Drop Shadow problem in PhotoShop CS

What’s the blending mode set to?

Bob

Bob,

Set to Multiply. I tried Normal but same thing.

Bob

monitor calibration?

Thanks for the input, but it is most certainly not a color management issue. That is one area to which I pay much attention. My monitor is calibrated on a bi-weekly basis, and my scanner and printer are also thorougly calibrated. All color in the image is dead on to the intended values, it is only the drop shadow that is wrong.

But now you got me thinking and I tried something different. My proof setup for this image was set to the ICC profile of my printer. I was about to print the image so I converted to the printer profile. But then, just before printing I decided to add the drop shadow which was green. I just went back and converted back to my working space and THEN added the shadow and now it’s gray as it should be. So I suppose I’ve solved my problem because it now stays gray when I convert back to my printer profile. But I’m very curious if anyone knows why I can not add a shadow color that is accurate if it’s done after the conversion to the printer color space? Anybody know?

Thanks,
Bob Rock

But I’m very curious if anyone knows why I can not add a shadow color that is accurate if it’s done after the conversion to the printer color space? Anybody know?

Try bring up the color picker while your image has the printers profile embedded or is converted to the printers color space. You’ll probably see strange looking colors inside the color picker where a RGB value of say R:200, G:200, B:200 doesn’t look neutral gray at all. That’s why we have working spaces. They are gray balanced and therefore easy to work in.

Profiles from printers, digital cameras scanners and monitors are often not gray balanced and that’s why you’re not seeing a neutral drop shadow when you apply it when the image is in your printers color space.

Why are you even converting the image to the printers color space? You can choose to color manage the print stream. You don’t have to convert the image to the printers color space, if the printer is connected to the computer where Photoshop is installed that is.

—
Regards
Madsen.

Mr. Madsen,

Only from habit and previous training do I convert to the printer color space. My procedure, as is suggested by many books and seminars that I’ve attended (but please tell me if there is a better way), is as follows:
1)Scan my image into Photoshop with no correction or compensation whatsoever by the scanner.
2) Apply my scanner profile to the image.
3) Select VIEW and PROOF SETUP and then select my customized profile for my printer and the paper.
4) Now that I’m viewing the image the way it would appear on my printer, I proceed to make color and tonal corrections.
5) I then convert the image to the same printer profile and print with NO COLOR CORRECTION or compensation from the printer (all color correction turned off).

Now I suppose that I could send the image to the printer without converting to that profile, and apply the profile in the printer driver software…right? Is that what you are suggesting?

I’m very interested in this so I appreciate your input.

Thanks,

Bob Rock

Bob wrote:

1) Scan my image into Photoshop with no correction or compensation whatsoever by the scanner.

Well that’s okay I guess, if your scanner software can’t assign the scanner profile to the image by itself.

2) Apply my scanner profile to the image.

I would assign the scanner profile and then convert the image to one of the working spaces (like Adobe RGB for instance) and especially if there’s work to be done on the image like making large color corrections or applying effects like drop shadows and such.

3) Select VIEW and PROOF SETUP and then select my customized profile for my printer and the paper.

You can also do that when the image is in a working space like Adobe RGB(1998) or sRGB for instance.

4) Now that I’m viewing the image the way it would appear on my printer, I proceed to make color and tonal corrections.

Yes but you’re not working in a gray balanced and perceptually uniform working space. You’re working in a simulation of your printers color space which is not gray balanced and perceptually uniform, so if you make a drop shadow with equally amounts of red, green and blue, you’ll probably not see a neutral drop shadow.

Now I suppose that I could send the image to the printer without converting to that profile, and apply the profile in the printer driver software…right? Is that what you are suggesting?

Yes that’s what I’m suggesting.
I would assign the scanner profile to the image, if I had an accurate profile that describes my scanner like you seem to have, and then I would convert to the working space (which in my case is Adobe RGB(1998)). Photoshop’s missing profile warning has a setting which can do just that. It looks like this:
< http://home18.inet.tele.dk/madsen/photoshop/cm/assign_and_co nvert.png>

If the scanner profile is accurate, you’ll get the colors into Photoshop exactly as your scanner saw them and if those colors doesn’t look right to you, you can now begin to color adjust the image. It’s pretty straight forward when you’re in a working space because equally amounts of red, green and blue gives you a neutral gray on the screen including your drop shadows (if the drop shadows are set to equally amounts of red, green and blue and the calibration and profiling of the monitor is OK of course).

When everything looks the way you want, you save the image and you have a gray-balanced original you can make copies of to different output devices.

Let’s say that you have an image from your scanner where you have assigned the scanner profile and then converted it to the working space and color corrected it as described above. The image looks just right on you screen and now you want to print it out.

My preferred method is to turn on Proof Colors with my media profile for the printer selected, like this for instance: < http://home18.inet.tele.dk/madsen/photoshop/cm/proof_colors. png>

If I’m satisfied with what I see when Proof Colors is enabled, I go directly to the ‘Print with Preview’ dialog box.

If I’m not satisfied with the colors when Proof Colors are enabled, I often make a new adjustment layer and adjust it until I am, and then I go to File > Print with Preview. I don’t convert the image to the printers media profile before I go to File > Print with Preview. I let it be in the working space in which it was originally saved. It’s not necessary to convert it once again to yet another color space, because Photoshop can convert the print stream to my preferred printer profile as I wrote earlier.

The following setting will do just that:
<http://home18.inet.tele.dk/madsen/photoshop/cm/print.png>. When I use that setting, I make sure that everything regarding color management in the printer driver is turned off because Photoshop takes care of the color management all the way with that setting.

I could also let the printer drive do the color management, and ask Photoshop to keep out of it, but I usually prefer the setting where I let Photoshop color manage all the way.

—
Regards
Madsen.