Vivid Blues and Purples without Vivid Magenta

[steve_johnston4]

I use PSE 5 to edit and Epson 3800 to print. I get excellent results, except sometimes. Namely not very vivid

magentas. How can one get more vivid magenta, blues, purples, and reds using the 3800's Ultrachrome K3 that

does not have Vivid Magenta?

[geoff_foale]

Firstly, I don't use the same equipment as you but as nobody else has ventured an answer so far:-

 

Converting from digital light colours namely Red, Green and Blue into printing colours namely Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (plus a few others with the better printers) always causes some problems and I agree that magenta and purple usually cause the greatest mismatch.

 

How do the images compare with reality straight from the camera? I find that using a camera Custom White Balance really helps to capture those difficult colours, also increasing the colour temperture very slightly can make a difference.

 

Is your monitor colour calibrated? This is essential to ensure that you have a true starting point. If you have a really good eye for colour it is possible to approximately balance a monitor manually but any defect will show especially with those problem colours.

 

Assuming that the image looks correct on a calibrated monitor, do you have the correct colour profile for each paper that you use? Once again you can set an approximate value from the basic paper type options but this will not be exact and there can be considerable variation in the colour reproduction between different makes of the same paper type, ie Glossy can mean a lot of different things and some makes of paper are better for different colours.

 

Finally, most printers have a weak spot in their output of the full colour range. I use a Canon 9000 printer and sometimes find it is a bit poor on the reds. So I manually adjust the output controls to give a little boost to the magenta setting. Usually about 5% is sufficient. This does take a bit of experimentation to get correct.

 

If you can give a little more information about your equipment, settings and work practice I expect someone can help with more specific advice.

[charlesheckel]

I can't tell you what your version of Elements will do--I'm in CS3, which has a Channels tab in the Layers

palette that makes fairly short work of the problem you raise, and ACR which has sliders for brightness and

saturation for each of the hues.<p>

I know you can select the hues you want to change with the Magic Wand, setting the checkbox to pick up

discontinuous areas and the tolerance to your own taste, and adjust them with Image->Adjustments->Saturation.

It's the Elementary way to do it, but it's a little clumsy. Better would be to select Image->Mode->CMYK Color,

and then either Image->Apply Image and pick Magenta, tuning it down with Fade after the fact, or go into Channels

and futz with the Magenta channel a bit. I don't know if you've got that available. Another option is to go

into Curves, select Red and pull the middle up a hair, select Blue and pull that up a hair. But I don't know if

you've got Curves either.<p>

Good luck!

[steve_johnston4]

Geoff and Charles,

Thanks very much for your suggestions. My monitor is not formally calibrated, however, it is close and I have gotten accustomed to it. Working on channels and layers might be the solution. I will work on that aspect as soon as I am able. Will let you know how it goes. Again, thanks.

Steve