10D to printer best practices < review please

[mikemcnally]

I have read and worked and experimented for the past few months to get the camera to printer workflow at its best. This is what I do now and it works pretty good for acurate colors and sharpness, but since this is all home grown process I would really like some critical review to see how I can improve it. Also (maybe) it might be helpful for someone else who is where I was 3 months ago looking at bad color and bad sharpness coming out the printer. C'mon beat process up this up please!

GEAR OVERVIEW
------------------------

1. 10D photos all taken RAW, A-RGB, Looking at the Metadata in PS CS from my 10D I can see my 10D captures at 240 pixels/inch with a total of 3072x2048 with a 16bit depth.

2. PS CS (Monico optix generated monitor .icm profiles used)

3. Canon i950 (Monico optix generated printer .icm profiles used) with Canon inks and papers (I like matte)

THE WORKFLOW
------------------------
PS CS for RAW input conversion settings:
-Space: Adobe RGB 1998
-Size 3072 by 2048
-Depth 16 bits/Channel
-Resolution 240 pixels per inch

Then when working on the photo in PS:
-Leave in 16bit mode
-Crops always made at 240 pixils per inch

-Note: I use Photo Kit Creative Sharpener by Pixel Genius LLC use sparingly (on eyes, focal point edges, etc)

Then when printing:
-Use Print preview
-No Image scaling
-Color management on
-Document: Adobe RGB 1998
-Print Space: Monitors latest taken .icm profile
-Intent: Relative Colorimetric

At Printer (canon i950):
- latest .icm profile for specific paper being used
- turn on .icm profile at printer, turn off printer color management
- pick best print quality

QUESTIONS:
------------------
What am I missing or doing wrong?
How important is it to keep resolution at 240 all the way to the printer?

Should I convert to CMYK directly from RAW and then keep it that way all the way to the printer?

What could I add or remove from the workflow to improve consistancy and quality or cut down on time?

Thanks,
Mike

ps. Time to get a better printer? Those epson's are everywhere! :-)

[Jesper]

Don't convert to CMYK - I recently asked a question on this forum about CMYK, and you need it only if you're preparing images for printing with a press. Your inkjet printer needs RGB images as input. The printer driver will decide which ink combinations it needs to print your image. Many of today's inkjet photo printers have more than the four colors cyan, magenta, yellow and black - the new Epson Stylus Photo R800 even has red and blue ink in addition to CMYK.

You don't need to set your camera to Adobe RGB if you're shooting RAW. The camera doesn't do any processing on the data that the sensor recorded when you shoot RAW, so in-camera settings like the color space, white balance, contrast, sharpness, saturation etc. have no effect on the RAW data - these are only used in JPEG mode. With RAW, you process the data on the computer instead of in the camera, so you set all the settings in the software you use to do the RAW conversion.

[Roger_Cavanagh]

Mike,

You mention PK Sharpener, but you don't mention capture or output sharpening, which is part of the recommended workflow.

You shouldn't be using the monitor profile as the print space, but the appropriate ICC profile for the printer+paper.

I've never owned a Canon printer, but I recall that I've read the best DPI to use with Canon is 300 - not 100% about this. The 240 DPI does not come from the camera - it only cares about the pixels - but must be a setting in your raw converter, so you can adjust this.

Regards,

[scottbergerphoto]

Don't convert to CMYK - I recently asked a question on this forum about CMYK, and you need it only if you're preparing images for printing with a press. Your inkjet printer needs RGB images as input. The printer driver will decide which ink combinations it needs to print your image. Many of today's inkjet photo printers have more than the four colors cyan, magenta, yellow and black - the new Epson Stylus Photo R800 even has red and blue ink in addition to CMYK.

You don't need to set your camera to Adobe RGB if you're shooting RAW. The camera doesn't do any processing on the data that the sensor recorded when you shoot RAW, so in-camera settings like the color space, white balance, contrast, sharpness, saturation etc. have no effect on the RAW data - these are only used in JPEG mode. With RAW, you process the data on the computer instead of in the camera, so you set all the settings in the software you use to do the RAW conversion.
Nicely said! A fairly comprehensive summary of the last thread on this.
Scott

[Jesper]

Thanks Scott... 8)

And to elaborate on what Roger wrote:

Then when printing:
-Use Print preview
-No Image scaling
-Color management on
-Document: Adobe RGB 1998
-Print Space: Monitors latest taken .icm profile
-Intent: Relative Colorimetric

At Printer (canon i950):
- latest .icm profile for specific paper being used
- turn on .icm profile at printer, turn off printer color management
- pick best print quality

To start with, it's a bit strange that you turn on an ICM profile at the printer, but turn off color management. I don't know how Canon's printer driver works, but if you turn off color management, the profile probably won't be used.

Don't use your monitor profile in PS CS as the print space. The profile for your monitor is a device-dependent profile, it describes how your monitor renders colors, and it's not meant to be used for your printer.

Set the correct printer profile (for the right type of paper) in PS CS as the print space, and turn off any color management in the printer driver to be sure that the colors don't get corrected twice (by both PS and the driver - that would most likely result in a heavy color cast).

If you have properly calibrated and profiled your monitor (with a device like a Spyder - software-only solutions like Adobe Gamma are absolutely unreliable!), you'll be able to use View / Proof Colors in PS CS to see approximately what a print will look like (to set it up, choose View / Proof Setup / Custom and choose the profile for your printer and paper combination). With View / Gamut Warning, you'll be able to see which colors fall outside the gamut of your printer.

[maderito]

mikemcnally,

Perhaps this thread will help: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=186186

There are several inconsistencies in your workflow that others have pointed out. The Canon publication referenced in the above thread should answer many of your questions.