calibration, color space, or is it something else?

[mhattonmd]

It's the "prints dont look like the monitor" issue. I have read through and tried all of the tips and tricks but no luck so I need your help.
I have a Lenovo Ideacentre B520. I calibrate it with a Spyder 4 Elite. Settings are 6500k, Gamma 2.2., White luminance 120, and black luminance 0.28.
I use a Canon 5D mark iii. I shoot RAW and develop the imagaes in Lightroom 4.1
For final tweaks I export from Lightroom to Photoshop CS 6. Export settings are PSD, sRGB, 8 bits, resolution 240.
My workspace in photoshop is sRGB.
Softproofing, the images look vibrant. Prints (done several places--Nations photolab, MPIX, even CVS)- all look the same--dull, flat colors. None of the vibrance at all. Its like each color is a few shades darker.
Thanks again for the help

 

[KmH]

I am guessing your Photoshop workspace is not actually sRGB.

At any rate, to set the color space for output, click on Edit and in the drop down box near the bottom click on Convert to profile.

In the convert to profile dialog box the Source Space will be shown, and you can set the Destination Space to sRGB ICE61966-2.1. For Conversion Options choose Adobe (ACE) for the Engine and I recommend using Realtive colormetric for the Intent.

Lastly I recommend you get the very helpful reference book - Adobe Photoshop CS6 for Photographers: A professional image editor's guide to the creative use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC

 

[MLeeK]

When exporting from lightroom you have to convert to sRGB for proper results in print. LightRoom works in ProPhoto which is the largest gamut colorspace. There are very very few monitors that can see all of the gamut. For printing it's way too large and just like the raw image-too much of a good thing=a flat thing.

 

[KmH]

The ProPhoto RGB color gamut is so broad it contains colors humans can't even see. However, many image editing experts recommend using ProPhoto RGB for editing, which is why it is used in Lightroom's Develope module.

 

[jamesbjenkins]

Sounds like ProPhoto RGB.

Lightroom loves to default to ProPhoto RGB. I had the same problem before I caught that.

You have to specifically tell Lightroom to export in sRGB. Or you can just convert in Photoshop like Keith instructed.

 

[KmH]

In Lightroom's Develop module (which is ACR) the user cannot change/choose the editing color space. But in Photoshop CS 2,3,4,5,6's Camera Raw the user can choose the Camera Raw editing color space.

Lightroom uses it's own color space, which uses the ProPhoto RGB coordinates, but at a gamma of 1.0 instead of the normal ProPhoto RGB gamma of 1.8.

http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/impr...t/lightroom4/pdf_files/LightroomRGB_Space.pdf
http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Lightroom/1.0/help.html?content=WS0F7BFFFA-CE53-4ceb-B3D3-9D6256B8917D.html
http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Lig...t=WS0F7BFFFA-CE53-4ceb-B3D3-9D6256B8917D.html

 

[Garbz]

Erm sorry but none of these tips can be taken as gospel when you print an image.

What you need to do is contact the company doing the printing. Ensure you have the correct printer profile to use for soft proofing. Also check to see what colourspace THEY are capable of using. Often they will specify what colour space you need to convert to in order to get the prints to look correct. That's the colour space you need to save, and more importantly if you aren't using sRGB you need to embed this colour space before you send off the files.

Also note that calibrating your monitor to 6500k makes sense only when comparing it to something, say a room lit by really bright sunlight, or a print in a lightbox lit at 6500k. Remember when comparing a print to a monitor, your monitor will have a far wider contrast ratio, your print will have a far wider gamut, and your room lighting is (I assume) not calibrated identically to your monitor backlight.

They will never look identical.

Now one more thing to check, when you softproof are you checking the options o simulate paper colour and blackpoint compensation?