CS3 and Epson 1800

[l_c10]

I'm a reasonably intelligent person. My husband is a computer genius. I'm trying to start a photography

business (straightforward portraiture, no Joey-Lawrence-type post-processing) and we invested $1000 in

CS3, a Huey Pro, and an Epson 1800.

 

Despite hours, days, WEEKS of effort (and tons of paper and ink!) we cannot get a decent print.

 

We knew this wouldn't be easy, but we didn't expect it to be IMPOSSIBLE.

 

We calibrated the monitor with the Huey.

We made a print of the digitaldog test file.

We followed the directions on computer-darkroom.com to the letter.

We have searched the Adobe users forum and this forum and we have very methodically tried every

combination of tips and tricks we could find.

 

Our goal is to get a print that looks better than the almost-acceptable prints we get out of Picasa (the

FREE image program from Google) using no color management at all. So far we have not been successful! I

can't believe that a free program does a better job than Photoshop, but that's what experience has taught

us.

 

We're so incredibly discouraged. Does anyone have any advice for us?

[lobalobo]

Although I am new to color management myself, a couple of things seem missing from your list of steps. First, did you turn off the printer's own color management, forcing it to surrender to CS3? Not sure that's relevant here, but might be. Second, you didn't mention profiling the printer/paper, which I understand to be essential. Just food for thought, one neophyte to another. Will be interested to see what the experts say.

[curt wiler]

It would help us tremendously if you told us what is wrong with your prints - but given that you said the results are better "without color management," I also suspect that you have let the printer manage the color, and the result is two profiles are being applied.

[l_c10]

I have a newer MacBook and yes, we downloaded the most current profile for our Epson

premium glossy paper. At first we assumed we should turn off the printer's color

management and let Photoshop manage the color, but it seems to perform a bit better

letting the printer manage the color with the "Epson vivid" setting (turning photoshop

management off).

 

As for what the prints look like, when we go to View > Proof colors and select our paper, a

grey film seems to move over the photo on the monitor. We print it out and sure enough

that's what it looks like. Dull. Disappointing. Grey.

 

And yet the digitaldog file prints great -- nice whites, nice contrast, gorgeous. As long as

we don't try to open it in Photoshop we're fine. If we do, we have the same problem! So

the problem is not the printer. I think somehow it's in photoshop, or photoshop's

interpretation of the printer/paper profile.

 

Thanks for any advice.

[aubrey_haynes]

Try printing out of "Preview". If you have Lightroom try printing out of that program and

use the default print settings.

[guk]

you duplicate the original image and use this for reference

 

you proof the the original and it looks awful

 

you then apply layer adjustments to the original until it looks like the duplicate (side by side comparison)

 

then you print this original via printer colour management and it should be close to the original

 

so is this what youre already doing????

[fred_fuzz]

You need some serious advice about this and the sites that spring to mind are:

 

http://welcome.to/computerdarkroom

 

 

Ian Lyons who has this site writes in a straight forward easy to understand manner. He is my favourite Photo Guru.

 

http://www.normankoren.com/index.html

 

Norman Koren is brilliant but he gets a bit techie for me at times but again he is one I consider a Photo Guru.

 

Hope this helps you cos I know how hard it can be, when I switched to digital after using film for 20 years I almost had a break down before it started making sense.

 

Good luck with your venture.