Bringing back the tones for printing (lightroom).....

[JustJazzie]

I didn't seem to have this issue with aperture. *sigh* At least not to this extent.

I downloaded the ICC profile for costco's mail order photo lab to the new hard drive. When I do the screen proofing the entire image looks really faded. I have tried messing with black point (this helps to an extent) contrast, vibrance/saturation, clarity ..... But I can not seem to figure out how to get it to match my SRGB edit. I come close, but the colors still aren't as punchy- then if I up the saturation or vibrance, too much they turn into a muddled mess.....

Is there some sort of a trick to this? And, do I really always have to edit two copies of every picture I plan to print? Is there an easier way to make it look good on both screen and with their printer profile?

 

[JacaRanda]

Even after I installed the profiles, I still printed a couple of 4x6's to see what worked best. I found that I needed to increase exposure a little bit in order for the prints to come out looking the same (or super close).

Is monitor calibrated?

 

[JustJazzie]

Even after I installed the profiles, I still printed a couple of 4x6's to see what worked best. I found that I needed to increase exposure a little bit in order for the prints to come out looking the same (or super close).


Is monitor calibrated?

:hide: no. I was calibrating to my prints before the crash. But then I moved to Lightroom and I've had issues figuring out how to proof with it. When I export the files with the icc, the previews are downright scary. When I open the file in preview they look normal. It's REALLY strange.

I finally ordered 15 4x6's this morning to test it, but I've been afriad it will just be a waste since they look so weird. I guess we'll find out!

 

[JacaRanda]

Even after I installed the profiles, I still printed a couple of 4x6's to see what worked best. I found that I needed to increase exposure a little bit in order for the prints to come out looking the same (or super close).


Is monitor calibrated?

:hide: no. I was calibrating to my prints before the crash. But then I moved to Lightroom and I've had issues figuring out how to proof with it. When I export the files with the icc, the previews are downright scary. When I open the file in preview they look normal. It's REALLY strange.

I finally ordered 15 4x6's this morning to test it, but I've been afriad it will just be a waste since they look so weird. I guess we'll find out!

Oh noooooooooooo. I just tested a couple. But Costco is just a hop/skip/jump from me. Either way it's great that they are so inexpensive.
What type of paper are you printing yours on, glossy or matte?

Wishing you luck that they turn out right!

 

[JustJazzie]

Even after I installed the profiles, I still printed a couple of 4x6's to see what worked best. I found that I needed to increase exposure a little bit in order for the prints to come out looking the same (or super close).


Is monitor calibrated?

:hide: no. I was calibrating to my prints before the crash. But then I moved to Lightroom and I've had issues figuring out how to proof with it. When I export the files with the icc, the previews are downright scary. When I open the file in preview they look normal. It's REALLY strange.

I finally ordered 15 4x6's this morning to test it, but I've been afriad it will just be a waste since they look so weird. I guess we'll find out!

Oh noooooooooooo. I just tested a couple. But Costco is just a hop/skip/jump from me. Either way it's great that they are so inexpensive.
What type of paper are you printing yours on, glossy or matte?

Wishing you luck that they turn out right!

Costco is an hour from me, and their in house printer sucks! I liked the mail order tests though especially for the price! 15 is a lot, but shipping was $2, so I figured it was worth the gamble. I did glossy this time, but I usually do matte for my personal prints. These are some snapshots of my friends from the weekend. I'm hoping they are at least decent enough to pass along!

 

[KmH]

When images lose vibrance or saturation between editing and printing/online display the problem is usually a colorspace issue.

Lightroom's Develop module uses a version of ProPhoto RGB, not sRGB, to display and edit your photographs.
LR's color space is known as Melissa RGB, which uses the same color co-ordinates as ProPhoto RGB.
However, Mellisa RGB uses a gamma of 1.0 to match the 1.0 gamma of Raw files, while ProPhotoRGB uses a gamma of 1.8, which is somewhat brighter than a gamma of 1.0.

