Understanding Softproofing

[Andy M]

Hi, looking for some basic understanding of soft-proofing. I like to understand why and what I'm doing and I'm puzzled!

I have a regularly calibrated CRT monitor and just upgraded to Epson R2880 printer. I have chosen to go with Epson Enhanced Matte paper for the majority of my work and am using Epson K3 Ultrachrome inks. With this combination I can use the Epson provided ICC profile which I know is not quite as good as a custom profile but should give good results.

Here's my question? If I'm using a profile that takes account of the printer model, paper and ink why should I need to softproof? Yet when I tick 'show paper colour' in the PS print dialogue it makes a distinct change. Even more so when I set up the soft proofing.

Another question. Under 'device to simulate' do I use the 'R2880' profile or the 'Epson Enhanced Matte' paper profile?

My prints tend to be slightly darker than on screen but not nearly as far apart as soft proofing would suggest. Am I missing something?

thanks in anticipation,

Andy

[Manfred M]

Hi Andy - welcome to CiC.

What softproofing does for you is to show you the out-of-gamut (OOG) parts of your image, based on your input colour space and the printer / ink / paper you are using. That allows you to make the decision as to how you want to handle the specific issue (if of course it exists) before printing, otherwise the rendering intent you have chosen (how your printer has been instructed to handle OOG) will take over for you, and you may or may not like the results.

[DanK]

Andy,

Using a correct ICC profile and giving the correct paper type won't make the image look like it does on screen. This process doesn't compensate for many of the characteristics of the paper. The OOG colors that Manfred mentioned is part of this, but not all of it.

To see this, install the profiles for two very different papers. For example, install one for a coated luster paper, since you have a matte paper installed already. Then create two soft-proof copies, one for each paper. What you will see will be very different. Not only do matte papers in general have a much smaller gamut; they also create a much lower-contrast appearance. Soft proofing allows you to add paper-specific edits before printing to compensate for these. In my experience, I rarely have to compensate all that much when working with luster papers, but matte papers often take a lot of work.

I don't use an epson printer or epson papers, but the ICCs I have downloaded from good paper companies for my printers have been fine.

Dan

[Andy M]

Hi Guys,

thanks for your comments. I need to take time to read the soft proofing article on here again and digest it properly. Can I just clarify, under 'device to simulate' do I use the 'R2880' profile or the 'Paper' profile i.e. Epson Enhanced Matte

thanks

Andy

[Manfred M]

Hi Guys,

thanks for your comments. I need to take time to read the soft proofing article on here again and digest it properly. Can I just clarify, under 'device to simulate' do I use the 'R2880' profile or the 'Paper' profile i.e. Epson Enhanced Matte

thanks

Andy

Andy - you need to use the profile for the printer AND paper you are using. When I look down my list of profiles, I don't see any just for the printer, but for the printer / paper combination (there are lots including some pre-installed ones I never use for press and other printing processes)..

[Andy M]

Andy - you need to use the profile for the printer AND paper you are using. When I look down my list of profiles, I don't see any just for the printer, but for the printer / paper combination (there are lots including some pre-installed ones I never use for press and other printing processes)..

Hi Manfred, thanks for the reply. That's the answer I was expecting - I should have said paper/printer profile e.g. 'R2880 Epson Premium Presentation Matte'. My query arose from my drop down list of profiles showing 'Stylus Photo R2280' and 'Stylus Photo 1400 1410' as available choices. See screen capture if I've uploaded it correctly.

So I'm assuming for best outcome this adds another editing step to the workflow to adjust the soft-proofed image for final printing?

cheers

Andy

[Manfred M]

Hi Manfred, thanks for the reply. That's the answer I was expecting - I should have said paper/printer profile e.g. 'R2880 Epson Premium Presentation Matte'. My query arose from my drop down list of profiles showing 'Stylus Photo R2280' and 'Stylus Photo 1400 1410' as available choices. See screen capture if I've uploaded it correctly.

So I'm assuming for best outcome this adds another editing step to the workflow to adjust the soft-proofed image for final printing?

cheers

Andy

Yes and no. I rarely softproof, but that's only because I've been printing for a long time with the same paper and have a really good feel as to how I have to prepare the images for print. All I generally do is set my black point to 15, my white point to 240 as those settings ensure that I have shadow detail and highlight detail. I have a quick look at the rendering intent (for photos usually perceptual (especially for portraits) and sometimes relative colormetric for other images) and print away. For colour prints I let Photoshop do the colour management but for B&W I let the printer do this (otherwise I find my images have a slight green tone in B&W).

This article on CiC gives a pretty good description as to how each of these intents works:

https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tu...conversion.htm

[Polar01]

Andy that is correct, if you intend to print. I sometimes use it to see what the image may look like on 3 or 4 different stocks that I sometimes use. That is if some of the colours are out of gamut on one stock it may not be on another. I have one stock that is very, very, and I mean very expensive if I softproof to it, 99% of the time it never shows any colour of colours out of gamut, yet the colours were out on another stock.
Andy I am going to add to links, the second one involves softproofing but more than just out of gamut. I strongly suggest that you read the first article than the second. Also suggest you save me to reread later. I still reread mine at least once a month or so just to refresh my memory.

https://luminous-landscape.com/beyond-calibration/
https://luminous-landscape.com/beyond-calibration-2/

Cheers: Allan

[mastamak]

Hello Andy, I have a similar printer to you. I use the same inks and only use Epson papers. I find this gives the most consistent result. As explained above the soft proofing simply shows you the out of gamut colours for your printer/paper combination. If you compare soft proofing for Epson Premium Glossy paper with Velvet Fine Art paper you will notice a startling difference as the gamut for the fine art paper is much narrower than glossy. If you are using Lightroom to soft proof you can create a virtual copy and use the HSL sliders to minimise the out of gamut colours by desaturating them. Admittedly my experience in printing on fine art paper is limited but I am not sure there is much advantage in adjusting the colour gamut in soft proofing rather than just letting the printer handle it given all the tinkering you have to do with the colour sliders and the uncertain outcome compared with your initial edit.

[Shadowman]

Andy,

My awareness of soft proofing came from the inclusion of a Soft Proofing mode in Lightroom, it is available in PS also. Prior to preparing the image for printing, LR allows you to edit the image so that out-of-gamut colors look good on screen as well as later output. Certain colors, red with texture; is a good example of a color that will definitely show out-of-gamut on the screen and may not be corrected by ICC profiling if the color effects are too severe.

[Polar01]

Another thing to look at when softproofing is not only to see if colours are out of gamut, but also if contrast and saturation have changed which they often. See my post #8 and the second link, then check out near the bottom of the article Finish Your Image. I have found it very helpful and re-read it often to get my head straight understanding it.

Cheers: Allan

[Manfred M]

Andy - if you want some really good information about all aspects of preparing the image for printing, including a very detailed section on how to and why to soft proof, I suggest you might want to look at Jeff Schewe's iconic book: "The Digital Print: Preparing Images in Lightroom and Photoshop for Printing". Much of Jeff's work (and some of the books he co-authored with the late Bruce Fraser) are considered the definitive books on digital photography.

I have several of his books and while they are not light reading, I refer to them when I am have problems with my work.

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Print-...5976265&sr=1-1