Color Printing

"Gordon Padwick" wrote in message

I have many years of experience with film photography and darkroom work. After a few years off, I’m returning to photography and have a Canon Rebel XT, Photoshop Elements 4, and a HP DeskJet 930C printer.
To get the best results, I realize I probably need to upgrade to the full version of Photoshop and to a more recent printer.

Not necessarily. Stick with your current software and equipment for the time being. Althlough Photoshop CS2 has many excellent features, it does directly improve the quality of printouts. The 930C, though somewhat old technology should provide adequate prints, and I would wait until you want to address a specific limitation in its quality before spending additional money on equipment.

I create photographs in RAW format with my Rebel XT and am beginning to learn how to use Photoshop Elements to optimize those photographs as they appear on my computer screen. My problem is that my printer doesn’t produce
prints with colors similar to those on my screen – they all have a green cast.

Can anyone direct me to information that will help me calibrate the system so that printed pictures look similar to those on my screen?

The first step is to verify that the green cast is due to your printer, and not your monitor displaying too red. Do this by viewing a gray scale image with numerically equal red, green, and blue values. If this appears neutral on your screen, you are correct that your printer has a green cast. You may then adjust your printer’s color settings to get a good neutral gradient (by increasing magenta, or decreasing blue and yellow, depending on whether your midtones are overall too light or too dark. With systematic adjustment, you may find that you get satisfactory enough results to live with your current printer for a while. Here’s a link to such a gradient, and a procedure for adjusting your printer:
http://www.curvemeister.com/downloads/TestStrip/digital_test _strip.htm

I’d also appreciate any suggestions about what printer I should consider buying. For the present, I’m content to stay within the 8 x 10-inch format.

Consider the economics of owning your own printer – services such as ofoto.com and snapfish.com are very cheap: 14 cents a print, and your local drug store will probably print 4×6 and larger images for about 20 cents.

The Epson Stylus Photo R800 is the current cat’s meow of printers, though it is not cheap. Look closely at the offerings from HP and Canon as well. HP offers a reasonably priced scanner/printer with the intriguing feature of built-in calibration that may save you some headaches with color matching. —
Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/

Oops:
"Althlough Photoshop CS2 has many excellent features, it does directly improve the quality of printouts"

should have said
Althlough Photoshop CS2 has many excellent features, it does *not* directly improve the quality of printouts

"Gordon Padwick" schreef in bericht

I have many years of experience with film photography and darkroom work. After a few years off, I’m returning to photography and have a Canon Rebel XT, Photoshop Elements 4, and a HP DeskJet 930C printer.
To get the best results, I realize I probably need to upgrade to the full version of Photoshop and to a more recent printer.

I create photographs in RAW format with my Rebel XT and am beginning to learn how to use Photoshop Elements to optimize those photographs as they appear on my computer screen. My problem is that my printer doesn’t produce
prints with colors similar to those on my screen – they all have a green cast.

Can anyone direct me to information that will help me calibrate the system so that printed pictures look similar to those on my screen?
I’d also appreciate any suggestions about what printer I should consider buying. For the present, I’m content to stay within the 8 x 10-inch format.

Gordon Padwick

And if you, like Mike wrote, know that your monitor is producing correct colors, take a look at paper and ink.
Every kind of paper/ink combination will give other results. So buy HP paper and use HP ink. Make shure that you chose the right paper in the printerdriver.
Next step might be to start reading about Color Management (done by PSE) and the use of ICC profiles.
kr
Aad

On Sat, 30 Dec 2006 04:00:35 GMT, "Gordon Padwick" wrote:

I have many years of experience with film photography and darkroom work. After a few years off, I’m returning to photography and have a Canon Rebel XT, Photoshop Elements 4, and a HP DeskJet 930C printer.
To get the best results, I realize I probably need to upgrade to the full version of Photoshop and to a more recent printer.

I create photographs in RAW format with my Rebel XT and am beginning to learn how to use Photoshop Elements to optimize those photographs as they appear on my computer screen. My problem is that my printer doesn’t produce prints with colors similar to those on my screen – they all have a green cast.