I highly recommend having the following resources close at hand for reference:
The Digital Print: Preparing Images in Lightroom and Photoshop for Printing
The Digital Negative: Raw Image Processing in Lightroom, Camera Raw, and Photoshop
The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC / Lightroom 6 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers
Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Lightroom (2nd Edition)
Fine Art Printing for Photographers: Exhibition Quality Prints with Inkjet Printers

 

[JustJazzie]

When images lose vibrance or saturation between editing and printing/online display the problem is usually a colorspace issue.

Lightroom's Develop module uses a version of ProPhoto RGB, not sRGB, to display and edit your photographs.
LR's color space is known as Melissa RGB, which uses the same color co-ordinates as ProPhoto RGB.
However, Mellisa RGB uses a gamma of 1.0 to match the 1.0 gamma of Raw files, while ProPhotoRGB uses a gamma of 1.8, which is somewhat brighter than a gamma of 1.0.

I highly recommend having the following resources close at hand for reference:
The Digital Print: Preparing Images in Lightroom and Photoshop for Printing
The Digital Negative: Raw Image Processing in Lightroom, Camera Raw, and Photoshop
The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC / Lightroom 6 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers
Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Lightroom (2nd Edition)
Fine Art Printing for Photographers: Exhibition Quality Prints with Inkjet Printers

Thank you so much! I will go through those this evening when the kids are in bed

 

[JacaRanda]

I highly recommend having the following resources close at hand for reference:
The Digital Print: Preparing Images in Lightroom and Photoshop for Printing
The Digital Negative: Raw Image Processing in Lightroom, Camera Raw, and Photoshop
The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC / Lightroom 6 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers
Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Lightroom (2nd Edition)
Fine Art Printing for Photographers: Exhibition Quality Prints with Inkjet Printers

Happy reading Jazzie - Good thing you have tons of free time on your hands

 

[Ysarex]

Even after I installed the profiles, I still printed a couple of 4x6's to see what worked best. I found that I needed to increase exposure a little bit in order for the prints to come out looking the same (or super close).


Is monitor calibrated?

:hide: no. I was calibrating to my prints before the crash. But then I moved to Lightroom and I've had issues figuring out how to proof with it. When I export the files with the icc, the previews are downright scary. When I open the file in preview they look normal. It's REALLY strange.

I finally ordered 15 4x6's this morning to test it, but I've been afriad it will just be a waste since they look so weird. I guess we'll find out!

Hard to know exactly what you're doing but this statement raises a red flag; "When I export the files with the icc, the previews are downright scary." When you export the files to JPEGs that you're going to send/take to be printed the ICC profile for those files should be sRGB and NOT the Costco profiles that you downloaded. I read that sentence and I think it means you're embedding the Costco profiles into the photos. The Costco profiles are for print proofing.

Joe

 

[JustJazzie]

Even after I installed the profiles, I still printed a couple of 4x6's to see what worked best. I found that I needed to increase exposure a little bit in order for the prints to come out looking the same (or super close).


Is monitor calibrated?

:hide: no. I was calibrating to my prints before the crash. But then I moved to Lightroom and I've had issues figuring out how to proof with it. When I export the files with the icc, the previews are downright scary. When I open the file in preview they look normal. It's REALLY strange.

I finally ordered 15 4x6's this morning to test it, but I've been afriad it will just be a waste since they look so weird. I guess we'll find out!

Hard to know exactly what you're doing but this statement raises a red flag; "When I export the files with the icc, the previews are downright scary." When you export the files to JPEGs that you're going to send/take to be printed the ICC profile for those files should be sRGB and NOT the Costco profiles that you downloaded. I read that sentence and I think it means you're embedding the Costco profiles into the photos. The Costco profiles are for print proofing.

Joe

*Sigh* Yup, that is exactly what I was doing. Thank you for catching that! I was able to call Costco and stop the order.