I watch this every time I spend a session printing. I'm a newby and find every tip helpful at one point or another. Today is no exception. Thank you ever so much.
Thanks a lot, it's a big help. Flawless sound in this vid. Only one camera, but still interesting and well organized. You know how to make a video, that's for sure.
This is another great video Todd. I always know I’m going to learn something new. For example, I can’t believe I’ve never considered changing my background color to white while editing a print. It’s such an obvious thing to do but I bet a lot of people never do it. I purchased a Datacolor Spyder years ago and have calibrated my monitor many times. I’m glad you shared that simply reducing your screen brightness gives you similar results. In my experience using ICC profiles for paper makes a huge difference. Thanks for the great tips!
Good overview and great tips Todd. What I also adjust on my screen, is the Kevin setting. By default, all screens are way too 'cold'. That is why I set my screen to 5000K to have a better impression of the colors in print. Creative greetings Alain
This is about the fourth video I have seen from you. Verry well explained. Good Topics. I use UA-cam for about 15 Years now but your Channel is the first I subscribed to. Thank You!
Some information on how to get consistent symmetrical margins would be great. I have been trying to do this for a while, and I gave up. I stopped using my pixma pro 100 because I could never quite get what I was looking for in the way of margins.
Fantastic video. I’ve been listening to so many videos on color management, yours was so succinct and thoughtfully put together! Also my RR sample pack comes in the mail today. Can’t wait to try them
Really appreciated this recording. Gelled some issues I was having issues really wrapping my head around. Just switching to Capture One and have not printed from it yet. Looking forward to seeing the results.
A blast from the past - Lifting Shadows - back in the days of dark rooms, chemical smells, loud fans, and wet paper, we called this drydown. With some experimentation, you could figure out your dry downtime and add it to your base paper exposure. It would look a bit dark when wet, but when it dried, it was right where you wanted it. This makes me wonder - can a layer adjustment curve do the same thing, and would it apply to all prints? You could apply it during the print workflow just before sharpening. Thinking out loud - you'd have to select a range of images and pick a set of print sizes - small, med, large, or whatever to see if size affects both dry-down and sharpening. I could see both dry-down and print sharpening being affected by paper choice and size, but if you could work out a universal for one paper, it would make automating the print process easier.
I think this is all good advice for anyone who is not planning to do a lot of printing. If however you think that you will likely print a lot, then buying a good calibrator and a good monitor definitely makes life massively easier. It can save you money from scrapping poor print results, and this can mean a lot when you consider the cost of really good paper like the Hahnemuhle range (not forgetting the cost of ink too). It also therefore takes out some of the frustration that can come when such prints turn out poorer than hoped/intended. I have found though that with a calibration device like a Spyder X you need to use third party software like Display Cal to get good results. The Spyder software is pretty poor in my experience. I would advise buying a used good pro level display if money is an issue. I’ve found that some of the cheaper models will make calibration very difficult if not impossible. Even the iMac 5k display- whilst stunning and gorgeous to look at- is not as desirable as something like a Dell UP2718Q or UP2720Q for colour accuracy (in my personal experience from using a 5k iMac for 3 years). In the UK You can buy these as refurbished from ITC for massively cheaper than if bought as new. That’s what I did and I would do it again any day to save £600. Just some thoughts.
Todd, thanks for your Tips !!! I would like to prepare test prints could suggest the Adobe PS parameter to change e.g exposure , luminosity , curves ? thanks for your suggestion and have you a nice day !!! ciao from Italy
At least in the Windows version of Capture One, since a few versions, you can change the background color with a right-mouse click too. I lower the screen brightness to 60-80 cd (and still have to lift the shadows, or even brightness a little bit) but I am editing in a very dark room.
I was so lucky to be gifted the Canon pro 1000 printer for my birthday so I could finally follow my dream of printing images on my own. I have to say, I am a little disheartened at the moment as all images come either bit too dark or with yellow or purple overcasts. My monitor is calibrated and I moved from pc to Apple computer but it's still not perfect. Your tip for letting the luminosity of the screen is something I knew but I think my screen is still too bright so I'll work on that in a moment. Your tip 7 is brilliant! I didn't know this existed 😂 I am a little confused with the last two tips because from them I understand that I should kind of guess what I want my image to look because I'm overdoing it deliberately in editing. So at the end, i never see on the screen what the image will look after printing. That's quite disappointing to me as I think this will take a lot of testing and printing before I get the desired effect in print. Did I get that right?
