibrant colors. Printer Color Management was more vibrant, but more so than what I see on the screen. Ideally, I’d like to be somewhere in between. Is it time to start adjusting the sliders in the color controls?

Thanks for any advice!

-Barb

I doubt that embedding a color management profile will accomplish anything. Most common printer/paper combinations do well by simply converting (not embedding) your RGB image to sRGB before printing it.

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