Getting Lab Quality Photos from my Epson R2400

[hjoseph7]

A couple of weeks ago I posted that the prints from my Epson R2400 were looking kind of Pastel and lacked the

snap of RA4 prints. Well I fnally figured out what I was doing wrong. Instead of usig the printer profile that I calibrated

against the monitor and scanner when I first purchased it, I was letting Photoshop choose the colors. Therefore the

colors were not as accurate as I wanted them to be. They came pretty close, but did not have that vividness that I

got with the RA4 prints. I also changed the Color Space to 'Adobe 1998', but I'm not sure if that did anything. Now

my prints surpass the prints that made using the chemicals. They are crystal clear and vivid. Now the only thing I got

to complain about is the cost of those INK cartridges, but I'm thinking about moving up to one of those third party

continuous feed Ink set ups in a few months.

[Lou_Meluso]

"I'm thinking about moving up to one of those third party continuous feed Ink set ups in a few months."

Unless you are printing every day, or every other day, you might reconsider that move. They are known for clogging is left sitting for any time. Some users just run color bars every day on their systems to keep them flowing. If you must use third party inks, try the refillable individual carts. I've used Image Specialist inks with good sucess in my R2400 but EPSON ink, though expensive, is the best.

[RobertChura]

If you think it's great now try printing on Harman Gloss paper. It's damn expensive but worth exhibition quality.

[raysgallery]

I hope this is not off of the topic, but you were talking about getting prints that look like RA4 prints. I have been a member of photo.net for a year or so and have never sean anyone talk about applying sharping to a photo after editing, to make up for the amount you lose between your monitor and printer.

 

The reason I bring this up is that there is a article in Lawyers Magazine this month that gives you the formula to do this. I just bought Nik Sharpner 2 two weeks before I got Lawyers.

 

I didn't try the formula (or measurements) useing the size of your monitor, but the first time I use Nik S, after I finished editing, I thought I had just through my money away. I thought there was no way it would look good with the amount of sharping Nik S. applied. A minute later after my R2400 finished printing, I felt like I had gotten all of my money back, and then some.

 

I would post the just the equation, but I don't know if that would be against the copyright laws.

[julianj1]

Harry, might be worth considering prophoto colour space, depending on what your input space is. The R2400 has, I

believe, a wider gamut than Adobe 1998 for certain colours, particularly yellows. Some helpful articles:

 

http://www.adobe.com/digitalimag/pdfs/phscs2ip_colspace.pdf

 

http://schewephoto.com/sRGB-VS-PPRGB/

 

Note that some people say that there no point moving to prophoto unless you are a professional canary

photographer! My view is that memory space is cheap and printer/ink technologies will improve, so best to do work in

the widest possible space ... although quite frankly I'm not a good enough photographer to notice the difference (I

might be one day though).

 

(Charles, Interesting note on the formulas ... probably best not to risk the copyright issues, but I'd love to give test it

myself).

[hjoseph7]

Great article Julian !

[Ed_Ingold]

If you want good, consistent prints you need to be a little more scientific. Your present combination of settings is little more than blind luck.

 

You should turn off any color adjustments in the print driver. In Photoshop, let "Photoshop choose the colors" and underneath that option enter a print profile. You can download print profiles from most paper manufacturer's sites, pay to have someone do them for you or do your own using a reflective spectrophotometer (e.g., Eye One Photo).

 

Adobe RGB is a device-independent color space, not a profile. Other common color spaces are sRGB and Prophoto RGB. Color space is a Photoshop setting and is never used as a print or monitor profile. Photoshop will recognize the color space and display the correct colors. You will usually not see any difference if you convert from one color space to another. Small color spaces like sRGB will truncate colors in some images, while large color spaces like Prophoto RGB are a better fit for RAW, 16 bit images from a DSLR. Adobe RGB is kinda' in the middle, and a good general solution.

 

Calibration is not done between prints, monitors and scanners - these items are calibrated individually. First the monitor is calibrated using a photometer and standard color files so that images are displayed accurately - end of case. A scanner is calibrated so that an item scanned produces the correct colors before being saved in a file. A print profile is applied to an image file as it is being printed, again to produce accurate colors. The image file is the core of calibration. Each type of profile is applied "between" the image file and the device, independent of other profiles (q.v., "Adobe Photoshop for Photographers" by Martin Evening or similar books by Andrew Rodney or Bruce Fraser).

 

Continuous ink supplies from third parties can cause a disaster - poor colors, fading ink and clogged heads. Learn the tools for color management and your prints will work the first time, every time.

[raysgallery]

I'm sorry, the article I was talking about is not in Lawyers Magazine. It is in the July/August 2008 issue of "Photoshop user, The Adobe Photoshop How-To Magazine".

 

The name of the article is "Res-solutions. What's your monitor's resolution, why is it important, and when does it come into play? Page 62.

 

Sorry about that.

[andrew_sacco]

I was wonderin' what the heck lawyers had to do with it

[raysgallery]

Oh well, at least it didn't take me 2 months to figure it out I had made a mistake.