Congrats! That's quite a gift. :) With the last couple of tips regarding lifting shadows and sharpening, both a similar because it means you're effectively creating a different version of your image for printing. You could do that by duplicating the image, or adding layers in Photoshop you enable/disable when needed. To clarify however, these aren't things you absolutely have to do. Just extra sweeting things to get more out of the print. If you print the image as is without lifting shadows or sharpening the image, great! Hope that helps.
What about a UV spray varnish? Do you apply that after printing on all your inkjet prints? Do papers like Canon Premium Pro Luster or Pro Matte need the spray coating to preserve and protect from deterioration and fading? Good video, thanks for the information and tips.
I’ve never used spray varnish. Best idea I think would be contacting the paper company for their opinion. Might do more harm than good, depending on paper stock.
I've been using Soft Gloss Rag for a while now. (I use a Pro-10.) I've been thinking of trying a Baryta for B&W although which RR Baryta I should get. Or, is the SGR a fine paper for B&W? Thanks.
Nice video Todd. I use Epson Exhibition Fiber paper with my Canon PRO-1000 printer. I use the Canon Pro Luster ICC profile which works great for this paper. The results are fantastic for color and B&W prints, I primarily print in color. I staked up on the 17x22 as the price has increased significantly the last year or so. I also use Canon or Epson Pro Luster paper "both are identical to my eyes". In regards to red river paper, I am looking at the Palo Duro SoftGloss Rag 315.
From the video above I noticed that you were using 5K studio display to print proPhoto images, do you have any difficulty to produce the true color of the original images?
Nothing! It’s perfectly fine. The texture is just more “normal” if that makes sense compared to fine art paper which can add more of a fine art feel, like watercolor or canvas.
It would hold true for anything printed. Paper has lower luminosity than a backlit display. It inherently appears dimmer than a bright, illuminated display. That’s why setting the display brightness low to emulate paper is an effective editing technique to ensure prints don’t look dark.
If you have the icc profile that matches your paper+ink+printer, set that profile in photoshop and let photoshop manage the colour - and dont forget to turn off all colour management at the printer too!
I think you explained it backwards on the size of the paper ... paper only comes in set sizes, you can't just ask for 12x18 or 12.5 x 17.5. To get that border around your print, you need to print *smaller* than the size of the paper you bought!
@@jozsefbognar5896 Since there's no standard brightness, 80 is as technically valid as anything else for screen. But, yeah, if an image processed at 80 doesn't look good brighter, on people's iPhones or whatever (which is rarely, weirdly), you'd make two copies. No free lunch.
Also, it's a terrible idea to lift the blacks with the curve editor the way you show as a general rule-you're essentially telling your printer to see black as dark grey ... hamstringing your print workflow so you'll never see the darkest black your printer can produce. There are other ways to use the curve editor to lift the dark greys w/o killing the blacks-or being careful w/the sliders & watching your histogram.
I watch this every time I spend a session printing. I'm a newby and find every tip helpful at one point or another. Today is no exception. Thank you ever so much.
Wow, Todd this video was EXTREMELY informative...no BS, no tech talk, just straight to the point good useful info...LOVE it! Bravo!
Thank you a lot! A lot of useful and easy-to-understand tips in a short video. Best 15 mins ever spent!
Thanks a lot, it's a big help. Flawless sound in this vid. Only one camera, but still interesting and well organized. You know how to make a video, that's for sure.
This is another great video Todd. I always know I’m going to learn something new. For example, I can’t believe I’ve never considered changing my background color to white while editing a print. It’s such an obvious thing to do but I bet a lot of people never do it. I purchased a Datacolor Spyder years ago and have calibrated my monitor many times. I’m glad you shared that simply reducing your screen brightness gives you similar results. In my experience using ICC profiles for paper makes a huge difference. Thanks for the great tips!
Good overview and great tips Todd. What I also adjust on my screen, is the Kevin setting. By default, all screens are way too 'cold'. That is why I set my screen to 5000K to have a better impression of the colors in print. Creative greetings Alain
You sir are amazing. I just discovered your channel and I can't be happier about it! Pls, keep it up!
