Red and Black mix

BN
Posted By
Bill Newton
Aug 1, 2005
Views
364
Replies
12
Status
Closed
I recently took some digital photographs at a wedding, and on producing the first printout from Photoshop 7 on my Epson 1270, I see the dark suits worn by the men are littered with scattered red pixels.

I would be very grateful if one of you enthusiasts out there could offer me some advice as to what the cause of the problem is, and maybe how it could be rectified.

Thanks in anticipation of a helpful response.

Regards.

Bill.

How to Master Sharpening in Photoshop

Give your photos a professional finish with sharpening in Photoshop. Learn to enhance details, create contrast, and prepare your images for print, web, and social media.

O
Owamanga
Aug 1, 2005
On Mon, 1 Aug 2005 15:36:29 +0000 (UTC), "Bill Newton" wrote:

I recently took some digital photographs at a wedding, and on producing the first printout from Photoshop 7 on my Epson 1270, I see the dark suits worn by the men are littered with scattered red pixels.

I would be very grateful if one of you enthusiasts out there could offer me some advice as to what the cause of the problem is, and maybe how it could be rectified.

Any chance of a crop of a scan of the printout, so we can *see* what’s going on.

And, I’m guessing the red spots are *not* on the original image?

Thanks in anticipation of a helpful response.


Owamanga!
http://www.pbase.com/owamanga
HL
Harry Limey
Aug 1, 2005
"Bill Newton" wrote in message
I recently took some digital photographs at a wedding, and on producing
the
first printout from Photoshop 7 on my Epson 1270, I see the dark suits
worn
by the men are littered with scattered red pixels.

I would be very grateful if one of you enthusiasts out there could offer
me
some advice as to what the cause of the problem is, and maybe how it could be rectified.

Thanks in anticipation of a helpful response.

Regards.

Bill.
May be nothing to do with it!! but, when my black ink cartridge is on its way out, the first signs are dark red where it should be black!! Harry
BN
Bill Newton
Aug 1, 2005
"Owamanga" wrote in message
On Mon, 1 Aug 2005 15:36:29 +0000 (UTC), "Bill Newton" wrote:

Any chance of a crop of a scan of the printout, so we can *see* what’s going on.

Thanks for responding:-) Unfortunately I’m the ultimate non- technical bod and I have no idea how to respond to what you ask.

I can tell you that the red pixels are not obvious when viewing the photo on screen …….. they just appear in the printout. They’re not huge spots, in fact they can be difficult to see, depending on the size of the photo printout, but they are there ………… and they do spoil the picture.

Sorry to be so unknowledgable in trying to explain my problem, but I do appreciate you trying to help.

Regards.

Bill Newton.

P.S I just went back to review my photo prior to posting this e-mail, and I magnified as far as possible one of the affected areas which was totally black, ( I thought) however at that magnification it became clear that a number of redish pixels were in fact dotted throughout all of the ‘black’ parts.

I’m still confused though, the suits certainly had no red in them so I dont know where it’s come from!

Hope that helps you …….. to help me 🙂

Bill.

Owamanga!
http://www.pbase.com/owamanga
O
Owamanga
Aug 1, 2005
On Mon, 1 Aug 2005 17:56:54 +0100, "Harry Limey" <harrylimey[@]lycos.co.uk> wrote:

"Bill Newton" wrote in message
I recently took some digital photographs at a wedding, and on producing
the
first printout from Photoshop 7 on my Epson 1270, I see the dark suits
worn
by the men are littered with scattered red pixels.

I would be very grateful if one of you enthusiasts out there could offer
me
some advice as to what the cause of the problem is, and maybe how it could be rectified.

Thanks in anticipation of a helpful response.

Regards.

Bill.
May be nothing to do with it!! but, when my black ink cartridge is on its way out, the first signs are dark red where it should be black!!

I think Harry’s hit the nail on the head. Swap the black cartridge and see if that helps. After that do a nozzle check (an option in the printer setup dialog) to make sure the blacks are all firing.

The reason it’s laying down read is that nothing in your photo will be pure black, it’ll be a very very dark shade of something. When the printer fails to drop black ink everywhere it intended, you get to see some of the underlying tints.


