Print profiles, skin correction and headaches!

The23rdman

The23rdman

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I've only recently had to take note of skin tones for print purposes. My previous attempt to calibrate my monitor were terrible, but I've finally seemed to find a device that works pretty well with my monitor.

The problem I have now is skin tones. It's only been this weekend that I've found out the "rules" about percentages of yellow to magenta and cyan. Okay, I know these aren't hard and fast, but it does look like virtually every shot I've taken is too red - a common problem I hear.

I've been playing around with a colour picker on images both online and my own in PS and the results are plain weird. The colour picker is giving me readings that seen fine with a enough balance between yellows and magentas, but PS is always way too red. I can't - even with a calibrated monitor - adjust and get anywhere near decent skin tones.

How much truck do you guys who have to have good skin tones for a living put in these numbers? How do you get it right? I'm using DSCL ATM, but planning on trying Sams Labs this week.
 
The23rdman said:
I've only recently had to take note of skin tones for print purposes. My previous attempt to calibrate my monitor were terrible, but I've finally seemed to find a device that works pretty well with my monitor.

The problem I have now is skin tones. It's only been this weekend that I've found out the "rules" about percentages of yellow to magenta and cyan. Okay, I know these aren't hard and fast, but it does look like virtually every shot I've taken is too red - a common problem I hear.

I've been playing around with a colour picker on images both online and my own in PS and the results are plain weird. The colour picker is giving me readings that seen fine with a enough balance between yellows and magentas, but PS is always way too red. I can't - even with a calibrated monitor - adjust and get anywhere near decent skin tones.

How much truck do you guys who have to have good skin tones for a living put in these numbers? How do you get it right? I'm using DSCL ATM, but planning on trying Sams Labs this week.
Click to expand...

Dscl and sams are printers, how can they tell you what you want your skin tones to look like.

(had a drinky poos today so excuse any knob end replies)

If I were you I would adjust a a shot how you like it to look, then have it printed by your said supplier, then compare it to your monitor for comparison.

Make sure you are viewing the monitor in the same is h 9ALL ONE WORD0 conditions as when viewing the print.

And finally od not read to much into it , it i s all subjective anyway.

Have a good night , over abd outttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt
 
tiler65 said:
Dscl and sams are printers, how can they tell you what you want your skin tones to look like.

(had a drinky poos today so excuse any knob end replies)

If I were you I would adjust a a shot how you like it to look, then have it printed by your said supplier, then compare it to your monitor for comparison.

Make sure you are viewing the monitor in the same is h 9ALL ONE WORD0 conditions as when viewing the print.

And finally od not read to much into it , it i s all subjective anyway.

Have a good night , over abd outttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt
Click to expand...

You are very drunkled tonight, old chap, eh? ;)
 
This is a very low res unedited proof.
4793480487_315736cb15_b.jpg
 
Regarding profiling, you can order a free guide on native digital's site. You actually go through a purchase process but the price is nil and you get emailed a download link. If you are not totally up to speed on profiling knowledge then it's a useful read.
 
Dan1502 said:
Regarding profiling, you can order a free guide on native digital's site. You actually go through a purchase process but the price is nil and you get emailed a download link. If you are not totally up to speed on profiling knowledge then it's a useful read.
Click to expand...

That may be useful, ta. The problem as I see it now is my monitor isn't good enough - period. I've calibrated with three different devices and my monos always look muddy and a touch sepia.
 
If soft proofing is not working, then maybe the best way could be to order a cpl of small size prints, and if the problem is the same on all remember to make an adjustment in your PP.

Maybe an adjustment in your cameras RAW profile may help, I think it's right that Nikon err on the side of red a little too much when photographing people.
 
ding76uk said:
If soft proofing is not working, then maybe the best way could be to order a cpl of small size prints, and if the problem is the same on all remember to make an adjustment in your PP.

Maybe an adjustment in your cameras RAW profile may help, I think it's right that Nikon err on the side of red a little too much when photographing people.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've a series coming back this week so we'll see how they look.

I shoot Canon, but I'm not sure if an adjustment is necessary in post with LR.
 
Having recently profiled my printer with an i1 pro I was amazed at the difference the different conversion settings made, ie the difference between relative colourmetric and perceptual. Contrary to what I've been advised on here, I'm now thinking of using Adobe RGB colour profile setting in the camera but may take further advice on this.
 
I agree this image doesn't look too bad at all for skin tones.

If you are seeing too much red in the image you try a couple of things. Using ACR adjust either the Hue of the flesh tone. ( It's easier in Lightroom as the interface is much better I think) or you could again in ACR reduce the saturation in the red/yellow channel.

If you have a MacBeth Colour Checker, X-Rite do a piece of software that is designed to work with their Colour Passport, but also works with the Colour Checker. You can make a custom camera profile for Lightroom, and I think Photoshop. The software is free and does make some difference to how the RAW image is rendered.

Alternatively if you are using ACR in either Photoshop or Lightroom you could try adopting one of the camera profiles within the software to see if it make any difference. You could try either camera Neutral or Faithful and see if that makes the images more to your liking
 
Chappers said:
I agree this image doesn't look too bad at all for skin tones.


If you have a MacBeth Colour Checker, X-Rite do a piece of software that is designed to work with their Colour Passport, but also works with the Colour Checker. You can make a custom camera profile for Lightroom, and I think Photoshop. The software is free and does make some difference to how the RAW image is rendered.
Click to expand...

I thought you had to have the camera calibration licence for i1match software along with the colour passport to do this. If there is free software to calibrate the camera for use in ACR I would be grateful for a point in the right direction as I have an i1 pro.
 
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