This is about the fourth video I have seen from you. Verry well explained. Good Topics. I use UA-cam for about 15 Years now but your Channel is the first I subscribed to. Thank You!
great video, thank you for taking the time to share your experiences!
Very comprehensive review and talk 👏Love RED RIVER myself-great company.
Great, great tutorial! Very helpful!
Thank you very much, I whished I had seen this video sooner
Another great video Todd, thank you. Some very useful tips and advice.
Well done.
Neil M
Some information on how to get consistent symmetrical margins would be great. I have been trying to do this for a while, and I gave up. I stopped using my pixma pro 100 because I could never quite get what I was looking for in the way of margins.
Thanky you very much for those very valuable advices for no-costs.
Todd, great tips.
Fantastic video. I’ve been listening to so many videos on color management, yours was so succinct and thoughtfully put together! Also my RR sample pack comes in the mail today. Can’t wait to try them
Excellent video!!
wow the audio is amazing
Supremely helpful! Thank you!!!
So many great tips👌🏼 thank you🙏🏼
Fantastic tips, thanks.
Really appreciated this recording. Gelled some issues I was having issues really wrapping my head around. Just switching to Capture One and have not printed from it yet. Looking forward to seeing the results.
As usual... great video Todd 🙂
¡Gracias!
A blast from the past - Lifting Shadows - back in the days of dark rooms, chemical smells, loud fans, and wet paper, we called this drydown. With some experimentation, you could figure out your dry downtime and add it to your base paper exposure. It would look a bit dark when wet, but when it dried, it was right where you wanted it.
This makes me wonder - can a layer adjustment curve do the same thing, and would it apply to all prints? You could apply it during the print workflow just before sharpening.
Thinking out loud - you'd have to select a range of images and pick a set of print sizes - small, med, large, or whatever to see if size affects both dry-down and sharpening. I could see both dry-down and print sharpening being affected by paper choice and size, but if you could work out a universal for one paper, it would make automating the print process easier.
I think this is all good advice for anyone who is not planning to do a lot of printing. If however you think that you will likely print a lot, then buying a good calibrator and a good monitor definitely makes life massively easier. It can save you money from scrapping poor print results, and this can mean a lot when you consider the cost of really good paper like the Hahnemuhle range (not forgetting the cost of ink too). It also therefore takes out some of the frustration that can come when such prints turn out poorer than hoped/intended. I have found though that with a calibration device like a Spyder X you need to use third party software like Display Cal to get good results. The Spyder software is pretty poor in my experience. I would advise buying a used good pro level display if money is an issue. I’ve found that some of the cheaper models will make calibration very difficult if not impossible. Even the iMac 5k display- whilst stunning and gorgeous to look at- is not as desirable as something like a Dell UP2718Q or UP2720Q for colour accuracy (in my personal experience from using a 5k iMac for 3 years). In the UK You can buy these as refurbished from ITC for massively cheaper than if bought as new. That’s what I did and I would do it again any day to save £600. Just some thoughts.
Todd, thanks for your Tips !!! I would like to prepare test prints could suggest the Adobe PS parameter to change e.g exposure , luminosity , curves ? thanks for your suggestion and have you a nice day !!! ciao from Italy
Best tool is the curves adjustment layer, imo. That gives you the most control especially with shadows and blacks.
excellent advice for paper use
Good tips
At least in the Windows version of Capture One, since a few versions, you can change the background color with a right-mouse click too. I lower the screen brightness to 60-80 cd (and still have to lift the shadows, or even brightness a little bit) but I am editing in a very dark room.
Useful tips, thanks!
I also lower to 80
Hello. Can you please elaborate a little on #5 re the cropping? I don’t fully understand. Thank you.
I was so lucky to be gifted the Canon pro 1000 printer for my birthday so I could finally follow my dream of printing images on my own. I have to say, I am a little disheartened at the moment as all images come either bit too dark or with yellow or purple overcasts. My monitor is calibrated and I moved from pc to Apple computer but it's still not perfect. Your tip for letting the luminosity of the screen is something I knew but I think my screen is still too bright so I'll work on that in a moment. Your tip 7 is brilliant! I didn't know this existed 😂
I am a little confused with the last two tips because from them I understand that I should kind of guess what I want my image to look because I'm overdoing it deliberately in editing. So at the end, i never see on the screen what the image will look after printing. That's quite disappointing to me as I think this will take a lot of testing and printing before I get the desired effect in print. Did I get that right?
