Why didn't I see that BEFORE I printed it?

Hello folks.
I just made a print of this and the first thing I noticed was this spot below the leaf. While I was moaning about that I realized that the bottom right corner area is too light on the print. To me, the little dot and the light area in the corner ruin the print. But on-screen they aren't objectionable at all. (Seems like, with the greater contrast of the screen, the reverse would be true.)

I used to make 4x6 proofs of everything before I made an enlargement, because even with soft-proofing I needed to be sure the colors, contrast, etc were good. But now I can pretty much judge by the soft-proof, so I didn't do that this time, just printed it right up to 8.5x11 without the small proof. What a waste!

I see this happen often, little details that look fine on-screen (or aren't even noticeable) are totally unacceptable in the print. So I'm wondering if anyone has any little tips or tricks to prevent this, other than, "pay more attention!"

Thanks.

(I know the leaf isn't in focus; my wife loves the shot so I printed it.)

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ncjohn wrote in post #11725415
I see this happen often, little details that look fine on-screen (or aren't even noticeable) are totally unacceptable in the print. So I'm wondering if anyone has any little tips or tricks to prevent this, other than, "pay more attention!"

Unless you had pointed it out... I wouldn't have even noticed the dot. I guess you've got your greens under control?

I agree. If you had posted without the arrow, it would have blended into the shot for me. There was a time in the past where I never thought a photograph was really great. There was always something I noticed after I printed it and wanted a mulligan. For the most part, I'm past that. I've learned to not be too critical of myself. People see what they want to in a photo.

ChasP505 wrote in post #11725533
Unless you had pointed it out... I wouldn't have even noticed the dot.

Right. But it really stands out on the print.

I guess you've got your greens under control?

Well... No. It came down to accepting "green enough" and going on or spending all my time and money trying to get them perfect when that might never happen. The greens look good until you compare then to the screen, so... whadayagonnado?

Thanks for asking.

ncjohn wrote in post #11725813
The greens look good until you compare then to the screen, so... whadayagonnado?

Quick question - are you using a hardware calibration setup to calibrate both your computer screen and your printer? If not I would strongly suggest looking to invest in such a setup if you want to do printing - doing it by eye can't work well because your eye constantly adapts so its always a losing battle - which is why you need a hardware approach

Overread wrote in post #11725854
Quick question - are you using a hardware calibration setup to calibrate both your computer screen and your printer?

I have a Spyder3 for the monitor and use only the right printer profiles. If you're talking about something like the color-munki-whatever, no.

ncjohn wrote in post #11725415
I see this happen often, little details that look fine on-screen (or aren't even noticeable) are totally unacceptable in the print. So I'm wondering if anyone has any little tips or tricks to prevent this, other than, "pay more attention!"

What sometimes works for me for stuff like this (or spots in subtle gradients), is move the image on screen... (just set PS to full screen mode, and wiggle the image around at a few different zoom ratios)

Makes the dot above the leaf pretty noticeable in this case.

Things like that happen to me all the time, unfortunately.

Even on print, I might miss them for the first few hours. My daughter, on the other hand, will spot every defect on my prints at first glance. She seems to adore pointing them out to me.

Of course, once discovered, they make my eyes hurt.

René Damkot wrote in post #11726176
What sometimes works for me for stuff like this (or spots in subtle gradients), is move the image on screen... (just set PS to full screen mode, and wiggle the image around at a few different zoom ratios)

Makes the dot above the leaf pretty noticeable in this case.

Good trick!! There's also a little whitish piece of something to the right, between the two smaller green leaves. Thanks a lot for that.

agedbriar wrote in post #11726354
Of course, once discovered, they make my eyes hurt.

yeah, they're kind of hard to ignore, once you know they're there.

ncjohn wrote in post #11726653
yeah, they're kind of hard to ignore, once you know they're there.

But some people don't care. A few months back I had to replace a framed/matted 24" x 36" print that was hanging in a commercial environment because it had a faint sensor dust spot in the sky I overlooked in post. They never noticed it. I did, brought it to their attention, offered to replace and they said ok.

Couple of week ago I sold that same (returned) piece to somebody else who said they didn't notice it either until I pointed it out. They said it looked fine to them. I gave a discount.

Point is that we notice things that others do not, and assume that they do.