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Changes to Virtual Copies Prior to Printing?
- Thread starter chris02
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- droj
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Within this process, are you soft proofing?
But regardless of your exact methodology, I'd say that contrast is a primary adjustment, relative to a particular print process & paper, and once established you can make a preset for it. Remember to label the preset. You may also pay attention to exposure, saturation and gamut.
But regardless of your exact methodology, I'd say that contrast is a primary adjustment, relative to a particular print process & paper, and once established you can make a preset for it. Remember to label the preset. You may also pay attention to exposure, saturation and gamut.
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Many thanks. @droj
Process, for me is adjust the raw image based on calibrated monitor. Those to print, I create a virtual copy, select soft copy, make sure ICC for the paper and printer are selected. Make adjustment and compare side by side with the original.
Agree with you contrast is one of adjustments, but vibrance is another as colours can look faded when printed.
Process, for me is adjust the raw image based on calibrated monitor. Those to print, I create a virtual copy, select soft copy, make sure ICC for the paper and printer are selected. Make adjustment and compare side by side with the original.
Agree with you contrast is one of adjustments, but vibrance is another as colours can look faded when printed.
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Are you printing on a home printer or sending to a lab?
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Many thanks. @droj
Process, for me is adjust the raw image based on calibrated monitor. Those to print, I create a virtual copy, select soft copy, make sure ICC for the paper and printer are selected. Make adjustment and compare side by side with the original.
Agree with you contrast is one of adjustments, but vibrance is another as colours can look faded when printed.
Process, for me is adjust the raw image based on calibrated monitor. Those to print, I create a virtual copy, select soft copy, make sure ICC for the paper and printer are selected. Make adjustment and compare side by side with the original.
Agree with you contrast is one of adjustments, but vibrance is another as colours can look faded when printed.
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Home printing.
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I use Lightroom & the print module inside it. I print from home.
I think I used the soft-proofing thing once and never went back. I now use templates within LR to create different templates for different papers. That way, the image I see on the screen reflects the print no matter which paper gets used. Soft-proofing, in my experience, is a gimmick that might be helpful if you're lab printing, but if you're home printing, there are better options.
Each paper gets a test print which I fine tune and save as a template as I go. Colours are often spot on (my eyesight isn't great) unless there are excessive OBAs in a paper, and occasionally I have to tweak brightness and contrast (tones) per paper to get the results I'm happy with. I save the final result as a template in Lightroom with the appropriate contrast/colout/brightness tweaks.
IMO, printing from home is the easiest way to print as you can 'calibrate' your monitor to your prints so that WYSIWYG.
Obviously the pain is in the amount of test prints you need to do to get there, and my tests have proved (to me) that each paper needs a little bit of work to get good results. I've not compared lab results to home prints simply because it's too expensive to get labs to print on the paper I use for test purposes.
Rather than having multiple virtual copies in my library, I have a single image and multiple templates to print from depending on which medium I'm printing on. It's one of the major benefits of Lightroom and something I wish other DAM software had.
I think I used the soft-proofing thing once and never went back. I now use templates within LR to create different templates for different papers. That way, the image I see on the screen reflects the print no matter which paper gets used. Soft-proofing, in my experience, is a gimmick that might be helpful if you're lab printing, but if you're home printing, there are better options.
Each paper gets a test print which I fine tune and save as a template as I go. Colours are often spot on (my eyesight isn't great) unless there are excessive OBAs in a paper, and occasionally I have to tweak brightness and contrast (tones) per paper to get the results I'm happy with. I save the final result as a template in Lightroom with the appropriate contrast/colout/brightness tweaks.
IMO, printing from home is the easiest way to print as you can 'calibrate' your monitor to your prints so that WYSIWYG.
Obviously the pain is in the amount of test prints you need to do to get there, and my tests have proved (to me) that each paper needs a little bit of work to get good results. I've not compared lab results to home prints simply because it's too expensive to get labs to print on the paper I use for test purposes.
Rather than having multiple virtual copies in my library, I have a single image and multiple templates to print from depending on which medium I'm printing on. It's one of the major benefits of Lightroom and something I wish other DAM software had.
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I soft proof in LR but rarely have the need for adjusting colours. I may add a smidge of clarity depending on the paper just to boost the mid tone contrast a little.
I’ll also flick back and forth between relative and perceptive rendering intent to see which I prefer.
The image is then sent across to QImage and setup on the paper with borders and I’ll go into softproof mode there as well just as a final check, then print.
I only use three different papers so know how each will react to different types of prints which negates the need for test prints and I usually get a print I’m happy with first go.
It is important to have a well calibrated display and custom profiles which are recreated avery 6 months or so.
I’ll also flick back and forth between relative and perceptive rendering intent to see which I prefer.
The image is then sent across to QImage and setup on the paper with borders and I’ll go into softproof mode there as well just as a final check, then print.
I only use three different papers so know how each will react to different types of prints which negates the need for test prints and I usually get a print I’m happy with first go.
It is important to have a well calibrated display and custom profiles which are recreated avery 6 months or so.
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@Harlequin565 @ecoleman @droj
Thanks all, useful info.
I also never used to soft proof or use virtual copies, but being able to compare against the original seemed to make sense. I also always check the comparison between relative and perceptive.
Not got Qimage but will have a look.
The best plan, I think moving forward for me, is to print a test sheets and create a preset for each paper and stick to Clarity, Brightness and Contrast for tweaking.
Cheers
Chris
Thanks all, useful info.
I also never used to soft proof or use virtual copies, but being able to compare against the original seemed to make sense. I also always check the comparison between relative and perceptive.
Not got Qimage but will have a look.
The best plan, I think moving forward for me, is to print a test sheets and create a preset for each paper and stick to Clarity, Brightness and Contrast for tweaking.
Cheers
Chris