ymc226 Posted March 4, 2012 Share #1 Posted March 4, 2012 Advertisement (gone after registration) I calibrated my MacBook Pro (latest version) using Spyder4Pro and set the screen brightness to half of maximum. Calibration set at default settings for laptop, Gamma 2.2. Using LR3 to process the pictures, I printed both a color and B&W photo using both perceptual and relative, letting LR3 manage the color. I set the ICC profile to the Epson premium luster which came as a sample pack with the printer. The instruction set I followed was in Scott Kelby's LR3's book. All the photos look darker than what I get on screen. Also one of the color shots looks warmer as well as darker. Being new to digital, what could I be doing wrong? I set the camera calibration to embedded as I like the initial colors more. I did export to Exposures4 (AlienSkin) and used the ProPhoto color space for one of the color photos (the one resulting in a warmer and darker result). Would this make a difference in the colors being off? What is the default color space that LR3 works in? Maybe I changed it inadvertently. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted March 4, 2012 Posted March 4, 2012 Hi ymc226, Take a look here Epson 3880: What am I doing wrong?. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
peterbengtson Posted March 5, 2012 Share #2 Posted March 5, 2012 Make sure that you have set the printer software to no color correction when you are letting Lightroom manage the printing. This is 2 separate steps, turn off printer color correction under page setup on the left hand panel and enable Lightroom printer profile on the right hand panel. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoppyman Posted March 5, 2012 Share #3 Posted March 5, 2012 I'd suggest you recheck your calibration and the step by step printing info you have. It's easy to miss something or inadvertantly change a setting. Here's one excellent (free) resource. Knowledge Base at Image Science Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdriceman Posted March 5, 2012 Share #4 Posted March 5, 2012 Make sure that you have set the printer software to no color correction when you are letting Lightroom manage the printing. This is 2 separate steps, turn off printer color correction under page setup on the left hand panel and enable Lightroom printer profile on the right hand panel. By all means make sure you have completed this suggestion. Additionally, if it is simply a darkness/lightness issue you may want to continue to play with the brightness and contrast on your monitor. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterbengtson Posted March 5, 2012 Share #5 Posted March 5, 2012 A quick way to check monitor brightness/contrast is to go to any camera review at Digital Photography Review , scroll to the bottom of a page and use the 26 step gray scale shown there. On a properly calibrated monitor you should be able to see all 26 separate steps. This is a quick handy test available anwhere you have internet. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie Roberts Posted March 5, 2012 Share #6 Posted March 5, 2012 I hate to tell you this but your MacBook Pro (laptop) probably doesn't have a screen than can be usefully controlled for printing. You should be looking at a luminance target between 90-110 cd/m2, depending on your room brightness, etc,,, to match the overall luminance of the print from an Epson, remembering of course that transmissive media (screen) will never look exactly like reflective media (print). It's a dirty secret, but many LCD monitors--cheap or expensive--cannot be turned down to this level. Also, when you use software to turn down cheaper monitors to this level, colours shift in nasty ways. Laptop screens--even expensive laptop screens--are no substitute for a decent video card and monitor setup if you want your prints to resemble what you've got onscreen. I'd recommend a setup with a NEC PA series (cheaper) monitor or an Eizo CG series (expensive). They really are yards above the rest I've seen; and a good investment if you're going to do a lot of printing. I don't know if your MacBook Pro has the video card built-in to handle them, but if it does, that's where I'd start. PS--One more thing: did you try to print from the ProPhoto space? Not a good idea at all, since its gamut far exceeds the Epson you're trying to print to and when you convert to the much smaller print profile all kinds of badness happens. I would transform to sRGB or aRGB (if you know you won't clip colours) before printing... but first fix your monitor setup. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff S Posted March 5, 2012 Share #7 Posted March 5, 2012 Advertisement (gone after registration) I'd recommend a setup with a NEC PA series (cheaper) monitor or an Eizo CG series (expensive). They really are yards above the rest I've seen; and a good investment if you're going to do a lot of printing. +1 I agree with the NEC or Eizo suggestion; worth every penny to me. I own the 24" NEC Multisync with built-in SpectraView II (calibration software). The calibration software adds cost, but is highly recommended; total cost about $1100. I think the equivalent 24" Eizo is about $1800...oops, edit....seems that with calibration software, the equivalent Eizo may be closer to $2800. Jeff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoppyman Posted March 5, 2012 Share #8 Posted March 5, 2012 Spot on Jamie and Jeff. I would add that direct calibration with the high end Eizo and NEC PA series monitors performs the adjustment inside the monitor itself rather than using the video card. I only recently finally got the NEC and Spectraview II. It is, unsurprisingly, a vast improvement over a standard monitor or laptop screen for printing and photo editing. It can display almost all of AdobeRGB for a start and it is super smooth from corner to corner. Within the normal calibration, I am able to have individual profiles for specific papers (contrast, whitepoint, luminance) or sRGB or video etc etc available with a couple of button clicks. For example with photorag you might only want say 150:1 contrast ratio instead of the thousands to one normal for monitor displays. