Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

You download a printer profile to soft proof on your system. If you are printing on a Lightjet or similar printer that generates C type silver halide prints, the gamut will be different than say a wide-gamut Epson 9900 ink jet. The lab will generate a profile that it uses to help ensure color uniformity when printing images that were generated on standardized, or profiled, displays. If you profile your display to a neutral standard, you are going to create an image that will "technically" print as good as possible on any printer that has been similarly profiled - to a neutral standard. However, because of gamut mismatches, there may be some colors that will print that your display can't show, and vice versa. This is why you download the printer's icc profile. This way you can soft-proof your image image as the printer will print it, allowing you to make some final adjustments for out of gamut or poorly represented colors. You also can select the best rendering intent for the image as well during the soft proof.

In most cases you are not necessarily "calibrating" a display when you use a spectrophotometer or colorimeter - you are just providing a standard set of colors to the display, reading what the display shows, and generating a profile that makes adjustments, in software, to each color displayed, and storing the adjustment in a display profile. You use a piece of hardware to do this but you are not calibrating your display, you are only generating a translation table, stored in an icc file that is loaded when you boot your system. If you provide the display with a red color but the display shows a pink color, it tells the graphics card to add more "red." This is all done in software, and thus is not what many mistakenly refer to as hardware calibration.

Hardware "calibration" is usually done at the factory, to ensure, as closely as possible, a match between a known color input and how it is displayed when the display is viewed in it's "native state." In concept it is similar to software "profiling" but it does in fact change the hardware. But the two processes are different and the terms are not really interchangeable. For less costly displays, the factory will feed a test pattern, and using very accurate hardware, read the output, and generate a list of changes to the display's hardware, namely each of the red, green and blue dots that make up the colors, to adjust the gain to arrive at a close match to the test signal. This is then stored in the display's electronics.

Some displays, like Dell's high end displays, Eizo HP and NEC have a user programmable LUT (look up table), and user accessible gain controls on the red, green and blue signals, and require a specific hardware (Xrite i1 Display Pro or Xrite i1 Pro) to do the measuring and their software to do the calibration, which is then hard-coded into the display.

https://imagescience.com.au/knowledge/calibration-versus-profiling
https://photographylife.com/how-to-properly-calibrate-dell-u2413-u2713h-u3014-monitors
https://photographylife.com/how-to-calibrate-dell-wide-gamut-monitors

There are two basic reasons why a display will never be exactly like a print. First, as Lee has described, you are looking at a print (reflected color, CMYK) vs a light source - (transmitted color- RGB). There are two very different color spaces with a lot of overlap so displayed images will resemble printed ones, but there will always be differences. Second, a monitor is less affected by the color of ambient light than a print. Look at one of your prints under fluorescent light, then incandescent light, then halogen, then go outside in open shade, then look at it with the sun shining directly on it - the print will look different under each lighting condition.

Lightroom provides a number tools to adjust color.

1. Color Temperature slider - but it will only affect the blue-yellow (cool/warm) balance
2. ColorTtint slider will only affect the green-magenta balance. Neither will affect saturation directly. Obviously, if your image is very green, adjusting the tint slider to include more magenta and less green will diminish the green saturation, but it does this at the expense of adding more magenta.
3. Curves tool to individually adjust red green and blue.
4. HSL adjustments - hue, saturation and luminance, which allows individual control of red, orange, yellow, green, aqua, blue, purple and magenta
5. Vibrance slider - affects less saturated colors more than the highly saturated ones
6. Saturation slider - affects all colors at the by the same amount simultaneously.
7. Haze slider- which will increase saturation and contrast in all colors except for blue. It does other things to sharpening, contrast and micro contrast as well
8. Lastly, at the bottom of the develop module, there is Camera Calibration - and LR provides several "canned" profiles - Adobe Standard, Camera Neutral, Camera Landscape, Camera Portrait, Camera Standard, Camera Vivid, and the ability to create your own. If you use an Xrite ColorChecker Passport, you can create a camera profile to ensure that the camera's raw file is as true to neutral as possible. If you use the CCP on several cameras to generate test captures in the same light, and you create a profile for each camera, all the images coming from the multiple cameras will appear identical to one another despite each camera having different color capture characteristics.

