Prints

Does this help?

I have visited that page before and it didnt help much I am afraid. i will have another look later. Thanks John

In Elements, when you go to print, select the more options option and the colour management feature is there.

Had another look at this john. Seems to apply only if I am printing my own photos. i am sending them to a lab though. I cannot see any way to assign the labs own profiles to my files.

Do I even need to do this ?


http://dscolourlabs.co.uk/about/Technical_Support#ColourProfile

There's a bit more about how it works here:
http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1725271

I believe the full Photoshop allows setting ICC profiles within the program. It is also possible to set it via Wndows control panel/display settings.
When there go to Adjust Resolution, then advanced settings,
Next Color Management, once there the device could be changed to another profile.
You can get there without accidentally changing something! As to whether its worth trying to change it, I've no idea!
Perhaps someone who used to work on the paper version of PU can offer advice on that as they may have had to use profiles for printing it.

Thanks again John. I can remember ten years ago trying to get to grips with colour management. After much head scratching I stuck simply to monitor calibration.

I should have learned my lesson !

PSE doesn't allow for ICC settings. I never use a printer that needs them so I can't offer advice I'm afraid. I use a local supermarket. The used to use Albelli but now use someone else. Never had a problem with the quality of the prints.

Thanks Gwyn. For my needs I am sure i wont need anymore than a correctly profiled monitor. The colours of the prints I got back from the lab are excellent. I just need to deal with the monitor settings so that my prints are not too dark.

I admit I just use the stripe across the bottom of the forum.
I have never been able to justify the price of a calibration tool.

Peter - not sure if you've already been to CiC. Excellent website, and for these purposes, particularly their tutorials.
Cambridge in Colour Tutorials

Further, if you believe the colour fidelity is good on prints you've had done elsewhere, then why change anything?

Hi, yes CIC has some escellent tutorials.

Strange to say but I have rarely had prints done of my pictures. Comfortable living in the virtual world I guess. Having done some dog portraits for a friend I am getting prints done in 8x10 inch. The first two I have done as a test have a great colour match so very happy. Just need to sort out the slight "darkness" issue and I will be content.

Just adding to this.......

1. I found a way to get PSE to produce a soft-proof image........ http://elementsplus.net/ for the princely sum of $12 you get a number of functions "enabled" in PSE one of which is the soft-proof utility. However the prints come out much better than how they look on screen in the soft-proof

2. I calibrated my monitor with a Spyder5. The difference is remarkable. Quite a yellow/green cast was apparent before caliration which of course I was not noticing as I had got used to it.

3. I had a number of test prints done by DSCL both using a standard sRGB profile and a specific DSCL paper/printer profile. I could not tell the difference, so am sending them sRGB profiled files ! I guess if was working in AdobeRGB it may have done.

4. From the prints I have had DSCL do so far i find that increasing exposure by half a stop (from what looks good on screen/histogram) during RAW conversion is the giving me excellent prints of the correct brightness.

5. For onscreen viewing I generally use a USM setting of 40-80/0.6/1 For printing the size of a 10x8 print i am finding that a general setting 120/1.2/2 gives me an equivalent print sharpness.

I hope this is useful. I am very happy with the quality I am seeing from DSCL and the service is excellent. As a previous poster said, if you get your files to them in the morning you will have your prints delivered the following day. The cost of a 10x8 print is about 50p, so no complaints there.