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Jan 14, 2018 09:54:08   #
pesfls Loc: Oregon, USA
 
I have had difficulty getting a decent print of this image. What happens is it keeps printing more underexposed than this. I’m not very computer wise. I was told to calibrate our monitor. Our computer is an iMac with 21” screen. I went through the monitor calibration proceedure in settings. Next I was advised to go to drycreekphoto.com and look up their printer & calibrate ours to their specific Epson printer. All that was utter greek to me. I was also advised to resave the file from tiff to jpeg. I did that. I still struggle with getting a print that satisfies me. Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated. Thanks.


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Jan 14, 2018 09:59:07   #
twowindsbear
 
Try a chat with Epson customer service

Good luck

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Jan 14, 2018 10:03:27   #
Jim Plogger Loc: East Tennessee
 
My guess is that you need to calibrate your monitor and printer so that what you see on the monitor will be what is printed. There are sytems that accomplish this.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-calibrate-your-monitor/
http://windowsreport.com/display-color-calibration-software/

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Jan 14, 2018 10:15:53   #
CPR Loc: Nature Coast of Florida
 
While waiting to get the calibration system I would first reboot my printer to make sure no light/dark settings were in it. I'd take the photo and make sections of it (vertical 2" strips) darker by a bit using Photoshop. Then print that and see what I got. OR - I'd use the controls in the printer to see what darker settings did.

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Jan 14, 2018 10:27:00   #
SalvageDiver Loc: Huntington Beach CA
 
pesfls wrote:
I have had difficulty getting a decent print of this image. What happens is it keeps printing more underexposed than this. I’m not very computer wise. I was told to calibrate our monitor. Our computer is an iMac with 21” screen. I went through the monitor calbration proceedure in settings. Next I was advised to go to drycreekphoto.com and look up their printer & calbrate to their specific Epson printer. All that was utter greek to me. I was also advised to resave the file from tiff to jpeg. I did that. I still struggle with getting a print that satisfies me. Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
I have had difficulty getting a decent print of th... (show quote)


Hi pestles, I remember this image.

You may hear from others here about printer&paper ICC profiles and soft proofing your prints before sending them to the printer, which is the correct way for an efficient workflow and one that I now use.

BTW, this is a common problem for many. Remember that your monitor is transmitting light out to you. The print is reflecting light back to you from the available ambient light. Not necessarily apples-to-apples.

What I've done in the past that works reasonably well and very simple is this: Since you know that your current image is too dark, just bracket your exported jpg's. Increase the exposure of your tiff by 1/2 stop before exporting to your first jpg. Then increase the tiff exposure by 1 stop over your original exposure before exporting to your 2nd jpg. Finally, increase the tiff exposure to 1.5 stops and export to your final jpg. Send the three files out to your printer. When you get the prints back, place them in the location that they'll be viewed, you office if I remember correctly. You'll either have one that is just right (good enough) or you'll know what change to make for the final print.

This can also give you a good starting point for future prints from that printer in the future. It's time and a little money but easy. I use Costco for a lot of my printing, so the process is fast and cheap. If your print is very large, you can bracket using smaller, but not too small, prints to save cost. Just make sure your paper is the same.

As you become more familiar with printing, then understanding printing workflow will become more important. But, for now, this may work for your immediate need.

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Jan 14, 2018 10:44:09   #
pesfls Loc: Oregon, USA
 
SalvageDiver wrote:
Hi pestles, I remember this image.

You may hear from others here about printer&paper ICC profiles and soft proofing your prints before sending them to the printer, which is the correct way for an efficient workflow and one that I now use.

BTW, this is a common problem for many. Remember that your monitor is transmitting light out to you. The print is reflecting light back to you from the available ambient light. Not necessarily apples-to-apples.

What I've done in the past that works reasonably well and very simple is this: Since you know that your current image is too dark, just bracket your exported jpg's. Increase the exposure of your tiff by 1/2 stop before exporting to your first jpg. Then increase the tiff exposure by 1 stop over your original exposure before exporting to your 2nd jpg. Finally, increase the tiff exposure to 1.5 stops and export to your final jpg. Send the three files out to your printer. When you get the prints back, place them in the location that they'll be viewed, you office if I remember correctly. You'll either have one that is just right (good enough) or you'll know what change to make for the final print.

This can also give you a good starting point for future prints from that printer in the future. It's time and a little money but easy. I use Costco for a lot of my printing, so the process is fast and cheap. If your print is very large, you can bracket using smaller, but not too small, prints to save cost. Just make sure your paper is the same.

