printing for which light?

[lukaswerth]

I note since some time that with some of my prints, I need to figure out at which wall they would end up and adjust colour accordingly: will they be seen under at least a portion of daylight, under a Halogen lamp, or, worse, under energy savers (which emit a quite narrow bandwidth, considerably narrower than good old bulbs) or tube light?

This problem is present always to some extent with a colour print, but more so, I note, when I manipulate colours, and the issue is that as long I work on the picture on the screen, this is what provides the illumination, but once I hold the paper print in my hand, sometimes the colour cast changes considerably according to the light source. This makes it also a problem of getting it right on the screen.

Have you also noted this issue? How do you deal with it?

Lukas

[pnodrog]

Yes the issue certainly exists - it is the converse of white balance when taking the photograph. There is not an absolute answer. However keep in mind that the viewers brain is also doing adjustments and colour compensation in response to the viewing conditions. e.g. if you move the colour of a white cat towards cyan to try and compensate for viewing under warm tungsten lighting you run the risk that even if you succeed in producing what amounts to a neutral white under the lighting the viewer may still detect a cyan cast. Even more likely if the print is hanging on a white wall. So not only will you need to know the lighting conditions you will need to take into account the environment. In addition depending on the dyes or pigments and paper used in making the print due to "metameric failure" the print can display different amounts of colour shifts under differing lighting depending on the colour being depicted - basically a nearly impossible task to try and compensate for.

Personally I think you should just print for daylight viewing and let the colour balance of the print shift with the lighting conditions as will everything else in the room.

[Shadowman]

Could the issue also be with the type of ink and paper used?, Combine ink and support with the color of the wall and lighting conditions and the issues can be magnified; however also simplified by knowing effects of each and modifying if possible.

[Manfred M]

The standard answer has always been to print to standard daylight (5500K) with the possible exception of when you know the display conditions and then print to those (more of what you might find in a gallery). If you follow a colour managed workflow; this tends to be the default you set your computer screen to. If you use a profiled approach to the printer / paper you use; this will come out in the wash as well.

The issue has always been that the viewing colour temperature tends to change throughout the day, but as our eyes / brain compensate for different colour temperatures quite quickly, having a consistent base means every print you have hanging on your walls will be consistent and you won't notice any difference.

[Manfred M]

Could the issue also be with the type of ink and paper used?, Combine ink and support with the color of the wall and lighting conditions and the issues can be magnified; however also simplified by knowing effects of each and modifying if possible.

Not if you use a colour managed workflow and either use the appropriate printer / paper / ink profile supplied by the paper manufacturer for your specific printer. Same thing goes if you do your own printer profiles.

While there can be minor differences in the base colour of the paper, if you stick to the same paper (manufacturer and paper type), this too will be consistent. Put a cool tone paper with lots of optical bleach right beside a warm tone paper, you may see a difference between the two. Here is it important to prepare your print so that there is some amount of ink deposited even on areas with specular highlights to ensure that the bare paper does not show through in your print by never having a white area that has a valure that is higher than around 240.

[chauncey]

I'm finding this query interesting...would you not be interested in that client's décor/lighting conditions
then, make that print based on that criteria?

Would that not tend to establish a personal relationship with that client?

[Manfred M]

I'm finding this query interesting...would you not be interested in that client's décor/lighting conditions
then, make that print based on that criteria?

Would that not tend to establish a personal relationship with that client?

I certainly would not suggest that this would be an appropriate direction for establishing the correct colour of light to evaluate the print under. This process has been around for decades and was a issue well before digital photography.

The pro labs would use a Macbeth colour booth to do the evaluation and mere mortals would evaluate at around 5500K.

There is a whole industry around getting colours to match; anything from the paint used on your house or car, to matching fabrics from different suppliers and dye lots in the clothing that you wear, to the images that you print. The printing industry (whether that is a magazine or a cereal box) specifies the Pantone colour numbers used in their logos and other graphics. Nothing drives companies insane when their logos are not shown in consistent colours.

If you look at the following x-Rite links; companies like Pantone, Gretag, MacBeth, Munsell were all big names in the colour business before they were bought out by x-Rite, who retained these names, given the strength of those brands in the industry.


http://color.xrite.com/art-and-scien..._term=x%20rite

[lukaswerth]

Screen calibration can certainly be very useful, but this is not the issue I raised. Manfred is right insofar as daylight (5500 K) is the standard normally to go for. Our eyes adjust themselves with a certain robustness to different light conditions - this is why in analog days one needed this bluish Tungsten film - and, I think, they more or less adjust to a daylight print processed according to a proper white point with colours as "natural" as possible when this print is viewed even under an energy saver.
The problem are "non-natural" colours, tinted, bleach-bypassed, whatever, or a print which tries to show night really as a nocturnal impression - something sensors spectacularly fail at when left to themselves - such prints may simply not look quite the intended way under different light conditions.
The only solution I am currently seeing is to first print out a small test print and adjust colours according to how this looks in the light for which it is intended for.

Lukas

[Manfred M]

The only solution I am currently seeing is to first print out a small test print and adjust colours according to how this looks in the light for which it is intended for.

Lukas - nothing beats a test print as the best way to evaluate your results.

It's a technique I used in the "wet" colour darkroom and continue to use in the more modern digital one, especially when I am either using a commercial printer for the first time or using a different paper on my own printer for the first time.

If I am really critical, I do two test prints; both at an 8-1/2" x 11" / A4 size format. One will be a reduced version of the print I am planning to make so that I get an overall perspective of the image, the other will be a full-size sample (pick any "critical" area of the) at the same resolution as the final. Both test prints give me slightly different information; one gives me an overall look and fee and the other gives me an idea how well the upsampling / scaled version will look.

I have no idea while digital photographers are so afraid of / do not see the value of doing a test print.

[Polar01]

Lukas here is one potential problem, what happens if the purchaser moves the image to a different place now not the same lighting conditions, do you make them another print, I do not think so. Best practice is to control the conditions that you can control when you print, so each time you print the image it will appear the same. If you look at an image for more than 10 seconds your eyes will have corrected for any colour shift and the image will look the same as it did moments ago.

Cheers: Allan