[Mitchell Freedman Silver Member Posts: 12]

Unable to get Intense Colors to LookRight

on: February 26, 2022 at 1:39 pm

SUCCESS.  The solution was to clear out the monitor calibrations from all previous calibration sessions, and reset all with a fresh calibration from the same Spyder5Pro device.  I’ve always understood how important monitor calibration is to the printing process, but I haven’t experienced firsthand proof until now.  It’s still perplexing to me that the saturated red would be so far from spec while other colors were within an acceptable range.

Tough lesson to learn.  Lot of tests; lot of time.  The good that came out of it however is how wonderful it is to have access to PXL and to know I’m not alone out here on Printer Island.  mhf

 

mhfinva

[Mark D Segal Silver Member Posts: 935]

Re: Unable to get Intense Colors to LookRight

Reply #1 on: February 26, 2022 at 1:44 pm

Super – glad for you that it’s solved.

[Andrew Rodney Participant Posts: 392]

Re: Unable to get Intense Colors to LookRight

Reply #2 on: February 26, 2022 at 1:49 pm

The calibration of the display would have zero role on the output unless you adjusted the image to account for this, hence the need to test with a color reference image.

Did you adjust your images based on this faulty preview?

I’ll refrain from commenting on the Spyder 5 unless you want to go there <g>.

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management" (pluralsight.com)”

[Mark D Segal Silver Member Posts: 935]

Re: Unable to get Intense Colors to LookRight

Reply #3 on: February 26, 2022 at 1:54 pm

I’m assuming, unless told otherwise, that the “unless” part of your sentence is what Mitchell was doing. I interpreted his report to mean that because of poor monitor profiling, with editing under softproof  the monitor was erroneously portraying the reds more intensely than the print system would render them, so Mithcell was getting wrong signals from the monitor in guiding his editing. Mitchell can advise whether something like this is what was happening.

[Andrew Rodney Participant Posts: 392]

Re: Unable to get Intense Colors to LookRight

Reply #4 on: February 26, 2022 at 2:32 pm

Could be Mark and it would be great to hear back about this. I’m basing my ‘understanding‘ on:

I ran another print and the saturated reds are definitely not as nice or as accurate as when I printed it previously.  Also, what occurred to me looking at over a dozen test prints of this Ferrari is that for all the subtle and not-so-subtle WB and HSL edits to the red, there’s actually very little difference between any of them.

Part of this could be out of gamut issues between display and print.

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management" (pluralsight.com)”

[Mark D Segal Silver Member Posts: 935]

Re: Unable to get Intense Colors to LookRight

Reply #5 on: February 26, 2022 at 2:43 pm

Yes, that too.

[Mitchell Freedman Silver Member Posts: 12]

Re: Unable to get Intense Colors to LookRight

Reply #6 on: February 26, 2022 at 3:23 pm

In soft proofing mode, I made significant adjustments to HSL my my trial-and-error printing tests.  My sense is that recalibrating the monitor absolutely solved the problem for me, but obviously I’m not an expert at this and with so many variables there certainly could be more to it.

Prior to recalibrating the monitor, I printed two of the reference images that Andy had sent.  Mostly they looked fine, but the saturated reds did not.  mhf

mhfinva

[Andrew Rodney Participant Posts: 392]

Re: Unable to get Intense Colors to LookRight

Reply #7 on: February 26, 2022 at 3:27 pm

With my reference image, the output and soft proof should match as close as possible, based upon the calibration tools you have for the display.

IOW, ideally, calibration is based upon a match of the soft proof ON. With of course, the rendering intent used for the print, along with Paper White/Ink Black invoked.

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management" (pluralsight.com)”

[Kevin Raber Silver Member Posts: 1289]

Re: Unable to get Intense Colors to LookRight

Reply #8 on: February 26, 2022 at 8:31 pm

Mitchell, it was good speaking with you today.  It’s always good to hear that the issue is solved.  Sometimes it takes a bit of work but you get to be wiser in the process.  I’ll let you know when I come out your way.  Feel free to visit Indianapolis anytime.

Kevin Raber
Owner and Publisher of photoPXL

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