Owamanga!
http://www.pbase.com/owamanga
BN
Bill Newton
Aug 1, 2005
"Owamanga" wrote in message

I think Harry’s hit the nail on the head. Swap the black cartridge and see if that helps. After that do a nozzle check (an option in the printer setup dialog) to make sure the blacks are all firing.
The reason it’s laying down read is that nothing in your photo will be pure black, it’ll be a very very dark shade of something. When the printer fails to drop black ink everywhere it intended, you get to see some of the underlying tints.

I’ll buy a new cartridge and try the swap to morrow.

Many thanks to you and Harry for taking time out to respond.

Fingers Crossed :-))

Regards.
Bill.
BN
Bill Newton
Aug 2, 2005
"Bill Newton" wrote in message
"Owamanga" wrote in message

I’ll buy a new cartridge and try the swap to morrow.

Groan!!! I tried it out with a brand new original Epson cartridge, but the red pixel problem remains:-((

Could the problem relate to my ‘colour settings’ I had a look at them but I didn’t understand what I was supposed to insert in the appropriate boxes.

I just this minute posted the same question on another photoshop group and I await any helpful suggestions.

Thanks again for taking time to respond.

Regards.

Bill Newton
O
Owamanga
Aug 2, 2005
On Tue, 2 Aug 2005 11:02:36 +0000 (UTC), "Bill Newton" wrote:

"Bill Newton" wrote in message
"Owamanga" wrote in message

I’ll buy a new cartridge and try the swap to morrow.

Groan!!! I tried it out with a brand new original Epson cartridge, but the red pixel problem remains:-((

Could the problem relate to my ‘colour settings’ I had a look at them but I didn’t understand what I was supposed to insert in the appropriate boxes.
I just this minute posted the same question on another photoshop group and I await any helpful suggestions.

Thanks again for taking time to respond.

Did you do a nozzle-check, how did that look?


Owamanga!
http://www.pbase.com/owamanga
BN
Bill Newton
Aug 2, 2005
"Owamanga" wrote in message
On Tue, 2 Aug 2005 11:02:36 +0000 (UTC), "Bill Newton" wrote:

"Bill Newton" wrote in message
"Owamanga" wrote in message

Did you do a nozzle-check, how did that look?

Yes, I did that and it looked perfect!

Bill
O
Owamanga
Aug 2, 2005
On Tue, 2 Aug 2005 11:50:30 +0000 (UTC), "Bill Newton" wrote:

"Owamanga" wrote in message
On Tue, 2 Aug 2005 11:02:36 +0000 (UTC), "Bill Newton" wrote:

"Bill Newton" wrote in message
"Owamanga" wrote in message

Did you do a nozzle-check, how did that look?

Yes, I did that and it looked perfect!

Damn. That’s stumped me then.

I wonder if it is just noise that just doesn’t show up too much on the screen? Make a test image by cutting a strips from the jacket part of the image, and repeatedly paste it side by side into a new image. In Photohshop, try a couple of strips with a de-noise filter at different settings, one with a levels adjustment that pushes shadows towards deep black, and a control strip with nothing done to it. Print it and see if anything there helps the problem.

I’ve all but given up on home-printing now. I send most of my digital stuff to www.mpix.com who do digital wet prints onto real professional grade photographic paper. Good if you live in the US. $0.29 for a 6×4, $1.99 for an 8×10. Hard to beat if you factor in the costs of paper, ink, printer, guillotine, mistakes, dried nozzles etc that home-printing brings.

Disadvantage with mpix is that you need to batch up the print jobs, otherwise the post & packaging kills you. This means you might only order prints once every two months, so a fast turnaround isn’t feasible. The quality however, is superb and the prints will last better than standard ink-jet stuff.


Owamanga!
http://www.pbase.com/owamanga
BN
Bill Newton
Aug 2, 2005
Thanks for all your advice, it’s greatly appreciated. I shall endeavour to do
as you suggest below, although at first reading I barely understood any of it. That’s my ignorance and I need to learn!!

Many thanks for your time.

Regards.

Bill

"Owamanga" wrote in message
Did you do a nozzle-check, how did that look?

Yes, I did that and it looked perfect!

Damn. That’s stumped me then.

