HELP! Epson R3000, ColorMunki and profiles...

psybear

psybear

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Brian
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I’m at my wits end with this issue. Have made a considerable investment recently in a new iMac and a new Epson R3000 printer. Have borrowed a Colormunki to ensure that everything is set up right for accurate printing, but I am clearly doing something wrong as the prints I am getting are way off on colour reproduction - there is a dull greyish cast on them andf they look nothing like what is on my screen.

Calibration – I’ve done this several times now using the Colormunki. I select the first of the three available options – Match my Printer to my Display (Create both a display and printer profile to achieve screen to print color matching). I select LCD as screen type. I select ‘Easy’ as display profiling mode. I calibrate the device and position it on screen. Before I begin the iMac screen is at just 4 brightness. I run the light show with the CM hanging on screen. Printer profiling - I select create new profile, I select the Epson R3000 and I enter the name of the paper. Printing of test charts is next. As per on-screen advice I configure the settings in my print driver dialogs to use the correct paper type and resolution. I do this by hitting the Print button on this dialogue:

1_zps29134929.jpg



In the Print Settings window that follows I select ‘Color Matching’ from the dropdown window. This automatically selects ‘Colorsync’ and allows my to pick a profile from the dropdown window:

2_zpsee10afbd.jpg




I go to ‘Other Profiles’ and select brEpson3000glacier300 – which I have previously downloaded from the Calumet/BrilliantPaper website as the correct profile to be used with the Calumet Supreme Brilliant Ultimate Lustre paper.

I hit Print – Printer prints off a multi-coloured test chart, which I measure using the CM once it’s dry – then same procedure, using same settings (which I had saved as a preset called New Default Settings-Colormunki), measure second color chart and save resulting profile as Epson Photo Stylus R3000 Calumet Supreme Brilliant Ultimate Lustre.

Calibration complete.

Into Photoshop.

Colour settings are as follows:

3_zps0c4d826f.jpg



Next I open a TIFF file, which is in 16 bit color and Prophoto RGB colorspace. Resize for printing to an A5 paper size and 300 dpi.

Under Photoshop/Edit I do NOT do anything under Color Settings, Assign Profile or Convert to Profile. Document profile at bottom of screen confirms that the file is in Prophoto RGB color space and is 16 bit.

4_zps7c91bf60.jpg



Next step I select File, Print and I get the following dialogue:

5_zps3f66f890.jpg



This confirms that the right printer is selected, document profile correctly shown as Prophoto RGB, Photoshop is handling the colors, Printer profile is the one set up by the Colormunki calibration exercise, 16 bit data is selected, Perceptual rendering and Black Point Compensation is selected.

Under Print Settings, the following is displayed under the various drop-down options:

6_zpseb40c48e.jpg


END OF PART I - I have to start a new post at this point, due to limit of 6 images per post....
 
PART II

Under Presets – this is the saved preset that I used to print the test pages with the Colormunki (which were done using the Colorsync facility).

7_zpsf3743e46.jpg



I don’t change anything here as both ColorSync and Epson Color Controls are greyed out, presumably as I have opted to have Photoshop manage colours.

I don’t change anything in this next screen either, other than Scale to fit paper size.

8_zpsa2b4e0ee.png



Under this screen, Epson Premium Luster has been auto-selected as Media type – presumably because it most closely matched the profile of the Calumet paper that was used in the ICC profile generated by the Colormunki calibration (?). I don’t change anything here.

9_zps957b288a.png



Okay so this is where I hit Print and end up with a **** print…..


Plan B

This is where I try again but ignore the Colormunki printer/screen profile. So everything is exactly the same as the above except this time instead of selecting “EpsonStylusR3000 Colormunki blah blah…” as the Printer Profile in the screen below, I select brEpson3000glacier300 – which is the paper ICC profile downloaded from the Calumet/Brilliant Paper site.

10_zps70a6bc73.jpg



This produces a print that is MUCH better than the previous efforts – the colours are definitely richer and truer to what they should be, but overall the print is still way too dark compared to the screen image.


