Pkfish Loc: Wilson Wy

I'm a newbe in UHH and also at photography. I'm printing with a Epson r3000,using elemements10, and looking at a imac.I think i have disabled the printer settings and am letting elements manage the colors.I'm printing 1440 superfine dpi.The pics are so vivid on the screen and the printed pics are dull although they are sharp. Any help would be greatly appreciated.Thanx

viscountdriver Loc: East Kent UK

It seems to be a common problem. I find that overexposing on my screen brings out a good print but it must be a matter of experiment.

SpeedyWilson Loc: Upstate South Carolina

This can be a very long thread, because there are a lot of opinions. Here is just one site that tries to explain it:

http://improvephotography.com/4440/how-to-color-calibrate-your-monitor-for-photo-editing/

Here are some more sites:
http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=how+to+make+photo+prints+look+like+screen+images&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&channel=suggest

sportyman140 Loc: Juliette, GA

Hi Pkfish,
what settings do you have the image set when sizing or ahve you changed the size. I would make sure the Resolution is set to a setting of 240 - 300 DPI when you resize, I would look at your printer to see what dpi requirements are. I think that will help solve your problem.

GHK Loc: The Vale of Eden

[quote=Pkfish]
I am letting elements manage the colors.

By doing this you are handing over control to something that does not allow you to know what it is doing, which means that you have no idea what to do if thing don't turn out right.
The remedy is to get a proper printer profile for each of your papers. When the image is fully ready to print, you should then go to Edit > Convert to Profile and enter the profile for the paper you are using. In the Print dialogue you should select No Color Management and do the same in the Page Set Up. I also suggest that you tick Print Preview to check the positioning etc; don't worry if the colour of the preview is awful; the print should be OK.
GHK

flyguy Loc: Las Cruces, New Mexico

Your problem sounds to me like you need to calibrate and profile your monitor, IMac monitors are overly bright, coming in at about 200 candellas/meter sq. and a setting of between 90 and 120 should give you a good print.

There is a lot more to digital print making than just buying a printer, plugging it in, and printing; lots of technical things to be aware of and take into consideration. You are not alone in this regard --- most everyone who chooses to do their own printing goes through having to learn this.

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

You need to do a monitor calibration to standardize it to the rest of your system.

Also Mac users have a tendency to see things in blindingly excellent color and clarity, especially with the newest Retina screens, and prints will pale in comparison unless you get all components standardized to each other through calibrations. I don't use Mac but the last time I dabbled with one they had a monitor adjustment called Gamma which I reduced to bring the monitor under control to seem more like what the printer would put out or a PC user would see. Which goes back again to monitor calibration...

Humorous: A woman came on here over a year ago and said her Mac displayed her photos perfectly as to what she had seen while shooting and nobody else could see her photos on their computers as she did and her prints sucked. When told about monitor calibration she decided instead that the Internet was at fault, the resizing for the Internet process was at fault, her printer was at fault, and all PC computer monitors in the world viewing her photos were wrong because her Mac was perfect. Everything and everybody else was inferior so she rejected all recommendations about monitor calibration and standardizing her system. She left here dissatisfied, argumentative, and quite angry that anybody doubted her Mac being perfect right out of the box.

charryl Loc: New Mexico, USA

iMac monitors are wonderful. I have one but learned that you need to dim the screen to get more accurate representation of what your print will look like. Go to System Preferences > Monitor. There is a slider for Brightness. Move the slider to somewhere between 50 and 70. This should help.

charryl Loc: New Mexico, USA

[quote=GHK]

Ditto this. You should also consider soft proofing. This identifies colors that are out of gamut.

flyguy Loc: Las Cruces, New Mexico

This feature is only available on Mac OS X version 6.7 and later, earlier versions can only be set through one of the keyboard "function keys" or using a colorimeter and calibrating software through accessing the video system.

GHK Loc: The Vale of Eden

[quote=marcomarks]You need to do a monitor calibration to standardize it to the rest of your system.

Yes, this is important; something I should have mentioned. I was just considering the printing aspect although that is hardly an excuse.GHK

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

[quote=GHK]

You can't get an accurate print to come out of the end of a system that isn't calibrated on the other end. The monitor calibration definitely has a great deal to do with the printer output. If your monitor is too bright and you post edit to make the photo look normal, it prints too dark. If your monitor is too dark and you edit to make the photo look bright enough, the print will be too light. Same with colors. Too much red edited out because of the monitor - not enough red in the print. On and on.

flyguy Loc: Las Cruces, New Mexico

After some reflection, I thought that I would add some more to this thread on the subject of photo printing, as it can be a rather involved process with a number of critical aspects that need to be handled to get really consistent results.

I own, and can attest to the value of the following books that will help explain very clearly what is involved:

"Fine Art Printing for Photographers" from Steinmueller and Gulbins

George DeWolfe's "Digital Photography Fine Print Workshop"

and

"Mastering Digital Printing", 2nd edition by Harald Johnson

I feel that anyone who will take the time to read even one of these should be well on their way to making some fine display quality prints in no time at all.

Meives Loc: FORT LAUDERDALE

[quote=Pkfish]Hi PK Fish. If you post a picture here and click on "store original". We can check the picture and camera setting to see that all is OK. My first question, is it SRBG color spacing? That is shown in the meta data. If you have a PC I can tell you how to pull it up. David

Pkfish Loc: Wilson Wy

Thanx for all your input. Lots to be done.wil try all of these remedys 1at a time.Sooo much to learn. I,ve been on Lynda.com taking classes in photoshop, exposure and dig photog. It's a lot to learn and to remember.It seems to me that if you don't print some of your pics then they stay in computer hell forever. Thanx again pkfish