Home · Register · Join Upload & Sell

Moderated by: Fred Miranda
Username  

  New fredmiranda.com Mobile Site
  New Feature: SMS Notification alert
  New Feature: Buy & Sell Watchlist
  

FM Forums | Post-processing & Printing | Join Upload & Sell

  

Archive 2016 · Questions from a Printing Virgin

  
 
Mnd1
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Questions from a Printing Virgin


Well not exactly a virgin as I have fooled around a bit.

I just purchased a Canon Pro-100 which is all set up and working on my Mac. I have some Canon paper to go with it. I use Capture One to import the Raw file and do the basics, I then export a 16 bit TIFF to Photoshop CS6 for any tweaking that is required. I now have my full size image in CS6 and nice and sharp on my monitor. I've tried the Canon Print Studio Pro which seems to be clear enough. I have not calibrated my monitor which I will do when I figure out the best system for my needs.

I have a few questions for the more experience of you.

1. Do I turn off the printer when not in use?

2. Should I reduce the image size in CS6 for printing or let Print Studio do it?

3. What do I do about sharpening for printing?

I'm sure I will have more question as I progress but for now the colors and brightness are pretty much the same but not as sharp as I would expect.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Mike



Jul 22, 2016 at 12:37 PM
jrhoffman75
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Questions from a Printing Virgin


I don't print from Photoshop; I use Lightroom. You want to apply output sharpening, but I can't help.

I set my printer up using the Auto Off setting in the driver. I don't turn it off using the button. It will go to sleep after the time selected and wake up when printing is selected from your software.

If you are printing by wifi it never goes into sleep mode.



Jul 22, 2016 at 09:13 PM
dmcphoto
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Questions from a Printing Virgin


Printing with an un-calibrated monitor is an exercise in frustration. I'd put that as #1 on the list. Also, when you calibrate your monitor set the luminance darker than you think it should be, probably at around 100 cd/m2. Depending on your print viewing conditions it could be considerably darker for an accurate monitor to print match, but many/most monitors will develop significant color and other errors when set below (or even at) 100 cd/m2.

I don't know much about newer Canon printers but Photoshop does a better job of resizing than any other software I've seen. For Canon it's a good idea to size the print at your chosen dimensions and 300 ppi, or 600 ppi if you have the (original) pixels. For Epson it's 360/720 ppi respectively. Printer drivers always change the image to the printer's native resolution and they seem better at doing integer multiples. This isn't a big deal that will make a huge difference in what you see, but on close examination in an A/B comparison it can usually be seen.

The amount of sharpening obviously depends on the image but generally the image should look nice and sharp to very slightly over-sharpened on screen at 50% in Photoshop. Don't get carried away with sharpening because it can make a photo look horrible. At 100% on your monitor the printed file should look definitely over-sharpened. Experimentation is the key. You'll soon learn what works.



Jul 23, 2016 at 08:18 AM
Mnd1
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Questions from a Printing Virgin


Thanks Guys. I understand about the calibration, I sold my Spyder a while back but have a Colormunki on the way.




Jul 23, 2016 at 10:59 AM
OntheRez
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On
p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Questions from a Printing Virgin


First thought is, as a virgin, make sure they love you

Welcome to the land of photo printers a place filled with frustration, beauty, an infinite need to learn and experience, and more than a few "experts."

My opinions:

1) Most printers auto shut down. Check your manual. If it doesn't and you won't be printing for a while, turn it off.
2) There are ± to Ps vs Lr vs ?? in printing. For non-critical stuff and standard formats, I generally use Lr. For resizing, maximum control, and better profiles, I print from Ps. Don't know what Print Studio is, so no help on it.
3) Sharpness in printing is dependent on a wildly diverse set of variables: Your rendering intent; Hue/saturation chosen; How "crisp" you want the print to be; Perhaps most important, type of paper.

Learning to print your images well can be a bit daunting and not for the timid or inflexible. Often much experimentation required to get what you want.

The reason for bothering? You have absolute control of what gets hung on the wall.

Robert



Jul 23, 2016 at 01:07 PM





FM Forums | Post-processing & Printing | Join Upload & Sell

    
 

You are not logged in. Login or Register

Username       Or Reset password



This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.