How does this image look to you? Help.

How does the attached image look at you?

I'm having problems getting it to print well. I tried 2 different papers because I thought one might be old, but the results were the same. My screen in calibrated and haven't had problems getting prints to look like my monitor for a couple of years now.

This photo prints rather dull, mainly her skin tones are lacking warmth even printing from a 16bit TIFF. The attached image is Adobe RGB which is how I print. I mainly print fine art photos so not often do I print people, and her skin is rather pale to begin with. Or could this be a limitation of the colors printable by my R1800 but I don't think so?

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Are you using the correct paper profile in the print setup? I have an R2400 with custom profiles, so it prints what I see most of the time.

You should try and use the View -> Proof setup function in Photoshop (if that's what you use) and simulate the paper profile you are using with perceptual intent and paper color tuned on.
Afterward, you should try and adjust the color to match what you intended (preferably with a non-proofed copy opened side-by-side)

I'm asking how does the image look to you? Good skintones for a redhead? Her skin too dark to print well?

I know how to print, and by the way I'm using PSE which doesn't have softproofing.

Umm, the image looks fine, I suppose, though it could be a brighter. I'd also probably use LAB to add a bit of something extra, but PSE doesn't have that either...

I should have mentioned I develop photos using LR2, but only print and sharpen from PSE 5.

Crap, it could be just that it's 4am here right now, but yeah... The face/skin looks to be lacking definition and is a little gray.

Well the definition is probably my amount of compression I used for attaching, and it was 50mm f1.6 from my 5D (very slightly cropped) but it'll be quite good printed 4x6 if I can get it to look right.

The gray isn't a good sign though. The prints have her skin looking dull and yes I guess you could call it gray looking without detail. But that's probably because it's lacking warmth and her skin, on screen, is lightly pink and normal looking. Plus she has red freckles.

HappySnapper90 wrote in post #8392402
How does the attached image look at you?

Looks okay. A bit "bland" maybe...

HappySnapper90 wrote in post #8392402
My screen in calibrated and haven't had problems getting prints to look like my monitor for a couple of years now.

How does this image compare to the screen then?

René Damkot wrote in post #8393385
Looks okay. A bit "bland" maybe...

How does this image compare to the screen then?

The print looks rather "bland" too. Maybe a little greenish making the skin look grey and not at all warm. I just calibrated my monitor again without real change.

The image I'm asking about I took 2 weeks ago, so it was recently developed. But I just printed a photo I took and developed months ago and it printed with rather weak colors. Lacking the saturation I remember it having printed with and without good warmth. But it was still a bit better looking that the print I'm getting from the posted image.

I did a nozzle check and head cleaning and both my magenta and red ink tanks are at least half full. This isn't sounding good since I have some prints to make for an art show happening the last weekend of the month (all pre-developed and saved images ready to print).

What paper / profile?
if you post / mail the profile, I could post a screenshot of the softproof tomorrow.....

I'm sure a lot of people would love to help you out with the processing, but you don't have image ok, i don't know how you are about that

When you say your image doesn't look warm enough, it looks like it looks that way here too. You say your image is in the AdobeRGB color space? If it is in the AdobeRGB space it won't look right in a non-color-managed viewer, and possibly some printers.

René asked a while back whether you had turned off color management in your printer driver as well as turned it on in Photoshop. I don't recall you answering. Did you double-check that? I'm not sure where the option is in the driver but if the printer is designed to do dedicated photo printing it should have both an ICC profile for Photoshop and Lightroom to use and the ability to turn off color management in the driver. You didn't say, but does this printer have an ICC profile installed that is visible to Photoshop?

René Damkot wrote in post #8393468
What paper / profile?
if you post / mail the profile, I could post a screenshot of the softproof tomorrow.....

I don't use profiles, just Color Controls in the windows printer driver. I've always had great results using it, so my print settings isn't the issue because I've always had prints matching my screen in the past.

tonylong wrote in post #8393604
When you say your image doesn't look warm enough, it looks like it looks that way here too. You say your image is in the AdobeRGB color space? If it is in the AdobeRGB space it won't look right in a non-color-managed viewer, and possibly some printers.

Are you using a color profile enabled browser? If not it'll view in sRGB looking flat (like my prints are coming out in sRGB)

Lazuka wrote in post #8393487
I'm sure a lot of people would love to help you out with the processing, but you don't have image ok, i don't know how you are about that

Photo developing isn't the issue since I've always had my prints match my screen in the past.

But it seems like it might be my printer driver not printing Adobe RGB like I'm telling it to. In PSE 5 for "color settings" I can click on options that shows Adobe RGB (looking correct) or for sRGB (looks like the print will dull flat colors). The image I have open changes as I select different color options. But I haven't messed with these settings so maybe I need to re-install my printer driver.

"color controls" in the epson printer driver has settings for "epson standard", "epson vivid", and "adobe RGB" and I've always chosen Adobe RGB but it doesn't seems to be printing Adobe RGB. All very interesting and frustrating.

I've re-installed the printer driver and it doesn't appear to have changed anything. Though in the printer driver, I use " color controls", but I can't recall if in the past if the "icm off" stayed checked (turning if off). Because I click "icm off" under the ICM selection, but after I go to Color Controls then back to ICM, it is uncheck again. And the "input profile" under ICM is listed sRGB without any other options for color space such as Adobe RGB. Maybe it's using the ICM's sRGB to print because it's not getting turned off and it's not using Adobe RGB in Color Controls?

------------ edit
Ok, this makes no sense. I exported from LR using sRGB instead of my normal Adobe RGB and my usual epson printer driver settings and my print preview and print now match my screen! Ugh! Maybe this is a bad dream and I'll wake up tomorrow and it'll work like it used to. Geez!

If you let the printer manage colors, it probably expects an sRGB file...