Photo Prints are coming out UGLY - Help!

P

peterish

New member
A few friends and I will be putting up a portrait booth tomorrow at the mall, but so far the colors of the prints are coming out way too yellow. The images look fine on the computer and the colors are consistent when viewed on different monitors. We've tried different settings in Photoshop CS2, such as converting to RGB versus CYMK; Absolute versus Relative Calorimetric; letting Printer decide the color versus letting Photoshop decide...etc. Certain settings have been better than others, but they are all coming out with the color cast. Please please please help; this is a bit of an emergency. Thanks in advance!

The printer we've been using:
Canon i8500
 
For starters, CMYK isn't necessarily the answer; professional offset machines want CMYK, but most consumer printers expect RGB (I've had several inkjet photo printers, even some big 12x19 models, that had CMYK ink tanks but printed vastly better images when they took in RGB and converted in the printer).

If you are seeing consistent color problems, with the same printer - IE prints are always more yellow in the midtones and shadows are too dark, for instance... you can do a sort of cructh-calibration with photoshop. But make sure you start with a set of prints that were created with any automatic color correction turned off; get your print driver working manually instead of using a preset like "best skin tones' or whatever.

Choose an image that shows the range of colors and highlights/shadows you expect to be printing, and print it out. Then, with your room lighting setup the way you usually work, compare the print to your screen. If the print is too yellow, say, add a curves or levels adjustment layer to your screen and get the screen to match the print as closely as possible. That is, make the image look "bad" on screen. You may need a leves/curves adjustment layer (depending which you're most comfy with) AND a hue/saturation adjustment layer. Basically, without changing your image colors, you have "fooled" your monitor into showing you the image as it will print.

Label those adjustment layers something like "CC levels" or "CC hue" (for color correction). Now, add a levels or curves layer ABOVE your image and BELOW the CC layer mask(s). Use this adjustment layer to make your image look "good" again. You've now corrected the image for your particular printer. Label this new adjustment layer something like "image correction".

Now, TURN OFF the "CC" adjustment layer(s), but LEAVE ON the "image correection" layer. Your image will likely look like crap, but print it... how's it look? The point here is, you have turned off the adjustment layer(s) you are using to "fool" your monitor, but leaving ON the adjustment layer that is adjusting your image to match your printer.

Once you have a good print, delete the image layer and save the file with a name like "color correction layers" -- you can use those layers for other images without going through all these steps again (note that adjustment layer will only copy to files with the same color depth mode -- you can't put a layer from an RGB image onto a CMYK image). Open the next image, and drag ALL THREE LAYERS onto it, and make SURE THEY ARE STACKED IN THE SAME ORDER AS THE PREVIOUS IMAGE. again, how's it look on screen? You may need to tweak the "image correction" layer -- don't change the "cc" layer(s)!

Turn off the "cc" layers and print again. All of that maske sense? I know it sounds crazy, but I've color corrected hundreds of images for offset printing this way, and it works like a charm.
 
For prints, 3 things matter - a correctly profiled monitor, a correctly profiled printer (including ink and paper) and using those profiles in Photoshop.

First, use a CRT, not an LCD display. LCDs are pretty and compact, but you want goods prints. There is not an LCD out there that can match the best CRT and there are few LCDs out there that can beat an average CRT. Get a calibration system, almost any will do - I use the Spyder2Pro. Calibrate the monitor then set Photoshop to edit in that colorspace. I cant give the walkthrough here. Google and you'll find plenty of tutorials.

Then get an ICC for your printer/ink/paper combo.

Edit in PS and when you are ready to print, select "Print with Preview". Down at the bottom, under "Color Handling", select "Let Photoshop Determine Colors". This is key. You dont want the printer to do this. It doesnt have the ICC profiles. Then, under "Printer Profile", go through the list and choose your printer's ICC profile. Again, using Google will help you find plenty of ICCs for different paper and ink. I first tried the ICC provided with my printer driver (Epson) and it is spot on. I even use third party ink and am lucky enough for the ink to be good enough to match. Then, under "Rendering Intent", select "Relative Colormetric" and check "Black Point Compensation.

Then have at it. I realize this is a compliucated process and probably didnt help you in time, but really these are things you should take care of before trying to sell a service. Just a having a camera doesnt make you a professional photographer, and owning a knife doesnt make you a sushi chef, having a camera/computer/printer doesnt make you a professional, uh.... mall photographer guy.

Good luck.

-GageFX
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top