Colour space and management

[Chris]

I have just been delving into the world or colour managment of late, trying to get my head around it. My prints have always came out darker to what i view on the screen.

First up. i am using an LCD monitor, a samsung 172x. I have tried to calibrate the monitor with Adobe gamma and other Applications which were supplied by samsung with monitor. Even after i think i h ave calibrated it my prints are still not close enough to what i am seeing on the screen. Anybody have any expereince calibration LCDs with software before? any success. I find these softwares a bit difficult to use and get a good result. I am also not sure where my brightness and contrasts should be for optimum results. any help?

Failing this i am thinking of getting one those hardware monitor calibrators from colorvision to do the job, hoping it would do it a lot better. Dont know how well they on LCD's and in particular my monitor which wasnt the cheaspes but not the most expensive around at $500.

My current printer i am using is an Epsosn Photo Stylus 915. I have tried all sorts of paper and settings but with no huge success (including epson paper).

Lastly my photos appear to be shot in Adobe RGB, so i have set it as my default working space in photoshop. My print space is set to Epson Photo 915. I am doing someothing obviously wrong here?

Any help, suggestions in regards to any of this or to do with colour space etc would be much appreciated.

thanks and sorry for such a long first post

Chris

[Greolt]

Chris you will probably get a lot of opinion on this forum saying you will never get good results with a LCD monitor.
However I have the same monitor you have and believe it does a pretty good job.
A proper hardware calibrator such as "Spyder" etc will no doubt give an exelent and consistent result but I don't have one.
I use "adobe gamma" and get good results comparing to printer output. Fairly middle of the road canon printer.

The software that comes with that monitor is very good in the visual guides it gives to calibrate
but does not provide a colour profile as used by PS etc. Adobe gamma does.

One thing I have found is I need a monitor profile for daytime use (light through window) and another for night time
(incandesant lighting) to get consistent colour prints.

Greolt

[Greolt]

Oh and welcome to the forum too.
Put your location in your profile too this can help people help you sometimes.

Greolt

[big pix]

You are letting the printer do is own thing, set your print space to the paper profile that you are printing on IE: matt, glossy, semi matt, etc.....

your source space should be Adobe rgb1998 and print space your paper profile and NO color management.......

good luck
bp PS Check out Russel Brown's tips site
and Welcome

[big pix]

Sorry but also ........make sure you are using EPSON USB or you will be using the wrong drivers.......I think this is in Espon printer Ulitity....

cheers
bp

[Matt. K]

Chris
First of all...take a picture of a coke can and include any other object with a known colour...Kodak film box, magazine cover etc. Print though Pshop without any corrections. Does the print look OK...or close? If so adjust your monitor to match the print. If not...you have got problems.

[big pix]

Good advice matt k .......... but only after you have set up color management for printing.......

cheers
bp

[Chris]

Thanks for all the replys so far.

Greolt, thanks for the welcome, looks like i have stumbled across a good forum with plenty of helpful locals. I will have to have another go of adobe gamma i think considering it does provide a profile for use in photoshop.

Big pix, my current printer driver didnt actually any different profiles for different papers, all it had was one profile called "epson 915 stylus".Though i have found on the epson site some profiles for different papers which were supposedly for use with photoshop 6 and 7 so i will give those ones a go. I guess they are profiles for epson papers. I have to look into that EPSON USB, i wasnt aware of that. I think my printer is a coupl eof years old now and i am guessing that some of the newer epsons would have alot more profiles avaialble for different and new types of paper.

I will try that excercise that you suggested Matt, seems logical. Though i should first have another go at the monitor calibration.

thanks again guys, have a few things to go on now...

[Matt. K]

Chris
Don't calibrate until you have determined that your printer is working in sync with your camera. If they are in sync then your monitor is out. If they are not in sync then your printer is out of whack.

[big pix]

How can your camera be out of sync with your printer when they are both working in RGB...........it comes back to colour management, printer profiles and having your screen profiled to your printer..... also having a paper profile for each stock you print on and the color space you work with

bp

[big pix]

Before you do any of the above, reset your moniter back to factory default and photoshop.........so you have a fresh starting point not one that you are trying to fix that is not right to start with

bp

[sirhc55]

Matt - in the old days prior to colour management I used to do exactly as you have defined.

Send a sample page for a Ciba proof and then match the screen to the proof - in this way I could be sure of getting correctly printed pages from the press.

[Marvin]

I have the same monitor and have had quite a few problems getting the colours right in PS. I still haven't managed it and get some very weird results. The colours in Nikon View and Nikon Capture look great though and print out that way! Unfortunately I can't afford a monitor calibrator. Welcome and good luck!