gary m

I don't believe that I was 'rude' at all. In fact I've been very patient and haven't posted anything that was unnecessarily harsh. I've also heard many good things in the past about Dry Creek photo, so I've chalked up my experience to a more isolated case due to an illness.

I ordered a profile about two months ago. I've tried to contact them several times - both through email and phone. I've never received my profile. I need to call my credit card company and get the charge taken off. On the other hand, I ordered a profile from Cathy's and recieved it within a week.

The following is from something I found awhile back and saved on my computer. The last paragraph may answer some of your questions. The author is Jack Flesher.

 

"Perceptual compresses the colors in the wider source space to match the smaller gamut of the target (print or viewing) space. This is accomplished by altering the out-of-gamut colors and in-gamut colors so they appear similar when brought into the target space. The entire spectrum of original colors gets uniformly compressed in a way that maintains the overall relationship between the colors. By keeping the relationship between the colors the same, the overall appearance of the image remains the same. The downside is that we have little control as to how this compression is performed, and many of our in-gamut colors can get significantly altered form their original true color.

 

Relative colorimetric is similar to absolute colorimetric, but it applies some compression to the out-of-gamut colors to give them prominence in the target image. It differs form perceptual in that it does not compress all the colors equally, but rather applies higher compression at the outer limits of the colors to squeeze them all into the target space. At the same time it does not alter the main body of colors that can map directly into the target space any more than necessary to create smooth tonal transitions. RC also scales the white point of the source image to match the white point of the target space, giving the source space and target space a common color point for us to ?relate? to. This has the effect of making all of the colors appear the same hue relative to white even though they are not actually the exact same colors.

 

Generally speaking, in digital imaging for print output we will usually want to use either Perceptual or Relative Colorimetric intents when rendering our images. RC is best when only a small portion of colors from the source space will get clipped as the slight compression to the out-of-gamut colors is acceptable and the main body of colors is kept relatively intact. Perceptual is going to be the better choice when a large portion of colors from the source space are going to get clipped, as more compression is required to ?fit? all of the colors in the target space and still maintain smooth tonal gradations."

Have you tried to print a nozzle check? (The nozzle check is accessed on the utility tab of the printer dialog box).

Al - I'm not sure I completly understand what type of border you're trying to make. If you just want a white or solid color border, you can use the image > canvas size menu item in photoshop. By increasing the width and height of the canvas, you're effectivly placing a solid color border around the image.

I know that there were a few threads a while back that discussed the

delay in receiving profiles from Dry Creek Photo. I ordered mine in

the beginning of March and still haven't heard a thing yet -

although I saw that my credit card was charged. I'm getting a bit

frustrated. I tried calling there today, but there was no answer

for the phone number I was trying. Does anyone have any updates?

Also, if you're working space is Adobe RGB, convert to sRGB before saving for the web.

Note - on my above reply I used 'calibrate' and profile a bit incorrectly. Calibration is setting the h/w, profileing is used to determine how a device responds to certain color numbers. A 'profile' is then used to map color numbers to the color response of a device. I thought I would make that clarification before Andrew corrected me ;-)

EZcolor is used to calibrate your monitor, Scanner, and Printer. BUT...without the Optix hardware, the monitor calibration is done via visual calibration, which isn't as accurate as a h/w solution. The printer calibration is performed by making a print, then scanning it using a flatbed scanner. (This would obviously introduce more color shifts unless your flatbed handles colors perfectly). Therefore, the printer calibration isn't that great.

 

I bought Monaco EZColor a couple of years ago. After much experimentation and frustration, I came to the conclusion that it's pretty useless.

 

Understanding color management has a bit of a learning curve to it. I recommend getting a book on the subject if you really want to understand it.

 

For my workflow, I have

- h/w calibrated monitor (Monaco Optix XR Pro)

- I don't have a custom profile for my Scanner. I just scan into my working space.

- Used Epson's canned profiles for my printer. I'm currently waiting on a custom printer profile that I ordered from Dry Creek Photo. This should be an improvement over the canned Espon profile.

 

I've seen others post on this site that have a similar workflow (i.e hardware calibrated monitor, no custom scanner profile, Custom printer profile created by DryCreek Photo or Cathy's Custom Profiles)

I ordered a custom profile for my 1280 about a month ago from Dry Creek Photo - I'm still waiting on it. I understand that the person that does them was sick for awhile, but is trying to catch up now. The other place I always hear about is Cathy's Profiles. From what I've read on this site, both of these produce good profiles. The cost is in the $40 - $50 US range.

Thanks Andrew - I guess I'll stop worrying about the visual gamma test. The gradient looks pretty good - some very slight banding, but not bad at all. I can see the difference between 0 and 3 when viewed in a dark room.