Can anyone direct me to information that will help me calibrate the system so that printed pictures look similar to those on my screen?
I’d also appreciate any suggestions about what printer I should consider buying. For the present, I’m content to stay within the 8 x 10-inch format.
Gordon Padwick

Hi Gordon! Just curious, but now that you’re getting back into photography, what will you be doing, mostly personal/hobby type of work, or are you planning to get into more of a professional/business aspect of it?

Talker

"Mike Russell" wrote in message

"Gordon Padwick" wrote in message

I have many years of experience with film photography and darkroom work. After a few years off, I’m returning to photography and have a Canon Rebel
XT, Photoshop Elements 4, and a HP DeskJet 930C printer.
To get the best results, I realize I probably need to upgrade to the full version of Photoshop and to a more recent printer.

Not necessarily. Stick with your current software and equipment for the time being. Althlough Photoshop CS2 has many excellent features, it does directly improve the quality of printouts. The 930C, though somewhat old technology should provide adequate prints, and I would wait until you want to address a specific limitation in its quality before spending additional money on equipment.

I create photographs in RAW format with my Rebel XT and am beginning to learn how to use Photoshop Elements to optimize those photographs as they appear on my computer screen. My problem is that my printer doesn’t produce
prints with colors similar to those on my screen – they all have a green cast.

Can anyone direct me to information that will help me calibrate the system
so that printed pictures look similar to those on my screen?

The first step is to verify that the green cast is due to your printer, and not your monitor displaying too red. Do this by viewing a gray scale image with numerically equal red, green, and blue values. If this appears neutral on your screen, you are correct that your printer has a green cast. You may then adjust your printer’s color settings to get a good neutral gradient (by increasing magenta, or decreasing blue and yellow, depending on whether your midtones are overall too light or too dark. With systematic adjustment, you may find that you get satisfactory enough results to live with your current printer for a while. Here’s a link to such a gradient, and a procedure for adjusting your printer: http://www.curvemeister.com/downloads/TestStrip/digital_test _strip.htm

I’d also appreciate any suggestions about what printer I should consider buying. For the present, I’m content to stay within the 8 x 10-inch format.

Consider the economics of owning your own printer – services such as ofoto.com and snapfish.com are very cheap: 14 cents a print, and your local drug store will probably print 4×6 and larger images for about 20 cents.

The Epson Stylus Photo R800 is the current cat’s meow of printers, though it is not cheap. Look closely at the offerings from HP and Canon as well. HP offers a reasonably priced scanner/printer with the intriguing feature of built-in calibration that may save you some headaches with color matching.
—
Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/

HI MIKE
using your test image
I see banding in my browser image (IE 7) on the top three bars on the mid range darker end on 16 Bit setting
on 32 bit >>>>it’s clear no bands
in PS it looks perfectly clear either setting 16 depth or 32 no banding at all
this monitor has 1500:1 contrast ratio (Samsung 971P) set to 1280×1024 res I think most LCD have only 500 or 700 so the blacks are muddy and no definition

I calibrated my new LCD by EYE my eyes
no spiders
no hueys
what you think?

I do it by looking carefully at all those gamma test strips for the blacks and white ranges
and using adobe gamma
I use srgb to start
and open that test pic you got the baby faces from
compare it in windows and PS at the same time

I like my Adobe working space to be close to the windows SRGB so when I jump to image ready it isn’t unmatched and off colors
I am not sure I got the printing set-up correctly but it is matching so I am not going to mess around with it

From: "KatWoman"
[re calibrating monitor]

HI MIKE
using your test image
I see banding in my browser image (IE 7) on the top three bars on the mid range darker end on 16 Bit setting
on 32 bit >>>>it’s clear no bands
in PS it looks perfectly clear either setting 16 depth or 32 no banding at all
this monitor has 1500:1 contrast ratio (Samsung 971P) set to 1280×1024 res I think most LCD have only 500 or 700 so the blacks are muddy and no definition

This sounds great – banding in 16 bit is normal.

