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Glyn Dewis - prints too dark?
- Thread starter Elines
- Start date
Thanks for this Chris. Really not noddy at all.
I was calibrating TV screens back in the 80's for brightness, contrast and white balance using a (then vey) expensive piece of kit. The principles haven't changed, so using old kit really shouldn't be an issue. Your calibrator may have shifted calibration but experience suggests this shouldn't be enough to make prints obviously too dark.
I agree with the comments here regarding the histogram: white is white and black is black on a histogram. You can't get whiter than the base colour of the paper and you can't get blacker than the maximum amount of ink laid down. If your histogram is covers the full tonal range then so should the print, although I have noticed that prints can look better if the mid-range tones are lifted. I think I may have got that from Simon (@Digital Finger ). The best way to find how much lift is required is to print a few.
I agree too that reducing the brightness of the screen is helpful to adjust these things visually although I tend to use 100 candela in combination with the histogram as this works in my environment. Opinions may vary.
I did Nick Carver's printing course earlier in the year and was impressed with its clarity and coverage although you do need to pay for it. Nick recommends judging the print away from the monitor and I think he is right, you are never going to be able to make a print that matches the image as displayed on a monitor. Adjustments are made to improve the print judged on the print itself and not on the image as displayed on the monitor.
I was calibrating TV screens back in the 80's for brightness, contrast and white balance using a (then vey) expensive piece of kit. The principles haven't changed, so using old kit really shouldn't be an issue. Your calibrator may have shifted calibration but experience suggests this shouldn't be enough to make prints obviously too dark.
I agree with the comments here regarding the histogram: white is white and black is black on a histogram. You can't get whiter than the base colour of the paper and you can't get blacker than the maximum amount of ink laid down. If your histogram is covers the full tonal range then so should the print, although I have noticed that prints can look better if the mid-range tones are lifted. I think I may have got that from Simon (@Digital Finger ). The best way to find how much lift is required is to print a few.
I agree too that reducing the brightness of the screen is helpful to adjust these things visually although I tend to use 100 candela in combination with the histogram as this works in my environment. Opinions may vary.
I did Nick Carver's printing course earlier in the year and was impressed with its clarity and coverage although you do need to pay for it. Nick recommends judging the print away from the monitor and I think he is right, you are never going to be able to make a print that matches the image as displayed on a monitor. Adjustments are made to improve the print judged on the print itself and not on the image as displayed on the monitor.
When I was using Epson printers the calibration was sometimes difficult to get right, and even from day to day it was changing as well. After Epsons debacle with their P600, I changed over to Canon and I think I have yet to get a bad print from the Prograf 300. That made me think that Canon had somehow managed to get their printer be able to assess a print, and not to rely upon human eyesight. I simply don't know.
The only downside is the cost of Canon printer inks
The only downside is the cost of Canon printer inks
I had a rush of blood to the head and bought an Epson ET-8550 which is their top-end ecotank model. The ink comes in bottles and is loaded into reservoirs at the front of the printer. I have been printing photographs for club competitions like a madman but still have plenty ink left from the bottles that came with the printer.
Now it has to be said I went against the advice of the good people here mostly because of the initial costs, the cost of inks and the danger of clogged heads if more upmarket printers with dye inks are left switched off for any length of time. What swayed me was a series of YouTube videos by Keith Carter of Northlight images whose wife has been using it as an office printer for five years without breakdown and was still producing good quality photographic prints.
The ET-8550 only has the one dye ink, a photo-black, which I have found to produce a nice result on VFA papers. After 6 months I have to say I am pleased with it. Its tonal range and colour rendition both seem good. They pretty well match what I see on the screen of my calibrated iMac. I like the way it renders monochome particularly if used with Epson's own print layout software.
Like all these things, there is a downside. I like to use a mixture of Marrutt Satin/Oyster and VFA papers as well as Ilford Galerie gifted to me by a kind benefactor. Unfortunately Ilford don't provide icc profiles for the combination of Gallerie and the ET-8550, I guess they don't see it as a proper photo printer. That said, the printer's internal colour management works well with Galerie paper to the point that I am considering switching my allegiance for lustre paper.
I am not suggesting others follow suit but I thought I'd share my experience.
Now it has to be said I went against the advice of the good people here mostly because of the initial costs, the cost of inks and the danger of clogged heads if more upmarket printers with dye inks are left switched off for any length of time. What swayed me was a series of YouTube videos by Keith Carter of Northlight images whose wife has been using it as an office printer for five years without breakdown and was still producing good quality photographic prints.
The ET-8550 only has the one dye ink, a photo-black, which I have found to produce a nice result on VFA papers. After 6 months I have to say I am pleased with it. Its tonal range and colour rendition both seem good. They pretty well match what I see on the screen of my calibrated iMac. I like the way it renders monochome particularly if used with Epson's own print layout software.
Like all these things, there is a downside. I like to use a mixture of Marrutt Satin/Oyster and VFA papers as well as Ilford Galerie gifted to me by a kind benefactor. Unfortunately Ilford don't provide icc profiles for the combination of Gallerie and the ET-8550, I guess they don't see it as a proper photo printer. That said, the printer's internal colour management works well with Galerie paper to the point that I am considering switching my allegiance for lustre paper.
I am not suggesting others follow suit but I thought I'd share my experience.
Canon appear to have got around the blocked nozzles. If you don't use the printer for about 1 or 2 days it goes through an agitation phase where the bottles are all shaken up with some sort of additional 'ball' inside the cartridge that really stirs things up. The downside of this is, if you have to go through the 'agitate' programme you also use a quantity of ink, but the way around it is to just print a simple test page every other day and the test page ink use is miniscule and so far in 4 years I have yet to have a problem. Unlike the P600 which made a noise like a sack empty coke cans being shaken you can hardly hear this one working.
I tried after market inks on a previous printer and despite all efforts it wrecked the printer. So I look on aftermarket inks with distrust because they may cost me a new printer so what is the alternative?
The supplier of these aftermarket cartridges denied all responsibility so never again.
I tried after market inks on a previous printer and despite all efforts it wrecked the printer. So I look on aftermarket inks with distrust because they may cost me a new printer so what is the alternative?
The supplier of these aftermarket cartridges denied all responsibility so never again.