I wonder if it is just noise that just doesn’t show up too much on the screen? Make a test image by cutting a strips from the jacket part of the image, and repeatedly paste it side by side into a new image. In Photohshop, try a couple of strips with a de-noise filter at different settings, one with a levels adjustment that pushes shadows towards deep black, and a control strip with nothing done to it. Print it and see if anything there helps the problem.
O
Owamanga
Aug 2, 2005
On Tue, 2 Aug 2005 14:56:31 +0000 (UTC), "Bill Newton" wrote:

Thanks for all your advice, it’s greatly appreciated. I shall endeavour to do
as you suggest below, although at first reading I barely understood any of it. That’s my ignorance and I need to learn!!

I can explain it in more detail – it’s difficult to determine somebody’s level of knowledge in Photoshop.

The result I’m talking about would be similar to this traditional darkroom method of getting an exposure right:

http://www.davidrichert.com/Moon%20and%20Shooting%20Stars%20 1.jpg

…except I’d probably cut & paste a strip from the original and repeat it, so that each strip starts off being identical. Then, one by one select the strip with a rubber-band box and apply different filters / adjustments to each strip so you can tell what works and what doesn’t on the final print.

Try these:

Strip1: Filter/Noise/Despecle
Strip2: Filter/Noise/Dust & Scratches: Rad 1, Thresh 120 Strip3: Image/Adjustment/Levels Move the left hand black slider in towards the center of the graph. So the first number on the input levels box reads 30-40.
Strip4: Leave it alone for comparison

There are some good commercial de-noise plugins that will do a better job (Noise Ninja etc) but I expect you don’t have these.

On a separate tact, you might also want to try this:

Zoom in on the suit part of the image, to 100% (View/Actual Pixels).

Now choose Window/Channels from the menu so you can see the channels dialog. One by one, select the Red, Green and Blue channels and look to see if the red-dot pattern can be seen in the main window (it should appear as a black & white image). If this view lets you see the dots, you can now see when you’ve been successful in removing it without having to waste more paper doing test prints. You can also apply filters to just the one channel (probably the Red) that has the problem by having just that one channel selected before applying the filter.


Owamanga!
http://www.pbase.com/owamanga
K
KatWoman
Aug 3, 2005
"Owamanga" wrote in message
On Tue, 2 Aug 2005 14:56:31 +0000 (UTC), "Bill Newton" wrote:

Thanks for all your advice, it’s greatly appreciated. I shall endeavour to do
as you suggest below, although at first reading I barely understood any of it. That’s my ignorance and I need to learn!!

I can explain it in more detail – it’s difficult to determine somebody’s level of knowledge in Photoshop.

The result I’m talking about would be similar to this traditional darkroom method of getting an exposure right:

http://www.davidrichert.com/Moon%20and%20Shooting%20Stars%20 1.jpg
..except I’d probably cut & paste a strip from the original and repeat it, so that each strip starts off being identical. Then, one by one select the strip with a rubber-band box and apply different filters / adjustments to each strip so you can tell what works and what doesn’t on the final print.

Try these:

Strip1: Filter/Noise/Despecle
Strip2: Filter/Noise/Dust & Scratches: Rad 1, Thresh 120 Strip3: Image/Adjustment/Levels Move the left hand black slider in towards the center of the graph. So the first number on the input levels box reads 30-40.
Strip4: Leave it alone for comparison

There are some good commercial de-noise plugins that will do a better job (Noise Ninja etc) but I expect you don’t have these.
On a separate tact, you might also want to try this:

Zoom in on the suit part of the image, to 100% (View/Actual Pixels).
Now choose Window/Channels from the menu so you can see the channels dialog. One by one, select the Red, Green and Blue channels and look to see if the red-dot pattern can be seen in the main window (it should appear as a black & white image). If this view lets you see the dots, you can now see when you’ve been successful in removing it without having to waste more paper doing test prints. You can also apply filters to just the one channel (probably the Red) that has the problem by having just that one channel selected before applying the filter.


Owamanga!
http://www.pbase.com/owamanga

yeah it is hard to help you out without knowing if this is a printing error or the dots are actually in the image itself.

How to Master Sharpening in Photoshop

Give your photos a professional finish with sharpening in Photoshop. Learn to enhance details, create contrast, and prepare your images for print, web, and social media.

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections