Please describe your printing workflow

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi there! I just bought myself my first photoprinter to see if I can do a better job than the shop around the corner. Suddenly I'm overwhelmed with all the things to consider when you're preparing an image for printing. It would be very helpful for me if you could describe your workflow when you prepare an image for printing.
I'm especially interested in whether you adapt your color space from sRGB to something else, whether you resample an image to the desired printing size or let the printer figure out the rescaling and how you deal with color profiles of monitor and printer. I'm also curious whether you print directly from your PP software or from another program. Any warnings about additional pitfalls I haven't thought of yet are equally welcome!

The first image I printed was one of my earlier posts in the macro-forum (http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ad.php?t=27255), but it came out much darker and with less vibrant colors than the image on my screen. I'm using the generic monitor color profile for my monitor and the color profile that came with my printer (Canon Pixma MP640) for the printer. I edited the RAW file in sRGB and left it like that for the printer. I resampled the image to the print size in Corel Photopaint, but printed it with the printing software that came with the printer. Curious observation (to me at least): colors of my images differ between the RAW editor (Silkypix), PP software (Corel Photopaint) and Windows viewer. Probably also has to do with my settings.

Thanks a lot for helping out!

[Nancy A Elwood]

Jerry if I understand you correctly you printed from the RAW file? If that is correct then that is not the best thing to do. First of all it is best to get the printer specific profiles, not the canned ones on the CD. For example I have an Epson R1900. I downloaded from the epson website the specific profiles for that printer, for the different papers I will be using. Then when I print out of CS3 I let Photoshop manager the print choosing from the drop down menu the specific profile for the paper I am using. I do not let the printer manager the print. Second I print from a 16-bit Tiff that I have saved from my post processed RAW file. Thirdly, I use Niksoftware, Nik sharpener, which is a plug in for Photoshop. Within that program you pick the paper you will be printing on and it sharpens it accordingly. It will look oversharpened, but not to worry it is suppose to look like that.

Jerry I just looked up your printer and seeing it is one of the all in ones, it probably does not have its own profiles, so you will have to skip that step. But do print from a tiff or jpeg and using the Niksoftware can help a lot. Also with your printer always use sRGB. Images in RGB will not look right in Windows picture viewer and such. All images viewed outside of Photo editing programs on computers are best saved in sRGB. Hope that helps.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Nancy, thanks for your response! This really helps.
Actually I don't print from the RAW files. I print from the highest quality jpeg my software saves. Although my printer is an all in one, it is supposed to be one of the top end printers in it's class (but probably no match for your Epson). It does come with printer specific profiles, in which I'm able to choose from a large variety of paper. I can even tweak the different color levels through the printer driver.
That Nik software sounds really helpful, I'll look into that.
Thanks again!

[Ed Cordes]

Jerry, you will most certainly get much better results doing it yourself. Here are 2 articles from another forum which I found very useful. It sounds more complicated than it really is. Once you get a smooth work flow down it only takes a few minutes and becomes kind of intuitive.

Have fun,

Ed

http://www.naturescapes.net/docs/ind...nkjet-printing

http://www.naturescapes.net/docs/ind...-better-prints

[Jerry van Dijk]

Thanks Ed for those links! These should get me under way.

[Jay Gould]

Jerry, my brother (stevegouldphotography.com) does all of his own printing - even large sizes. When I told him I was going to print images the first thing he told me to get was a series of videos from Luminous Landscape - http://store.luminous-landscape.com/...roducts_id=164

While they do not reference CS4, they are an excellent starting point.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Thanks Jay! It seems the video offers everything I need to know. The fact that CS4 is not covered is no problem for me, I'm 'struggling' with other software anyway :).
I loved your recent posts from the antarctic by the way! Little time for critiquing lately, so my compliments through this post.

[Jay Gould]

Thanks, Mate.