I've been trying to calibrate/profile my monitor and have been

having some difficulties. A few of the threads below mention that

it's important to have a good video card.<P>

 

A little history.... I have a Monaco Optix XR pro that I use to

calibrate my monitor. I originally had a Viewsonic monitor, but I

couldn't adjust the green gun. I bought a new HP monitor, but it

seemed to distort horizontal lines, so I returned it and bought a

KDS monitor. It seems like a decent monitor for the price - I can

adjust the RGB guns, and the image doesn't seem distorted.<P>

 

For all three of the monitors I've used in the past few weeks

(Viewsonic, HP, and KDS), when I do a visual test of the gamma, it

seems to be at least in the 2.4 range, even though I've calibrated

to 2.2 using the Monaco optix. (<A

HREF="http://www.normankoren.com/color_management_2A.html">HERE</A>

is the visual test that I've been using.) Since I've seen this with

three different monitors, I've been starting to think that my video

card may be causing the gamma differnce. (Adobe gamma is disabled

on startup and Monaco gamma is running)<P>

 

So...finally to my question... what video card do you recommend? (I

currently have an Nvidia 5200)<P>

 

Thanks!

Ray - you don't have to manually set your monitor profile in PS. Your calibration software will load it as your windows default profile. Windows will not use the profile, but it does make it available for applications (like PS) that do use profiles. You can see what your default monitor profile is by going to Control Panel > Display > settings > advanced > color management.<P>

 

Adobe Gamma will use the widows default profile so that Photoshop knows what monitor profile to use. (This is true even if Adobe Gamma is not running on startup). You can verify this by going to Control Panel > Adobe Gamma > 'Start In Control Panel' (Not Wizard). Your monitor profile should be listed there. <A HREF="http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/321608.html">HERE</A> is an adobe article on the subject.

When you're deciding on a P&S vs. a DSLR, consider which one you would enjoy using more. That may be as big a factor as the quality.

It sounds like we're all experiencing the same thing. I ordered a profile on March 9th and haven't heard a thing yet....

I can tell you one monitor to avoid - the ViewSonic A71f+. I bought one just before I started to get into serious monitor calibration. You can adjust the red and blue guns, but not the green. Trying to calibrate this thing has been driving me crazy....

Some experts say that you should sharpen in three stages.

- When you first scan or open a file from a digital camera

- Creative sharpening. This is to sharpen key focal points in your image. For example, eyes in a portrait.

- Finally, sharpen for you output device (i.e. printer or computer screen)

 

The above is based on an article I read, but unfortunately I can't find the link or it has been moved. I use a plugin called Photokit to sharpen. I think the original article was on Photokit's site, but I can't find it at the moment. You may want to browse their site to see if they have any general info.

Thanks Emre. I'm understanding this stuff a little more now. I'm starting to think that there is a bug in my Monaco gamma and that it isn't loading the gamma correctly. The author in the link you provided mentioned a bug in earlier versions of Monaco EZ color - I think that I'm seeing the same thing in Monaco XR Pro. When I do a visual test of my gamma, it seems to be around 2.5 or 2.6. This is the same thing that the author was seeing with Monaco EZ color.

Carlos - If you do use a filter, get a better grade Multicoated filter. These seem to do a much better job at reducing lens flare then the standard single coated filters do. As for your original question, I've used the cloning tool in the past to fix flare problems.

Can anyone explain the functionality of a gammaloader and how that

differs from the profile functionality built in to some applications

(like PS).<P>

 

Here's a little background on why I'm asking. I recently bought a

Monaco monitor calibration/profile system. My monitor doesn't allow

me to adjust the green gun, so I made whitepoint adjustments through

my video card interface. I then created a profile. I was sort of

expecting my new profile to overwrite the adjustments I made for the

whitepoint through the videocard interface - but this doesn't seem

to be the case.<P>

 

My system loads Monacogamma on startup, and I can see a color shift

when it loads. <B>I realized that if a gamma loader performed all

the color corrections needed, then there wouldn't be a need for

profile aware applications.</B> So...back to my original question -

what does a gamma loader do?<P>

 

I would appriciate it if someone can explain this or point me in the

direction of a good article. Thanks!

I'll have to let someone else answer that one - my understanding on what a gamma loader does vs. a profile aware application is a little fuzzy. I'm interested in hearing an explanation myself....

Amit - I took a quick look at the link you posted above. The link is describing an Application Program Interface (API). An API is used by computer programmers to tap into functionality of another program or OS (MS windows in this case). The bottom line is that an application has to tap into the OS profile functionality for it to be used. Internet Explorer and most applications do NOT tap into the profile functionality. My guess is that in the future more applications will use profiles, but at the moment many do not.

I ordered a profile on 9 Mar and haven't heard anything yet.

Amit,

 

Most applications don't use color profiles. Setting the profile in Properties->Settings->Advanced->colour management only makes the profile available for applications that use color profiles. I don't know which product you used to create your monitor profile, but many profile creation packages automatically install a utility that runs on start-up. If you have a utility like this, then it should load your monitor profile on startup...in that case then your other image viewing applications should display similar colors.

I hate to state the obvious...but just in case ;) Have you powered down and rebooted everything?