Plan C

Whilst expressing my complete faith in the Prophoto color space, I run Plan A again, using Adobe RGB as the color space, just to rule out any issue between the two colour spaces. I use the same picture, but I firstly change the default CS6 color space to Adobe RGB, then I convert the file to Adobe RGB (Edit/Convert to Profile):

11_zps2fc4220d.jpg




So this is how my Print settings look now:

12_zps85e74fd6.png



The resulting Print is totally **** again – not as good as the one under Plan B using just the Paper profile, and (to my eye) looks identical to those produced using Prophoto Color space - in order words this is NOT an issue about Prophoto versus Adobe RGB.


Plan C

Decided to try separate calibration with Colormunki of monitor and printer, rather than using the joint calibration option. Monitor re-calibrated (still just 4 points brightness). Used earlier 1st Test Chart which had been printed using correct profile for the Calumet paper – ran the Munki over it. Printed out new 2nd Test chart . Ran munki over it and saved new paper profile.

Ran another test print – got identical results to previous efforts using the joint profile – crap in other words.


Plan D

Doesn’t solve my problem, but after reading very interesting article here: http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2011/09/kinda-interesting.html about how a R3880 user was getting frustrated with his Profile results and found that he got best possible results by abandoning his profile printing and just letting Epson handle the colour management, I felt I had to give it a go!

I got pretty decent results too – certainly (on A5 print) as good as those I got under Plan B when I ignored the Colormunki profiles and had Photoshop manage the colours using just the downloaded paper profile. Interesting, but like I say, doesn’t solve my problem….

Plan E

I don’t know what Plan E is – or F, G or H….. :shrug:

Happy for any suggestions, tips, advice....
 
Get rid of your mac and colormunki lol


How does a print look like using epson paper and epson profiles?
 
That was Plan D as above Poah! Looked pretty decent - perhaps a little dark but much better colour reproduction than I was achieving using the Colormunki profile(s).

I have since discovered a flaw in the above process - see picture 2 first post - under the ColorMunki FAQ on their site I found that I should not have had Colorsync selected here - should've opted for Epson colour management and then switched off colour management in there - if that makes sense. See here: http://xritephoto.com/ph_product_overview.aspx?ID=1115&Action=Support&SupportID=4662

Have recalibrated yet again and results are much better - but probably still not as good as just using the Epson profile and Epson color management!
 
Epson profiles are pretty good - I've never got better with my profiling.
 
I once had issues with printing with my R2880 but soon found out it was down to my processing and not the printer.

Might be worthwhile checking your gamut warning to see if the picture you are printing is beyond the printers capabilities :-)
 
Funny you should mention that Barry. I had a guy I know come around and check everything over and he initially convinced it was the gamut warning issue but he wasn't as smart as he thought he was as I've had the same problems with other pictures that aren't showing any gamut warnings. I'm compensating for the issue now by adding +10 brightness and +10 saturation to images. Not ideal but it's a workable solution.
 
I am sure you have, but I make the same mistake time after time so I thought I would mention it - have you done a simple head clean and test? After faffing round with profiles and paper choices, every time I've had a problem with my epson 2880 it is because one head isn't perfectly clean.

I find the standard profiles good enough when using matched ink (Fotospeed papers and ink) so I follow your Plan B approach and also dial in a +10 brightness in Lightroom.

Good luck. Printing seems the most frustrating part of the whole process to me.
 
Thanks Ian - I haven't gone down the head cleaning route as this is/was a brand new printer. I also took advantage of Amazon's excellent after-sales service to have the original printer replaced with another one, but I had exactly the same results.
 
Brian

Have you used the soft proofing option within Photoshop ?

This should give you a representation of how the image will print with the profiles applied.

The profile is simply a characterisation of the printer/ink/paper combination. It doesn't correct errors ( unfortunately )

You might find the following helpful

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/soft-proofing.shtml
 
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