DPP + Photoshop CS + Fuji Digital Frontier

I have been using a local print shop for printing my photos. They have a Fuji Digital Frontier.

There are some funny things afoot though...

When I process a RAW image put in on a CF card and print it on the Frontier, it looks fairly terrible, even if it looked great on the screen, correct exposure, white balance etc... When printed they have blown out highlights and too much contrast. The colour space in DPP (version 2) is set to sRGB.

Now if I open one of these images in Photoshop, and Save As with no changes to the file, then print it on the Frontier it looks great.

What gives? The Frontier is using a sRGB colour space, so is Photoshop and so (I thought) is DPP. Photoshop is doing something subtle to the files that makes them printable that DPP doesn't. I keep thinking colour space, but I am sure it is set correctly on DPP.

I only discovered this when I printed several images all processed with DPP, but half went through Photoshop, the other half didn't (some background cloning needed on some), the ones that had been in Photoshop looked great, the others didn't. I tested this theory formally with the same image this morning, the Frontier operator was as confused as I was.

Help!

(I can scan an post the images to see the difference, but I don't think a flat bed would do it justice).

More details please Pete - is the Fuji printing from a RAW? If so can it read the parameters from CS2? Me confused.

Sorry guys, let me clarify, all the files being printed are JPEG, I am using DPP to do the inital conversion of the RAW to JPEG, so all images have had shanges applied. It is the converted JPEG files I am having issues with.

As for Photoshop config (I am not using the Adobe RAW importer), I have CS (version 8), save as is done all defaults at highest JPEG Quality, colour space setting is sRGB.

So, to clarify, a JPG generated by DPP that looks great on your monitor sucks when printed? And an image processed by CS2 to a JPG and printed looks good?

That is about it except I have CS1 not CS2.

Here are the images:
First up straight out of DPP (size reduction done in DPP not PS)

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

I don't know what the problem is, but I can tell you how to work around it... I would be interested to hear the answer if you work it out. Or email me/post the full JPG for me to have a look at, not that i'm likely to spot anything. Email is on my home page, via my profile.

Thanks for that explaination I think I have got it, but this now leads to two questions:
1. How do Canon DLSR's behave with the JPEGs they create internally
2. Is ther a way to get DPP to embed the profile?

I'm surprised this hasn't popped up here before, since I know quite a few people use DPP and utilize labs with Fuji Frontiers.

I haven't run into this myself, though DPP is generally not the final application I use before printing. I might run a test the next time I print something to see if I can duplicate the scenario you're running into.

In DPP there are two places to set sRGB - one for the work color space and one for the display. Have you selected sRGB in both places?

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Yep that is how I have it set up

I may look into using the Adobe RAW importer, it may save a processing step.

I have the monitor model profile loaded, and I did have it here for display too. That might explain why on the screen everything looks OK.

I doubt that this is the answer. If DPP were just embedding the profile without actually changing the data, there is no way PSCS would be able to get that same image and display it on the screen exactly like DPP does because PSCS does take the embedded profile and convert the image if necessary to match it's own working space.

Thanks for that. I was mostly taking a shot in the dark and admit that color management is a concept that mostly makes my head spin.

There has to be more to this issue, though. Lots of people on this forum use DPP, with some claiming that it does a better job with color than the rest of the RAW converters. If the software was messing up files the way you suggest, the issue would be common knowledge.

If what you are saying is true, then please explain why the image displayed by FlyingPete several posts up of the DPP file looks identical to the image of the PSCS file? SInce IE also ignores the embedded profile, I would expect to see the same difference in color that FlyingPete was complaining about in his prints.

Sorry, but I don't buy your explanations in the previous post. And IE certainly does NOT honor color profiles. If it did, people here would not be complaining that their images which were shot, edited and saved with the Adobe RGB profile embedded looks so dull and bland when viewed on their PC web browser. Of course, Mac users using Safari wouldn't know what they were complaining about but those using IE for Mac or Firefox certainly would.

I'd like to see someone be able to duplicate this problem. I've gotta believe the OP has something amiss in his setup.