Colour cast in prints

DA
Posted By
Derek_Altoft
Nov 15, 2003
Views
245
Replies
8
Status
Closed
Colour reproduced in my prints is wildly different from what I see on my monitor. They have a serious red cast. I understand there are issues of calibration but both monitor and printer are brand new and good quality. Infuriatingly I don’t get the cast in Photoshop LE. What’s more I borrowed a copy of Photoshop 7 to test its output before laying out any more money and it produced prints with exactly the same cast!! What’s going on here?

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KW
Kyle_White
Nov 15, 2003
Hi Derek,

It sounds like Photoshop LE either doesn’t do colour management or has it turned off and/or doesn’t look at EXIF metadata in the image.

You don’t say what operating system you’re using, but either way do the appropriate calibration routines (Colour Sync on a Mac or Adobe Gamma (?) on a PC) and if these images originate with a digital camera, trot on over to <http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html> and go to the Photoshop Elements for your system and get the "Ignore EXIF Colour Space Plugin"

The EXIF metadata that a lot of digital camera include with an image has a colour space definition that Photoshop doesn’t get along with, which often results in a pink or reddish cast to the image.

HTH

Kyle
BH
Beth_Haney
Nov 15, 2003
I second Kyle’s thoughts about the "ignore EXIF" plugin. It sounds like the most likely culprit from the symptoms you describe. You might want to install it first before calibrating – just to see what you get once that part is taken care of.
DA
Derek_Altoft
Nov 15, 2003
Thanks guys. Have downloaded ignore EXIF but the problem persists. just realised I am using first edition Elements not 2.0 – will this make a difference? Platform is W98se and I’m scanning in transparencies using a Canon FS2710, printing to Epson 1290.
BH
Beth_Haney
Nov 15, 2003
Ah, scans are a different animal and most likely not impacted by EXIF. That’s often a problem with images from digital cameras. In your case, I suggest you do calibrate your monitor – right after you check and make sure you have the most current drivers for your video card. Since you’re running a relatively old system, something newer might have been developed that would help with the problem. The edition of Elements shouldn’t matter, by the way.

Edit: I just noticed this when I was reading a thread further down. It might apply to you, too.

PSE2 installation under Win98SE, I also got no Adobe Gamma installed in my Control Panel.

However, I found it (Adobe Gamma.cpl) in C:\Program Files\CommonFiles\Adobe\Calibration

Just double-click it and it runs.
DA
Derek_Altoft
Nov 16, 2003
Thanks Beth, but am I missing something? My screen display gives a good rendition of colours from the slide, how will changing the calibration of the monitor remove the heavy red cast in my prints?
BB
brent_bertram
Nov 16, 2003
Derek,
Depending upon your color management settings on output, you could see quite a few different variations ( most of them bad ) . Use the File > Print Preview dialogue , and look at the directions at Ian Lyons website, < http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps7_print/ps7_print_mac_2.h tm> . Unless you have media profiles for your papers , you should be printing to the output space "Printer Color Management" , with the driver set in "automatic" mode and the appropriate quality and paper selection. See if you don’t get better results. Hope so !<G>

🙂

Brent
DA
Derek_Altoft
Nov 16, 2003
Thanks Brent – the cast has gone. I was trying too hard and rather than simply use Printer Color management as the print space, I was scrolling down to printer specific/paper profiles. When do I use these then? Derek
BB
brent_bertram
Nov 16, 2003
Derek,
One of the key things in color management& printing is to use only a single conversion from the image ( in its working colorspace ), to the colorspace of the printer. Most of the printing problems seem to come from multiple colorspace conversions by picking the wrong options in the printer driver, and the output space profile.

1. If the print driver is set to "automatic" mode, with the appropriate paper and quality selection, then "Printer Color Management" is probably the best Output space profile. [ Adobe Color Engine "ACE" does the conversion .}

2. If the print driver is set to "ICM" mode, again with the appropriate paper and quality selection, then the generic Printer profile ( furnished by the manufacturer ) is appropriate. [ Windows Color engine does the conversion ]

3. If you have an accurate ink/paper profile for your printer, then the printer driver should be set to "No Color Management" ( if it’s an option ), and the appropriate paper and quality selections made. Then , select the media profile as the output space profile, and all the color conversion is done by the profile.

Option 3 is the best option, but also requires generally more investment in time/money to get accurate profiles. I got pretty good results on my Epson Photo printers using Printer color management, until I spent the $$$ for a profiling package, and now I get somewhat more consistent results using home-made profiles. I’m just an amateur and I can’t say it’s worth the money. I just HAD to do it , to find out how it all worked <G> .

The various essays and tutorials at Ian Lyons’ site , <http://www.computer-darkroom.com/> cover this material better than I can. Another great site ( for a rainy day with a lot of time ), belongs to Norman Koren, <http://www.normankoren.com/> .

🙂

Brent

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