Metal prints

[chauncey]

I've made the decision to have some of my stuff printed...which is a new experience for me, and I want to go with metal prints.
The problem is that no one offers ICC Profiles for their metal prints and the one experience showed a decided shift toward blue-yellow.
I did allow them to "color correct", which was my bad.

The suggestions that I've gotten from other web sites is to send a "known test image to be printed" and use that to have profiles created...at about $100 apiece. Not an inexpensive alternative.

I'm hoping that someone on this site might have another alternative...

[NorthernFocus]

Same advice that you've already gotten. If the printer that you're thinking of using makes small prints, crop out a portion of one of the images that you're thinking of printing and have it printed in 5x7 or 8x10. Still not cheap but worth it before you shell out a lot of money. Some of the high end printers will print you a small proof at no extra charge prior to printing the final image.

Even if you have the ICC profile, the only sure way it to have a sample printed.

[chauncey]

Perhaps a more pertinent question would be, assuming proper viewing scenarios, how close should I expect...are minor color shifts to be expected?

[NorthernFocus]

Perhaps a more pertinent question would be, assuming proper viewing scenarios, how close should I expect...are minor color shifts to be expected?

You should absolutely count on prints looking different than what you are looking at on your monitor. That's true whether you are printing with your own printer or using a print service and regardless of medium. The difference isn't what is relevant. What is important is getting predictable results. As long as that is the case then you can adjust you files as necessary to get what you want/expect. If you are looking for a quantifiable answer that says adjust x channel by y amount, you are likely in for disappointment. We each have to develop an experiential data set that lets us achieve desired results.

It's a journey...

[Manfred M]

With properly colour managed inks and materials, the printing process should give consistent results. As per previous recommendations. test prints are the only way to calibrate your equipment to your supplier's process.

[chauncey]

Just to give you guys and idea what we're talking about...this is the image that had the blue/yellow cast upon arrival on mrtal.


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[Manfred M]

I assume that you are using a profiled quality screen (IPS rather than TN technology) in your workflow?

[Steve S]

The image does have a slight yellow cast. There are also some blue's and cyan's in the snow. Fixing the yellow cast, may increase the blue's in the snow. You may have to do a layer mask and reduce the blue and cyan saturation in the lower half, after correcting the yellow cast.


What you see on screen, and how an image prints, can be very different. The slightest of color casts , can be very visible in print, and go unnoticed on screen.

[chauncey]

Don't have a clue what you're asking...what I did in CS6 was to convert image from ProPhoto psd to sRGB jpeg and send it off to the appropriate printing company.

[John Morton]

Don't have a clue what you're asking...what I did in CS6 was to convert image from ProPhoto psd to sRGB jpeg and send it off to the appropriate printing company.

Pretty good chance that the conversion protocol you used would have some effect on the final print's color range.

Probably best to proof the conversion "by the numbers": use info points to make sure the converted version has the same proportions of color values at specific places as the original.

That's a really nice image, by the way - well worth printing.

[revi]

I'm a bit surprised that no one has remarked on the "blue/yellow" cast until now: blue and yellow are (almost) complementary colours, so cannot occur in the same cast.

So might it be that the image is printed a lot more saturated than intended, but without a strong specific cast (@chauncey: which is a 'veil' of one colour
cast over the whole image).

The slight yellow cast Steve mentions doesn't bother me all that much, as it seems to fit with the time of day in the image (6pm in february according to the Exif info).

Edit: it also seems one of those images where you can't get everything correct: part of the snow has direct (yellowish ) light, and the shadows get indirect (blueish)
light. Same thing in the sky: part is directly lighted, another part indirectly.

[chauncey]

Pretty good chance that the conversion protocol you used would have some effect on the final print's color range.
That's a really nice image, by the way - well worth printing.

Thanks John...the image was photo-shopped in that, I got rid of the far lake tree line and blended the ice with the sky, then added the birds and tree from shots taken a few minutes earlier.

[Andrew1]

When I've printed up a few for our club competition and there is the potential of having a difficult one I take the file to the printer and have them bring it up on their screen. We jointly review the photo, discuss any problems and together agree on any adjustments for the final print. The printer will make them on his equipment then print them on his equipment. It takes a small amount of time and effort but I've never had a problem. If that's not available to you then I would suggest you not just sent it off blindly but rather find a printer who you can talk to on the phone and do the same thing remotely. It's not as good but better than no communication at all.

[Manfred M]

I'm a bit surprised that no one has remarked on the "blue/yellow" cast until now: blue and yellow are (almost) complementary colours, so cannot occur in the same cast.

So might it be that the image is printed a lot more saturated than intended, but without a strong specific cast (@chauncey: which is a 'veil' of one colour
cast over the whole image).

The slight yellow cast Steve mentions doesn't bother me all that much, as it seems to fit with the time of day in the image (6pm in february according to the Exif info).

Edit: it also seems one of those images where you can't get everything correct: part of the snow has direct (yellowish ) light, and the shadows get indirect (blueish)
light. Same thing in the sky: part is directly lighted, another part indirectly.

Actually this effect of blues and yellows is pretty common when shooting snow scenes at "magic hour". The shaded area reflect the blue sky and the non-shaded areas pick up the yellow from the setting sun. These kinds of shots should be viewed as mixed light shots; because that is what they truely are. You can do something about the yellow or the blue, but not both.

[chauncey]

Looks like there's no choice except to go the "send off a test image scenario and have a profile made up" route...thanks guys.