Sorry for the long answer, but I think you have all that you need to answer your question, and hopefully many other unasked questions about color management.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

One useful "cheat" is to use the ink and paper provided by the printer manufacturer. The color profile is stored in the printer driver, and if your display is accurately profiled, you can get a very good looking print, especially if you softproof the image with the printer driver manage colors box checked.

You do not add the printer profile from a print lab to the print - you only use the printer profile to soft-proof the image. Embedding the profile will result in a double-profiled image and it will not look very good at all.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Without a serious effort to calibrate your monitor, you'll be chasing this problem continuously. You'll need to invest in a calibration tool. I use a Spyder Pro to calibrate and check calibration of my monitor. I then have either Tempe Imaging Center or The View Camera Store make my prints. I never have an issue with the final prints.
--Bob

Motorcycle Mike Loc: Indy

Thanks Bob.....I'll look into Spyder Pro.

Zazzy1 Loc: Northern Ca.

I have had the same problem. I had some canvas's done, and large prints. The colors are completely different the highlights are different. My husband who is a computer and techie genius has spent many hours trying to calibrate my computer. We have spent many dollars buying expensive paper from Illford trying to print our own. It has been so disappointing I have given up. Ugh!

Spiney Loc: Reading, PA

I haven't seen this mentioned. Are you using LightRoom, Photoshop, or other editor? What is your colorspace set to? I had an issue with my prints being way off my screen, even though I had a calibrated screen. The issue was my colorspace was set to Adobe-Pro or AdobeRGB. When set to Adobe sRGB My photos came back matching my monitor.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Hi, Mike. Monitor calibration is the single most important thing you can do to ensure your prints come back as expected! Many folks think they can calibrate a monitor by using the front panel controls, or operating system tools. That might get you "pleasing color" on the laptop, but it WILL NEVER match lab prints.

You need a monitor calibration kit from X-RITE (i1 or Color Munki), or DataColor (Spyder5Pro). These kits contain a software application and a colorimeter "puck". You load the software, plug in the puck, and follow the onscreen instructions. The software guides you to adjust your monitor for proper black level, white level, and contrast (gamma). Then it displays a series of color and gray "ramps", metering each one, and creating an ICC profile that allows your monitor to display color as accurately as it possibly can.

Once your monitor is calibrated and profiled, and the profile is installed in your operating system, what you see is what is actually in your files! BUT, to see how it will print on a given printer, you need the ICC profile for that specific printer and paper combination. You can ask your lab to provide you with that, or download it from their website, if they have it there.

Once you install the profile on your system, your application software allows you to use it for "soft proofing" or as a "simulation profile" (they're basically the same things). This means you can adjust color and brightness of your image in Lightroom, Photoshop, etc. while viewing the image as it will look in print. (Well, as close as you can simulate it on a monitor, anyway!)

Keep in mind that there will never be a perfect match, but you can get a very close, pleasing match. That's because your monitor projects (ADDS) red, green, and blue light to make white. But photo paper SUBTRACTS red, green, and blue light from white light falling on it, using yellow, magenta, and cyan dyes (traditional silver halide paper), or yellow, magenta, cyan, and black (and perhaps more) inks. These are two very opposite systems. One favors shadows, one favors highlights, and I'll let you figure out which is which.

I hope that helps!

Jeff in Henderson NV Loc: Henderson, Nevada

Someone had a similar post awhile back and I found an answer very helpful. I'm currently using a portable Canon Pixma printer ($200.00) and getting great prints. I've had the larger, high-$ printers also. In short, make a duplicate copy on your computer of the picture you want to print out. Then print your photograph. Then, looking at your print, adjust the duplicate picture on your computer according to how you wish your printed picture had looked; adjust lighting, sharpness, etc. Then print the picture again. It should look a lot more like you wanted. It's worked for me.