As you become more familiar with printing, then understanding printing workflow will become more important. But, for now, this may work for your immediate need.
Hi pestles, I remember this image. br br You may... (show quote)


Thanks for that. Your method is not beyond my computer skills as what drycreek and other sites say to do. I will give it whirl. Oddly, I have not had this issue when ordering color prints. They have come out true to what I see at home on our mac. The tiffs I first had printed were dramatically more/too contrasty compared to what I was seeing on the monitor so hence the change to jpeg submissions. So my computer's calibration must be ok for color but out of whack for bw. And yes it's the image you've seen previously. I'm just trying to get an acceptable print in bw. If this doesn't work out I guess I'll go rob a bank and get the new Leica monochrome body & a few lenses for it. That should satisfy 10 years of GAS needs & an instant divorce.

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Jan 14, 2018 10:44:45   #
pesfls Loc: Oregon, USA
 
CPR wrote:
While waiting to get the calibration system I would first reboot my printer to make sure no light/dark settings were in it. I'd take the photo and make sections of it (vertical 2" strips) darker by a bit using Photoshop. Then print that and see what I got. OR - I'd use the controls in the printer to see what darker settings did.


Thanks for that idea. Appreciate it.

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Jan 14, 2018 10:45:06   #
pesfls Loc: Oregon, USA
 
Thank you.

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Jan 14, 2018 14:01:49   #
OddJobber Loc: Portland, OR
 
SalvageDiver wrote:
Remember that your monitor is transmitting light out to you. The print is reflecting light back to you from the available ambient light.

I do my own printing, but that's important to remember. When I finish processing, I now know that if I go to print (Canon Pro-10), it will be too dark. Now when it looks right on the monitor, I routinely lighten by 1 1/2 stops, then print. Burned up a lot of paper and ink to figure that out.

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Jan 14, 2018 14:06:42   #
pesfls Loc: Oregon, USA
 
OddJobber wrote:
I do my own printing, but that's important to remember. When I finish processing, I now know that if I go to print (Canon Pro-10), it will be too dark. Now when it looks right on the monitor, I routinely lighten by 1 1/2 stops, then print. Burned up a lot of paper and ink to figure that out.


Sounds familiar. That fits with my limited bw experience thus far.

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Jan 14, 2018 14:22:09   #
rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA
 
pesfls wrote:
I was told to calibrate our monitor. Our computer is an iMac with 21” screen. I went through the monitor calibration proceedure in settings. Next I was advised to go to drycreekphoto.com and look up their printer & calibrate ours to their specific Epson printer.


This missing link is hardware calibration. Computer monitors, even Apple, are right out of the box, set up for web surfing and games. Brightness and color rendition are completely different for printing photographs. Software "calibration" isn't going to get you where you want to go. We've all been through this.

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Jan 14, 2018 14:26:04   #
pesfls Loc: Oregon, USA
 
I have heard the term hardware calibration but know nothing of it. Guess I should hire Mr Google & read up. Thanks

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Jan 15, 2018 10:36:23   #
artBob Loc: Near Chicago
 
Test strips, for sure. Once what is needed is found, you can save, either in printer settings or as an adjustment layer in the file. BTW, the suggestion that you change TIFF to JPEG seems bad to me. Why lose information?

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Jan 15, 2018 12:50:49   #
jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ
 
pesfls wrote:
I have had difficulty getting a decent print of this image. What happens is it keeps printing more underexposed than this. I’m not very computer wise. I was told to calibrate our monitor. Our computer is an iMac with 21” screen. I went through the monitor calibration proceedure in settings. Next I was advised to go to drycreekphoto.com and look up their printer & calibrate ours to their specific Epson printer. All that was utter greek to me. I was also advised to resave the file from tiff to jpeg. I did that. I still struggle with getting a print that satisfies me. Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
I have had difficulty getting a decent print of th... (show quote)


Mac computers are known to be very bright. So think for a minute and it should become clear what is happening. So, if your monitor is 140 lumens, (which is very bright) and the picture looks good and bright but your print is dark, maybe if you adjust your monitor 20% darker and then adjust your image so that it is as bright as it was before you darkened your monitor, your print will be much brighter. Or if you have a choice, make the monitor 100 lumens or so. That's how monitor calibration works. Also, if you don't like working from a darker monitor, you can sometimes ask the print module (software) to print the image 20% brighter and see how it turns out. I don't really like this method because you don't get to see the contrast and brightness before printing. You are just guessing print brightness and contrast.

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Jan 15, 2018 15:28:48   #
TomV Loc: Annapolis, Maryland
 
I had a nice older HP monitor that put out a good color match but the prints were still dark. I could not crank down the monitor intensity low enough. I ended up buying a Dell IPS panel 4K 27" unit that allowed me to crank down the intensity enough to match my printer. I use a ColorMunki for fine tuning the color matching and I am now satisfied with the results. I also print using ACDSee/Canon Pixma Pro-100 and have refined the setup configuration to optimize the results.

I am away from home but if anyone is interested in my setup configuration I will gladly post them next week upon my return.

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