Odd mismatch between screen & print

I am normally very pleased with how my prints match the screen, but for some reason I have one (and only this one) batch of sunrise shots that simply refuse to print as seen on the monitor. Heres an example, please forgive the glass reflections as it was done in rather a hurry.

I always process and print using aRGB, with the R2880 printer told to leave colour management to Photoshop. The print is on Hahnemule Torchon paper, but its exactly the same on Epson Premium Glossy AND a cheapy Staples gloss paper I use when its less important.

Anyone got any ideas? When it first cropped up I immediately thought I'd forgotten some crucial step but I've checked and rechecked, including printing other things (which are fine), and can see nothing obvious.

That's a huge difference.

You said other images printed fine, otherwise I'd suspect an empty cartridge or clogged head…

Got the image online somewhere?

Have you printed a different shot satisfactorily, AFTER you printed the one shown above?
I ask, because last month I was printing several photos, and 'suddenly the print was lacking yellow', the print was off in color balance. I had just changed BLACK cartridge just before the weird color tint started...sure enough, in changing the black I had accidentally bumped the release on the Yellow cartridge and it popped up; reseating Yellow fixed my problem.

Rene,

Many thanks for responding. I was hoping you and Elie would give me the benefit of your greater (much) knowledge.

I have put the original up in "Some Local Stuff" on my zenfolio site, its the last image on page 2. Its looks a little odd because I've not fiddled with it, I did not want to change anything from the state it was in when I did that print. You will see other images taken at the same time in that section, they all have the same issue.

Wilt wrote in post #14185819
Have you printed a different shot satisfactorily, AFTER you printed the one shown above?
I ask, because last month I was printing several photos, and 'suddenly the print was lacking yellow', the print was off in color balance. I had just changed BLACK cartridge just before the weird color tint started...sure enough, in changing the black I had accidentally bumped the release on the Yellow cartridge and it popped up; reseating Yellow fixed my problem.

Wilt,

Yes, I've printed off an A3+ motocycle shot with no problem at all, thats why its so odd! I don't claim to be faultless, in fact this past 13 months I've lost my brain completely so it could very easily be some daft thing I've done but what??????

Richard, interesting. When I look at the Zenfolio page, the pic actually does have more "redishness" in the sky than the shot of your monitor...but I don't know what might be up there!

Tony,

Any ideas you have I'd be grateful to hear. Don't worry about them seeming too basic. Believe me basic describes me very well.

A quick apology to you all: I'm going to be working with Julian Elliot, a pro-landscape 'tog starting at 4.30am tomorrow until after sunset two days on the trot (Sunday and Monday) so will either not be here or too exhausted to think straight! Expect sense from me on Tuesday! You would not believe what he wants to cover in 2 days.

Wow, Richard, it sounds like a great two days you have ahead!

As to your "dilemna", I don't have ideas off the top of my head, although it seems to me that the monitor display is "warm" compared to what I see on Zenfolio. But I'm using an uncalibrated monitor right now. I looked using both Firefox and Internet Explorer and they both looked similar, but maybe others with better stuff could make the comparison and give some feedback!

It looks to be lacking yellow.

It does? On my Eizo it's rather warm / reddish. Not nearly as bad is the print though…
Also, some strange stuff is happening in the dark area's. I'd double check what profile is embedded in the original.

It's in a flash gallery, so it won't display colormanaged, so what it looks like there tells us very little…

Richard - can you post a small JPEG file of the shot here, with EXIF and color tags included?

Random guesses:

1) Double color management
2) Weird profile mismatch
3) Improper printer-paper profile selected during conversion by photoshop
4) Funky conversion option selected in Photoshop print dialog (like "Absolute" or "Saturation" versus perceptual or relative). Also check that the "Preserve RGB numbers" box was not selected during a color space conversion.

Since I have never printed with the R2880, it is hard for me to guess if the sunrise colors challenge the output gamut of the printer and thus will be affected by the conversion to the printer's color, etc.

kirk

Kirkt,

Very many thanks to you and the others for taking the time to think about this.

Double colour management is my own best guess. I don't believe its a paper profile selection issue because it remains the case whatever I print on, gloss or matte and everything else is fine, its only this batch. But I can be very stupid at times so nothing is impossible.

Heres an untouched RAW. As you can see, its a warts and all shot, showing how early in the morning it was and how much I had to cook it to get detail in the shadow areas. It constantly amazes me how much ill-treatment a RAW file will tolerate!

In the 2 days I spent with Jools, I probably shot around 200 images at around ten different locations, but Corfe Castle in the early morning mist with the light shining in beams will probably be my favorites. Will post a seperate thread when I've processed them.

That image does not have an embedded profile, according to Photoshop…

Rene,

Not sure what that means? In the normal course of events always tell Photoshop I want to use aRGB, but of course with this last jpeg version I said nothing, because I did not want to change the original "in camera" EXIF in any way whatsoever.

Lowner wrote in post #14201950
Not sure what that means? In the normal course of events always tell Photoshop I want to use aRGB, but of course with this last jpeg version I said nothing, because I did not want to change the original "in camera" EXIF in any way whatsoever.

That image just posted in Post 12 looks closer in color balance to the print photo than to your first example screen photo! (Its color is less saturated than the print photo.)

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