wesm Loc: Los Altos CA

I hope I'm in the correct forum this time. TL;DR The soft proofed image doesn't match the monitor image. It looks relatively drab and dingey.
Details:
I took a lot of photos of California poppies that I really like. Late afternoon light, really vibrant, rich colors, lots of nice detail in the plants and flowers, almost like an acrylic painting.
I'm trying to soft-proof them, before committing to print. I have the printer profile for my local Costco printer installed (that's the best that I have access to).
When I use the Proof Colors command in Photoshop CC, it's as if I'm viewing the photo through some gauzy, milky veil. The shadows lighten, and everything looks quite a bit duller, even losing some of the sharpest detail.
When I did the Proof Setup, the "veil" appears as soon as I check "Simulate Black Ink", if that helps. The Rendering Intent choices don't appear to make much difference in the soft proof.
I've fooled around with Levels adjustments to set the shadow and highlight points, and curves to brighten and contrast a bit, but I can't make this grey veil go away.
There must be a way to print these gorgeous colors. Does anyone know how to help?
Thanks, Wes

kelso007 Loc: Circle Pines Minnesota

I suggest you forget the soft proof and print one photo to assess the results.
Dave

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

When you view a soft proof image the program is attempting to show you what affect the printer (and paper) will have on your image. That “veil “you see is demonstrating how the blacks will look. FYI black inks don’t get as dark as the blacks on your computer screen. Conversely whites are never as bright. Soft proofing attempts to show where these two extremes will fall based on your input information. Rendering intent is best left at “Relative Colorimetric” for most every day printing jobs
I have found that soft proofing does come close to what the print s will look like and tweak the image when that “veil” is too pronounced. (usually by adding a bit of contrast)

Linary Loc: UK

If you have CC then you probably use Lightroom in which I find it a good deal easier to use the soft proofing features than Photoshop.

In the develop module click the Soft Proofing checkbox in the Tool Bar, then in the right hand panel change the Profile to match the type of paper you will be using.
Click onto the Left hand rectangle at the top left of the Histogram and the image area will show a coloured overlay for the shadow colours out of gamut. Scroll down to HSL/Color, and adjust the saturation of the affected colours until the overlay disappears. Click off the rectangle in the Histogram and now click on the right rectangle to view the highlights out of Gamut. Again scroll down to HSL and adjust the saturation. When all is well and you are happy with the colours, you can print either from LR or take the image into Photoshop - switch on Proof Colours or Gamut and you should find every is well. You can use the Colour Balance layer to fine tune even further.

I find this method is easier than Photoshop's because you can see what you are doing as you do it, remember to reduce the saturation by tiny amounts - not by moving the sliders violently.