Soft Proofing -> Edits or Choose Different Paper?

monkeyleader · 1 Sep 2016

Hi,

Okay so just installed the SCP600 and about to venture into the world of printing .... Got a pack of test paper (Brilliant Museum) and as I was walking through Soft Proofing (Lightroom) I had a question. I've been using soft proofing for a while (for lab prints) but just now when I chose paper profile (matt) the color shift (and indeed contrast) was rather large. Selecting glossy or lustre gets things much closer (with only a very small amount of Gamut warnings). I've never been a huge fan of glossy mind you ...

So in cases when you choose a paper type in Lightroom (on a color calibrated monitor with the paper ICC profile) and the shift is rather large. Do you try and bring it back to looking like something that you want, or simply say that paper type (for that particular image) is a non starter ...

By the way another questions, in lightroom soft proofing, do you check or uncheck the simulate paper and ink checkbox? I've heard some folks say yes and others say no .. and then some say .. sometimes

cheers,

Nigel

Harlequin565 · 11 Sep 2016

The single biggest mistake I make when soft proofing is to remember to turn off colour management in the Printer dialogue. Prints that were trying to be managed by LR were then being managed a second time by the printer and I got into all sorts of mess. I ended up building paper profiles in the printer dialogue that turned off colour management.

I've also got paper profile templates (e.g. "Canson BP A4 V" for Canson Baryta Photographic, A4 size, Vertical (portrait) orientation) which automatically set things like print sharpening, paper type, media type, profile & intent.

My workflow: Paper in printer, Choose LR Profile Template, Page Setup button in LR, click through to Printer (Properties), set paper in printer dialogue (double check colour management off), go into Develop, Create Soft Proof, Tweak, Print.

I've never had significant differences, even on Matt paper, but I do find I need to tweak the tone curve a bit. I've been experimenting with Dehaze too which seems to be pretty useful. Epson Stylus Pro 4800, so your mileage etc etc...

monkeyleader · 3 Oct 2016

Harlequin565 said:
The single biggest mistake I make when soft proofing is to remember to turn off colour management in the Printer dialogue. Prints that were trying to be managed by LR were then being managed a second time by the printer and I got into all sorts of mess. I ended up building paper profiles in the printer dialogue that turned off colour management.

I've also got paper profile templates (e.g. "Canson BP A4 V" for Canson Baryta Photographic, A4 size, Vertical (portrait) orientation) which automatically set things like print sharpening, paper type, media type, profile & intent.

My workflow: Paper in printer, Choose LR Profile Template, Page Setup button in LR, click through to Printer (Properties), set paper in printer dialogue (double check colour management off), go into Develop, Create Soft Proof, Tweak, Print.

I've never had significant differences, even on Matt paper, but I do find I need to tweak the tone curve a bit. I've been experimenting with Dehaze too which seems to be pretty useful. Epson Stylus Pro 4800, so your mileage etc etc...

Thanks .. and that's a good tip on your workflow .... As a side note do you enable the checkbox 'simulate paper and ink' when in soft proofing?

Harlequin565 · 3 Oct 2016

monkeyleader said:
As a side note do you enable the checkbox 'simulate paper and ink' when in soft proofing?

I used to but I don't any more. I've "calibrated" my screen to look like my prints. As I mainly use one type of paper, what I see on the screen is what churns out of the printer. There's still a bit of faffing to get prints on matt paper working how I'd like them to, but the baryta prints look wonderful.