Reds, oranges, and the gamut of Lightjet/Chromira printers

[._kaa]

<p>From my (admittedly limited) understanding of gamuts, it was my

impression that while printers of the Lightjet/Chromira type have

problems in the blue-cyan area, they were very good in the red-orange

corner.

 

<p>Playing around with the 3D representations of gamuts at

drycreekphoto.com, for example, shows that Lightjet's gamut in the

red-orange area is actually wider than Adobe RGB.

 

<p>However I have an image -- <a

href="http://www.kaax.org/images/gallery/PDF_May04/delFuego/image001.html">this

one</a> -- which is mostly intense reds, orange, and yellows. I tried

soft-proofing it using the Chromira color profiles downloaded from the

West Coast Imaging site. Imagine my surprise when the screen showed me

that almost all colors were out-of-gamut!

 

<p>I'd appreciate advice on what's going on... Do Lightjets/Chromiras

have serious gamut limitations in red-orange area? Is there something

wrong with the profiles? Am I screwing up something?

[scott_eaton]

Not the printer - it's the paper. Doesn't do the printer software/profile any good to have a gamut range greater than the paper it's printing to.

 

You'l likely find bright reds/oranges to hit the wall faster than blues in the final print, even though it's mostly perceptual.

[ethan hansen]

You'll find that print gamut varies depending on the paper type and printer. In general, however, no printer will reproduce a fully saturated sRGB red, let alone Adobe RGB. Your image has the red channel at or near saturation in much of the flame, and a lightness (L) value in the 60-70 range. This is always a problematic color range for RA-4 printers. Torque the hue towards green slightly - making the flame yellower - and most of the colors fall within gamut.

 

If WCI's profile is accurate, however, you may find the default conversion acceptable. If not, the hue/sat tool is the one to use. It is the only Photoshop tool that decouples saturation from lightness and hue. Make an adjustment layer, use the eyedroppers and sliders to select the appropriate color range (making a huge hue shift helps here to drtermine which colors are being affected) and start working. Desaturating colors will eventually bring anyting within gamut. It also makes for ugly prints. most instances, minor adjustments to the lightness and/or hue sliders better preserves the overall feel of the image while making it printable.

[._kaa]

<p>Well, yeah, I understand the printers/papers might have problems with fully saturated reds... But the reason I was so surprised is that I've printed very similar images (e.g. <a href="http://www.kaax.org/images/gallery/PDF_May04/Pony/image005.html">this one</a>) on an inkjet (specifically, Canon i9900, using Canon's Pro Photo paper) and had very little problems -- all the intense reds and oranges came out quite to my satisfaction. Soft-proofing on a Chromira/matte Fuji Crystal Archive profile, though, showed much less saturated colors than what I could see on the inkjet print. It makes me wonder if inkjets have a better gamut in this area than RA-4 printers.

 

<p>Anyway, I did order the print from WCI, and I'll also print a copy at my Canon at home, so we'll see which printer butchers the image less...

[emre]

That's your problem right there; your expectations are too high. The addition of Red and Green cartridges on the Canon i9900, printed on Photo Paper Pro, result in the widest gamut of any inkjet.

 

http://www.drycreekphoto.com/tools/printer_gamuts/vrml/canon/canon-i9900-PPPro.htm

[scott_eaton]

Tell you what. Print an image on that Canon on glossy paper, and then on a LightJet on FujiFlex supergloss.

 

Put them on a wall in a bright room for six months, and then test the gamut range.

[pete_caluori]

Greetings,

 

I don't have much experience with all the digital options, but I have wonderful examples of fully saturated red & orange on Ilfochrome. Perhaps one of these digital houses can output your image on Ilfochrome material, but you had better hurry because Ilford plans on discontinuing the stuff next year.

 

Regards, Pete