I calibrated my new LCD by EYE my eyes
no spiders
no hueys
what you think?

Good for you! 🙂

I do it by looking carefully at all those gamma test strips for the blacks and white ranges
and using adobe gamma
I use srgb to start
and open that test pic you got the baby faces from
compare it in windows and PS at the same time

Baby faces? Moi?!

I like my Adobe working space to be close to the windows SRGB so when I jump to image ready it isn’t unmatched and off colors
I am not sure I got the printing set-up correctly but it is matching so I am not going to mess around with it

This sounds like a good working arrangement, and no calibration involved. Less experienced people than yourself may have problems, though, and I’d like to find a recipe, using something like the baby face image, that beginners can follow, and be confident that their monitors are reasonably close to reality. This would also give people with calibration equipment something to use to verify that they are on target.

Matter of fact – I’ll take a look at the baby image and see. Is this the one at digital dog?
—
Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/

"Mike Russell" wrote in message

From: "KatWoman"
[re calibrating monitor]

HI MIKE
using your test image
I see banding in my browser image (IE 7) on the top three bars on the mid range darker end on 16 Bit setting
on 32 bit >>>>it’s clear no bands
in PS it looks perfectly clear either setting 16 depth or 32 no banding at all
this monitor has 1500:1 contrast ratio (Samsung 971P) set to 1280×1024 res
I think most LCD have only 500 or 700 so the blacks are muddy and no definition

This sounds great – banding in 16 bit is normal.

I calibrated my new LCD by EYE my eyes
no spiders
no hueys
what you think?

Good for you! 🙂

I do it by looking carefully at all those gamma test strips for the blacks and white ranges
and using adobe gamma
I use srgb to start
and open that test pic you got the baby faces from
compare it in windows and PS at the same time

Baby faces? Moi?!

I like my Adobe working space to be close to the windows SRGB so when I jump to image ready it isn’t unmatched and off colors
I am not sure I got the printing set-up correctly but it is matching so I am not going to mess around with it

This sounds like a good working arrangement, and no calibration involved. Less experienced people than yourself may have problems, though, and I’d like to find a recipe, using something like the baby face image, that beginners can follow, and be confident that their monitors are reasonably close to reality. This would also give people with calibration equipment something to use to verify that they are on target.

Matter of fact – I’ll take a look at the baby image and see. Is this the one at digital dog?
—
Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/

I was thinking it was an Adobe PS image off an old CD but this is from my photo lab back when I was having prints made there
I used it to compare the same file from my printer and theirs

http://www.tadma.net/~jenny/ljhost/color_target_photodisc.jp g

at the quick look I thought
http://www.curvemeister.com/downloads/TestStrip/TstStrip.jpg was the same pictures at the bottom of the one above

that’s what I meant by baby faces, hehe
oops

On 2006-12-30 00:00:35 -0400, "Gordon Padwick" said:

I have many years of experience with film photography and darkroom work. After a few years off, I’m returning to photography and have a Canon Rebel XT, Photoshop Elements 4, and a HP DeskJet 930C printer.
To get the best results, I realize I probably need to upgrade to the full version of Photoshop and to a more recent printer.

I create photographs in RAW format with my Rebel XT and am beginning to learn how to use Photoshop Elements to optimize those photographs as they appear on my computer screen. My problem is that my printer doesn’t produce prints with colors similar to those on my screen – they all have a green cast.

Can anyone direct me to information that will help me calibrate the system so that printed pictures look similar to those on my screen?
I’d also appreciate any suggestions about what printer I should consider buying. For the present, I’m content to stay within the 8 x 10-inch format.
Gordon Padwick

Unless you calibrate you monitor with software for windows or the mac color calibrating software for MAC os x, you’ll be off on the colours. Unless you have 5000kelvin lights in the room, neutral gray paint ( munsen) on the walls, a calibrated monitor and profiles set properly for your printer… you won’t be 100% on.

—
Welcome to Papa Joe’s