 Emily Godlewski |
Monitor calibration I'm having trouble getting my inkjet prints to look like my monitor. I was considering buying the Spyder or Color Vision but was wondering if this is the answer.Does anyone have experience with these products or have another solution? I've already tried to calibrate it myself and its still off. I am using an Epson 2200 printer and wasting alot of paper and ink! Help please! Thank you, Emily Godlewski
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Peter K. Burian |
Emily: Color management is a multi-part process and you could write a book about it. In fact, Tim Grey did. (Color Confidence.) You might want to subscribe to his free DDQ daily newsletter that covers issues of this type regularly. www.timgrey.com In a nutshell, yes monitor calibration with a ColorVision Spyder ($129) is the first start. Getting better color profiles for certain papers for the 2200 is the second part. Here's an excerpt from Grey's newsletter: << Yes, you probably want to get some better profiles. Epson has some new profiles for the 2200 that are better than what was available before, but not perfect. You can also purchase your own package for building profiles, but the ones I recommend are a more expensive than your printer. You might also consider having a profile built from a service such as ProfileCity.com. A DDQ reader also recommended a service found at www.cathysprofiles.com. I will have a chance to test her results soon, but based on the system she's using I would expect them to be very accurate, and they only cost $40 each.>> Cheers! Peter Burian, Author, Mastering Digital Photography and Imaging
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Emily Godlewski |
Peter, thank you so much for the information. Since reading your reply I have subscribed to Tim Grey's email newsletter, ordered the Spyder and downloaded the new profiles from Epson. I hope my prints will then be "good enough" and if not I'll check out getting a few profiles. I don't understand why some of my prints are very close to the monitor and others miss the mark and are very disappointing.I even took the Epson Print Academy class and it DID help but I still have to tweak, tweak, tweak.Thanks again for your help! Emily Godlewski
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Sal |
How has your color been lately. I've purchased a Spyder and considering the 2200. I hate to spend all that money if it's not going to resolve the current problem.
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Emily Godlewski |
Hi Sally, actually I'm happy to say that it has improved dramatically. I think the Spyder is what has made the difference. It still is not perfectly matched (monitor to finished print) but it is very close. For most prints I am satisfied, for my most cherished accomplishments many times I do print once go back and tweak the color (slightly) and reprint. Also the 2200 is awesome. Having your monitor calibrated saves so much frustration. Hope this helps! Emily
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Sal |
It does. I'm glad I came across the question. Thanks for replying so quickly.
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Sal |
Emily, Are you using Spyder with PhotoCal or OptiCal. Thanks. again?
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Peter K. Burian |
I have found that custom profiles for the 2200 can solve most problems, virtually eliminating the need for tweaking. You could try the new profiles that Epson offers for free at http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/EditorialAnnouncement.jsp?cookies=no&oid=42114986 Be sure to follow the procedure exactly in the How To Use ICC Profiles pdf that is on that site. e.g. After correctly installing the profiles in the right folder in your computer, be sure to use PRINT WITH PREVIEW when making prints. That allows you to select the correct profile - the new one that you downloaded, and not the old one. Note: I have not tried the new profiles that Epson provides. I bought profiles from a company that has since closed down. Hopefully, the free profiles that you can download from Epson's site are equally good. Peter From the Epson site: These ICC profiles are intended to be used within a color management system such as Apple's ColorSync, Microsoft's ICM, or Adobe application software. Instructions are included with each profile download that explains how to install and use these profiles within Adobe Photoshop 7.0 for both Macintosh and Windows operating systems.
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Sal |
So Peter, are you saying that between PhotoShop and Epson, you shouldn't need an extra color management program such as the Spyder and PhotoCal?
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Peter K. Burian |
Sally: You do need to calibrate your monitor to make sure that it is displaying all image characteristics correctly. That is the first step. The second is to make the image look perfect in Photoshop: ready for printing. The final step is to use the best available Color Profiles for the printer and paper combination. If you follow all three, you should get perfect prints without any need to tweak color, etc. and making re-prints. Peter
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Peter K. Burian |
Another note re: making the best possible prints with the Epson 2200 * Work in Adobe RGB (not sRGB) color space for images that you plan to print. In Photoshop, try this: FILE ... COLOR SETTINGS ... Select US Prepress Defaults. (That includes Adobe RGB) When you open an image, a box may appear asking if you want to use Adobe RGB or sRGB. Specify Adobe RGB. * In PRINT WITH PREVIEW, make sure the profile is selected for the correct paper type. And that DOCUMENT shows ADOBE RGB. (If you do not have Custom Profiles, you can slect SAME AS SOURCE in the PROFILE section. Or, scroll through the list of profiles that you do have and select the right one for the paper you are using.) Under INTENT, use Relative Colormetric Put a checkmark into USE BLACK POINT COMPENSATION. Peter In the printer driver software screen,
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Sal |
Thank you very much for all the information Peter. I will try these things later. I assume then that in conjunction with the above, I should set the color mode on my D70 to Adobe RGB? Sally
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Peter K. Burian |
Sally: Yes, some cameras do allow you to select Adobe RGB capture mode. If yours does, it's an ideal option. Peter
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Emily Godlewski |
Hi Sally, I bought the Spyder with Photocal which is the less expensive one. It helped me so much and I think for my needs its fine. Truthfully I didn't know which to purchase but since I am an amatuer I went with that. I have read Peter's responses and he has given a ton of good information and the Epson new profiles are definitely better than the old. As far as the tweaking color goes sometimes I have a problem being objective with my own work -hopefully that will improve with more experience. Hope this helps! Emily
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Sal |
Hi Emily. Peter has been very helpful. I love having the internet, as well as books and magazines, but I get overwhelmed sometimes with everything there is to read about the whole process of photography. I agree with your statement about objectivity wholeheartedly, too. Sally
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Peter K. Burian |
Sally: The Internet is a wonderful resource if you know where to look and who you can trust. I find that the biggest problem is that there are too many sites that cover any topic, when you do a search on www.google.com Some of the sites are obviously useless. Others look good but do not provide reliable information. Some are excellent. Others are not objective because the site has some hidden agenda. It's not always easy to determine which Web sites fall into which of those categories. In my responses in any Q&A section, I try to point to the most useful Web sites and the most reliable/objective experts, such as Tim Grey. For example, see http://www.timgrey.com/ddq/index.htm Regards, Peter Burian
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Sal |
Peter, I looked at Tim Grey's site. I've found Rob Gailbraith and Ken Rockwell's sites helpful also. I was exaggerating to make a point the there is information overload if you allow it to happen. I've been researching (not necessarily photography) since around 1988 when I began using Lexus/Nexus, and one (me) can spend hours researching just about anything. That's me.
I haven't bought the Epson 2200 yet because I'm trying to find out just how close I will be able to get in managing the color or if I will need to keep buying other equipment and software to really make monitor-print matching work. (Just how particular am I or anyone that will come in contact with my images? Onother persons' monitors could show colors a lot differently than mine anyway.) Another alternative for me is to go and sit with a photo lab and for forty dollars an hour they can advise me on the settings I should use in my computer so that when I have them print my digital files, they will come out the same or very close to what I'm viewing on my monitor. Sally
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