Motorcycle Mike Loc: Indy

Thanks Bill for this good information. I am not a "techie", but it sounds reasonable to make an attempt. Appreciate your kind assistance and expertise on this matter.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

1. In what way are your prints "bad"? Too dark? Incorrect color rendition? Low contrast, low color saturation?

It would be really helpful if you would post one of your "bad" image files. Then we could do a better job evaluating what's gone qrong and give you helpful recommendations.

2. You say you "tried to calibrate your PC monitor, but with no success".... Exactly how were you calibrating it? Did you use a calibration device and software suite such as a ColorMunki, Huey or Spyder?

The fact that multiple printers are all giving you the same poor results suggests that the printers are not the problem... that the problem is somewhere on your end. An uncalibrated or incorrectly calibrated monitor will cause you to incorrectly adjust your images. What looks good to you on the mis-adjusted monitor will look bad on other people's monitors or from any printer. The rest of the world would need to mis-adjust itself to match your mis-adjusted monitor, for your images to ever look "right". Since that's unlikely to happen, you'll need to correct things on your end.

If you don't already have a good calibration device and software, buying and using one will ultimately pay for itself, in savings of the cost of reprinting until you "get it right".

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

This will work, but it takes some practice and a "pretty good eye" to do it manually with much consistency.

I highly recommend you buy a calibration device & software and use it. Much easier! It will do a more consistent and accurate job. And, if you print very much at all, it will eventually pay for itself in saved cost of reprinting.

Computer monitors change over time... they lose brightness with age and see some gradual color shifts. So they need to be re-calibrated every so often. I have my calibration software set up to remind me to do it every other month. I know folks who do it monthly. Pro labs and high end printers might calibrate even more often than that.

One of the most common things that occurs is that most computer monitors are nearly always too bright for photographic work. As a result of using a too-bright monitor, photographers will adjust their images toward underexposure and their prints will end up too dark.

When I first got my monitor, using a Spyder calibration suite told me I had to turn down its brightness to 20%. (I forget what it was defaulting to, but it was much brighter.)

Now after using the monitor for around 6 years, it's set to 50% brightness. That might give you some idea how much a monitor can change and why it needs to be readjusted fairly often.

Ambient light conditions are another big factor. If the lighting levels and/or the color of light where you're working are constantly changing, that will also skew your perceptions of the image on your computer monitor. Some calibration devices are able to detect ambient light conditions and adjust things "on the fly" as needed.

Another thing that can help with ambient light issues is to put a hood on your computer monitor to reduce what light is falling upon it. There are hoods that can be bought for some monitors, but I just made one myself out of matte black, 1/2" foam core board... about 8" deep and held in place on the tops and sides of my monitor with Velcro. I put a little removable "door" in the center of the top section, for the wire connector of my Spyder sensor of my calibration suite to pass through.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

TomV Loc: Annapolis, Maryland

The light you view your prints with impacts the color you see. I have purchased a small task lamp from OttLite and get a better rendition (closer to my calibrated Dell IPS monitor) than when viewed with my overhead incandescent bulbs. I print with everyone's favorite, the Canon Pixma PRO-100. My photobooks from Winkflash, Shutterfly and Vistaprint seem close to my expectations.

rfmaude41 Loc: Lancaster, Texas (DFW area)

DataColor also has the Spyder calibration tool for about the same price.

photoman022 Loc: Manchester CT USA

The difference between what you see on paper and what you see on screen is that most device (computer, etc.) screens are very bright. If you want to take one of your printed photos and darken the screen until both print and screen match, you have an extremely good starting point for the brightness issue. I would then color calibrate my monitor.

Instead of going through all of this hassle, I use Costco printing and they automatically correct the brightness. This is a problem when printing photos with fog in them.