Colour Management

Hi, I'm new to DSLR photography and I'm struggling to match my screen and printer. The screen is ok'ish,but my prints (on my Epson stylus photo px700w) lack the vibrancy and contrast, saturation etc. Any tips to resolve this would be helpful.....

Simon,

Are the colours you see on screen true, is your screen calibrated?
I use the Huey Pro to calibrate mine. The printer can then be calibrated if needed.

Edit - Wednesday morning typo's!

Simon welcome to the printing minefield.

There is just so much to learn but I get pretty consistent prints that look fine to me and others from my pretty basic Canon IP4500 (I think it is) by

Using Canon ink = ££££££££££
Using Canon paper
Letting the printer manage the colours
I also fiddle with some settings in the printer control panel

OK this is not sophisticated but it does seem to work as it should given I'm using all Canon facilities. You could try the same approach with your Epson.

Otherwise search the forum for topics on printing Mattmatic (amongst others) gave some very good advice maybe a year ago.

Mike

First calibrate your screen, preferably with a colorimeter device like the Pantone Huey or Colorvision's Spyder 2.

Checkout ArgyllCMS and dispcalGUI.

My screens have never looked so good or as consistent since I used these (free) products to calibrate them with my Spyder2 (thanks to Matt for the advice).

There is no point trying to get your printing correct until you know that what you see on screen is correct, or as correct as is possible.

PS: Don't waste your money on 'cheaper' third party inks for consumer grade printers. Printed images will never look as good as with the printer makers inks.

Do you have the Srgb or Argb colourspace set in Photoshop.....using Argb can produce lack lustre colours on printers that can't cope with the wider gamut....best bet is to use an all Srgb workflow unless you have a high-end printer.

Also, personally, I always make sure Photoshop is managing the printing, otherwise you don't really have full control over your workflow/editing.

When I owned the Epson R220 a "managed" workflow worked very well (with a calibrated monitor) - it needed the correct & up-to-date drivers and the OEM paper and ink for best results though

Simon

That's not quite true
If you don't understand colour management and how you should set everything up, then yes you can get dull results. But if you know what you're doing AdobeRGB is generally a better bet when you are printing.
But.... until you can get your head around colour management - use sRGB

...and getting Photoshop to manage the colour isn't always the best approach when you are using Epson printers that have specialised colour profiles

Still, going back to the OP - my advice is get a Pantone Huey - just the cheap one - and install ArgyllCMS and dispcalGUI. The Huey calibrates faster than the Spyder, is easier to install under Windows (you don't have to do anything really, whereas the Spyder can be a little tricky) - and you can get them for less than £50 if you look around.

It'll make a world of difference (And at least give you a starting point!)

Matt

Hi Matt,

I think we'll agree to differ on a couple of issues so as not to complicate the thread...prints from an online print company from .jpgs or a basic printer won't see any significant benefit in Argb and the risks associated with it a not worth the effort in this case...

I agree if you're using a good commercial printer of have a decent printer then you'll get more accurate colour reproduction....the colour profiles I used in my Photoshop workflow WERE the specialised Epson ones - surely that's the point

Simon

Thanks to everyone for the advice and links, I'm new to photography and also using forums so I really appreciate the advice and look forward to posting some images and comments etc
It sounds like some simple steps are needed so I will go away and
1. check the screen - looking into screen calibration
2. check up on the Epson colour management issues
3. learn more about the colour management in Elements (6.0)

Thanks

Agreed
(Perhaps I misunderstood your original post :blush
Not entirely. Some Epson photo printers have a composite profile. You can let Photoshop manage the profile for printers that have separate ICC/ICM profiles for each paper/setting combination (so there's a whole bunch of profiles, often with slightly cryptic names). However, where there is a single profile you have to let the Epson driver handle colour because only the driver can access the embedded combinations for each paper type etc (Or you go through the hassle of doing your own profiles for each setting!)
Does that make better sense??

Matt

Fair enough Matt, I see your point...I was thinking more about the OPs printer though, the px700w - this has dedicated ICC profiles so probably the best approach would be to set-up the profiles through Photoshop and turn off printer management - I don't think this model would benefit from Argb. I own a Canon all-in-one (MP540)and initially tried Argb but wasn't happy with the results, a switch to Srgb definitely improved print quality.

Unfortunately colour management isn't the simplest thing to understand/set-up and the virtues of Srgb vs Argb etc seem to be under constant debate. Argb it seems has advantages for high-end/pro printing but if not used correctly can have obviously negative effects on prints - it just seems to me for "normal" use it's simpler & safer to go with Srgb

Simon

Elements doesn't allow you to assign printer profiles. It is recommended that you allow the printer manage the colours - it is one of the options in the print dialogue.

Actually, using anything other than sRGB when you don't understand colour management is asking for trouble
Even when you do understand it there are still surprises! (And it gets to me occasionally even after all these years and experience of CM!)
Matt

I agree, hence my usual advice to beginners to stick with sRGB throughout.

I'm fortunate in that using sRGB all the various things I do look the right colour. Even the pictures in PU magazine end up the same colour as on my screen.

So I don't mess with it!