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ymc226 Posted March 6, 2012 Author Share #9 Posted March 6, 2012 I hate to tell you this but your MacBook Pro (laptop) probably doesn't have a screen than can be usefully controlled for printing. You should be looking at a luminance target between 90-110 cd/m2, depending on your room brightness, etc,,, to match the overall luminance of the print from an Epson, remembering of course that transmissive media (screen) will never look exactly like reflective media (print). It's a dirty secret, but many LCD monitors--cheap or expensive--cannot be turned down to this level. Also, when you use software to turn down cheaper monitors to this level, colours shift in nasty ways. Laptop screens--even expensive laptop screens--are no substitute for a decent video card and monitor setup if you want your prints to resemble what you've got onscreen. I'd recommend a setup with a NEC PA series (cheaper) monitor or an Eizo CG series (expensive). They really are yards above the rest I've seen; and a good investment if you're going to do a lot of printing. I don't know if your MacBook Pro has the video card built-in to handle them, but if it does, that's where I'd start. PS--One more thing: did you try to print from the ProPhoto space? Not a good idea at all, since its gamut far exceeds the Epson you're trying to print to and when you convert to the much smaller print profile all kinds of badness happens. I would transform to sRGB or aRGB (if you know you won't clip colours) before printing... but first fix your monitor setup. Thanks alot for your advice. I will likely get a NEC PA monitor but if I already have a iMac, would that be much better than the MacbookPro laptop? How can I tell in LR3 what colorspace I'm printing in or even more basically, what color space I am editing in? In terms of my plug ins, I am using ProPhoto space but can change back to sRBG. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpattison Posted March 6, 2012 Share #10 Posted March 6, 2012 I am using ProPhoto space but can change back to sRBG. Best to use AdobeRGB, sRGB is a smaller gamut for web posting. Epson drivers for MacOSX are not as refined as Canon or HP's. Which OS are you running on the macbookpro and iMac? John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
viramati Posted March 6, 2012 Share #11 Posted March 6, 2012 firstly unless you have the macbook pro without the glossy screen calibration and viewing for printing will be difficult. secondly If you set the brightness to 1 bar left of centre in brightness control that will give you about 96-100 cd/m2 (at least it does on mine) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ymc226 Posted March 6, 2012 Author Share #12 Posted March 6, 2012 I am using ProPhoto space but can change back to sRBG. Best to use AdobeRGB, sRGB is a smaller gamut for web posting. Epson drivers for MacOSX are not as refined as Canon or HP's. Which OS are you running on the macbookpro and iMac? John I am running Lion on both. I inquired on the LR forum and was told LR processes in Melissa RBG and this cannot be changed. In that respect, only output color space can be specified, either Adobe RBG for printing or sRBG for the web. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ymc226 Posted March 6, 2012 Author Share #13 Posted March 6, 2012 firstly unless you have the macbook pro without the glossy screen calibration and viewing for printing will be difficult. secondly If you set the brightness to 1 bar left of centre in brightness control that will give you about 96-100 cd/m2 (at least it does on mine) I do have the anti-glare screen on the MBP. I will try to lower the brightness a few more squares. Would Spyder4pro be able to measure the luminescence of the screen? How come the larger Apple screens are not mentioned as reference monitors? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie Roberts Posted March 14, 2012 Share #14 Posted March 14, 2012 I do have the anti-glare screen on the MBP. I will try to lower the brightness a few more squares. Would Spyder4pro be able to measure the luminescence of the screen? How come the larger Apple screens are not mentioned as reference monitors? Hey I know you've got a NEC 241w and you're going to like that But just to round out the thread, the reason the larger Apple monitors are not mentioned is that while they're nice monitors for watching a movie or word processing, they're not the best for colour stability, angle of view, coatings (too shiny) or their hardware ability to process shadow detail. There are only a few companies out there that do this right. There are some interesting things out there from a lot a manufacturers, some very close misses (like the ASUS "Pro" monitor that is too bright for critical work). And someday maybe Sony will get back in the game (they had the best CRTs) but for right now the choices boil down to EIZO ($$$$--though I noticed they just dropped their prices significantly!) or NEC ($$)... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
michali Posted March 17, 2012 Share #15 Posted March 17, 2012 FWIW I have the same setup as you and had a similar issue with the 3880 after upgrading to OSX Lion. It turned out that I had to update the printer drivers for the 3880 so that it could work with OSX Lion. If your printer drivers have not been updated the this may be part of your problem. Updated Drivers for Lion are available here: Epson America, Inc. - Support: Mac OS X Lion Support Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andybarton Posted March 17, 2012 Share #16 Posted March 17, 2012 There has been an Epson driver update for Lion this week. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.