Congrats! That's quite a gift. :) With the last couple of tips regarding lifting shadows and sharpening, both a similar because it means you're effectively creating a different version of your image for printing. You could do that by duplicating the image, or adding layers in Photoshop you enable/disable when needed. To clarify however, these aren't things you absolutely have to do. Just extra sweeting things to get more out of the print. If you print the image as is without lifting shadows or sharpening the image, great! Hope that helps.
Printing is an art in itself. From experience that’s something you’ll have to do because what matters in the end is the quality of the print.
Amazing photoshots!
Thanks, sometimes I find that by not trying to match what is on the screen, the results on paper can be uniquely original.
What about a UV spray varnish? Do you apply that after printing on all your inkjet prints? Do papers like Canon Premium Pro Luster or Pro Matte need the spray coating to preserve and protect from deterioration and fading? Good video, thanks for the information and tips.
I’ve never used spray varnish. Best idea I think would be contacting the paper company for their opinion. Might do more harm than good, depending on paper stock.
@@dominey Thanks. Since you don't use a UV spray, are all your prints framed under UV glass?
2:39 what kind of paper did you used for that photo???? Thank you for the video, you helped me a lot
I've been using Soft Gloss Rag for a while now. (I use a Pro-10.) I've been thinking of trying a Baryta for B&W although which RR Baryta I should get. Or, is the SGR a fine paper for B&W? Thanks.
Nice video Todd. I use Epson Exhibition Fiber paper with my Canon PRO-1000 printer. I use the Canon Pro Luster ICC profile which works great for this paper. The results are fantastic for color and B&W prints, I primarily print in color. I staked up on the 17x22 as the price has increased significantly the last year or so. I also use Canon or Epson Pro Luster paper "both are identical to my eyes". In regards to red river paper, I am looking at the Palo Duro SoftGloss Rag 315.
Just as an option - you can rent screen\printer calibrator for couple of days for $20-30 without spending $700-900 for hardware...
From the video above I noticed that you were using 5K studio display to print proPhoto images, do you have any difficulty to produce the true color of the original images?
lovely video, but whats wrong with canon paper ?
Nothing! It’s perfectly fine. The texture is just more “normal” if that makes sense compared to fine art paper which can add more of a fine art feel, like watercolor or canvas.
Will reducing the brightness of the display hold true when printing art prints as opposed to photo prints?
It would hold true for anything printed. Paper has lower luminosity than a backlit display. It inherently appears dimmer than a bright, illuminated display. That’s why setting the display brightness low to emulate paper is an effective editing technique to ensure prints don’t look dark.
Thank you.
Cool
I'm sorry. One more question. Do you allow the printer to manage color or Photoshop?
If you have the icc profile that matches your paper+ink+printer, set that profile in photoshop and let photoshop manage the colour - and dont forget to turn off all colour management at the printer too!
I am not finding any paper at the Epson site called "soft gloss". Do you mean semi-gloss? Thank you.
I must have meant semi gloss.
rives is the best paper. 300 g
I think you explained it backwards on the size of the paper ... paper only comes in set sizes, you can't just ask for 12x18 or 12.5 x 17.5.
To get that border around your print, you need to print *smaller* than the size of the paper you bought!
Your prints are too dark b/c you should be using 80 cd/m. A calibration tool can lock that in, instead of randomly reducing your monitor's brightness.
Agree. 80.
Do you change the monitor brightness from 80 to whatever when you process the image for screen/web?
@@jozsefbognar5896 Since there's no standard brightness, 80 is as technically valid as anything else for screen. But, yeah, if an image processed at 80 doesn't look good brighter, on people's iPhones or whatever (which is rarely, weirdly), you'd make two copies. No free lunch.
My calibrated screen is 80 cd. For my website I create a special copy just by lifting the brightness which is easier than the other way round.
Also, it's a terrible idea to lift the blacks with the curve editor the way you show as a general rule-you're essentially telling your printer to see black as dark grey ... hamstringing your print workflow so you'll never see the darkest black your printer can produce. There are other ways to use the curve editor to lift the dark greys w/o killing the blacks-or being careful w/the sliders & watching your histogram.