Gentleman,

I'm a wedding photographer who needed flash usage outdoors, and slightly overexposed (when mixed with some partly cloudly weather), a wedding dress.

After finding out I am ever so slightly red/green deficient, e.g. color blind, so the original print came back pink, but it looks really white to me.

My wife set me straight. Guess I have a new proofing employee!

HERE'S MY PROBLEM: The second "fixed" version, I went into the Photoshop and desaturated the dress to PURE WHITE, we're talking 254 254 254 on the RGB values. No pink tones. But even in the raw file, already 1.5 stops underexposed, I can't get the pink out of the prints. I'm wasting a lot of time and effort and money with the printers if this continues.

What can I do? If I were to post a RAW file, or email it to people who emailed me , tim@tmillerphoto.com Can someone see if they can take the jpeg or raw and get NO PINK when printed.

Basically, I believe the super high exposure when printed comes out SO BRIGHT white that to womens eyes (with 4 cone receptors) they see it REALLY plainly and will not be satisfied.

I just want to please the client!

Thankfully this is only present in a 2 shots of the same pose.

Thanks for the help everyone!

-tmiller
Tim Miller Photography
http://tmillerphoto.com

PM sent. Tim, I'll take a look at the file. Color management is a hobby of mine and I have a lot of faith in my NEC LCD2690WUXi wide gamut monitor. Calibrated with Spectraview II and my Gretag MacBeth Eye-One Pro.

What are you processing the file with now (software?, calibrated monitor?)? What are you printing to and what is the intended print size/resolution. How large a file can you accept back through your email system?

Also, include any additional shots that contain a white balance reference, if available.

TO EVERYONE: and UCSB:

I will be hosting my files online for this process for 4 hours, until 12AM CST, USA.

http://tmillerphoto.com/forums/GR7D4188.CR2

and

http://tmillerphoto.com/forums/GR7D5855.CR2

Thank you ALL for your responses. Please post back here immediately, I need a working jpeg file (baseline PS 10 save, unsharpened please, as I do that before print) and with the steps you used.


MY SETUP: By eye, which apparently stinks. Although my prints look wonderful, and I have never had issues with Miller's Printing or Mpix's results. I use dual PROVIEW 19 inch wide screen 19 inch monitors. Although not "calibrated" they are manufactured by MAG industries and do quite well. I have everything by finished prints (reference prints on the results I want from my printers) compared to the screens. All on Monitor RGB values have been adjusted, with a slight tweaking on my NVIDIA 8800 GTS's controls.

All RAW editting performed in BIBBLE PRO 4.9.8e, and Photoshop CS3, along with heavy usage in Paint Shop Pro 9.1, Windows XP SP2

I shoot with a Canon 1DMark II and 40D as backup, both files are 1DMark II files. All EXIF is included, and RAW AUTO-WHITEBALANCE was used. Please preserve a slight warm skin tone, as that is the look we're going for.

I would need a full resolution file, I look forward to the results as everyone's setup is slightly different. Enjoy!

Please email any finished work to tim@tmillerphoto.com

I've gotta overnight the orders tonight.

-tmiller
Tim Miller Photography
http://tmillerphoto.com

I've sent you two jpg's as requested (Photoshop CS3, quality 10, unsharpened). I processed them on my setup:

NEC LCD2690WUXi
NEC Spectraview II calibration software
XRite GetagMacBeth Eye-One Pro calibration sensor

My values (starting with RAW, developed in ACR 4.3):

4188:
-temp: 6000, tint: -5
-exp: -.65
-recovery : 38

5855:
-temp: 5200, tint: -3
-exp: -.25
-recovery: 23
-fill: 8

Good luck, if you would like any adjustments to the images let me know. If these print pink, then you have a problem with your printer profile. It would be interesting to see what your settings were ... I'd be willing to enter your original settings on my monitor and proof the results to try and understand where the pink originated.

I will usually try to get a white balance reference shot in when I'm shooting, especially under cloudy skies. I own a number of systems, but my favorite is the PreciseCAP (center ... on lens cap in picture below). It is the most convenient system available, here is a link: www.precisioncaps.com/canon.html. You just take a quick shot of your lens cap and it can help give you a consistent baseline.

Tim ... I sent you another version of 4188 with an exposure setting of -.8 ... it might be better than the first one I sent. Good luck.

Thank you for your hard work. These looks quite BRIGHT and washed out on my monitor.

EDIT: Just got another email from you...

Continued post: Exposure fixed! Now your result looks almost like another calibrated version that I received from someone earlier tonight.

Obviously, I'm sold and need to get calibration finally and stop "soft" proofing with my eyes. I will probably be purchasing this monitor here, a VP2030b Black 20.1 4:3 ratio ViewSonic brand monitor. http://www.behardware.com/articles/619-18/updated-survey-13-lcd-20-5-6-8-16-ms.html

It has very good ratings and calibrates well.

What calibration system due you recommend? Eye 2?

-tmiller
Tim Miller Photography
http://tmillerphoto.com

Sent you another less bright version of 5855 ... it might be closer to what you want (exposure = -.8).

I owned the Eye-One Display 2 before upgrading to the Eye-One Photo SG. I thought it did a nice job. The Match3 software is nice and easy to use. There is a new Spyder V3 that was just released ... I've never used it, but it seems to have some attractive features on paper.

Calibration systems to be at a crossroads. Many systems can't handle the very high contrast ratios and brightness capabilities of new monitors (important because of the process they recommend in their software which then leads to errors). In addition, with the new wide gamut monitors emerging (like my NEC) this is another challenge that is causing confusion.

UCSB wrote:
Sent you another less bright version of 5855 ... it might be closer to what you want (exposure = -.8).

I owned the Eye-One Display 2 before upgrading to the Eye-One Photo SG. I thought it did a nice job. The Match3 software is nice and easy to use. There is a new Spyder V3 that was just released ... I've never used it, but it seems to have some attractive features on paper.

Calibration systems to be at a crossroads. Many systems can't handle the very high contrast ratios and brightness capabilities of new monitors (important because of the process they recommend in their software which then leads to errors). In addition, with the new wide gamut monitors emerging (like my NEC) this is another challenge that is causing confusion.




What do you think of the monitor listed above? I can get it new with 3 year ON SITE warranty for 400.00 shipped! That with a calibration unit would be MUCH better wouldn't it?

What type of monitor do you have?

-tmiller
Tim Miller Photography
http://tmillerphoto.com

I'm not familiar with that Viewsonic ... but, I have found this site to have excellent reviews of monitors: http://www.prad.de/en/monitore/reviews.html. They have monitors from that VP product line in different sizes (ie 23"). In some of the reviews they have full calibration results. I would switch sizes, if prad had a really good rating on the larger monitor.

Good luck ... also, I sent you another revision with the dress fringe removed.

Since the files are down, I can't say this with any certainty, but it's possible the color in the file is fine.

Pinks in blown (or even hot) highlights is often the result of an RA4 printer run poorly. Basically, what happens is the exposure unit gives the paper so much exposure that the highlight areas are grossly overexposed. This will result in the affected areas turning either pink or purple—the same color you'd see if you left a sheet of unprocessed paper in room light.

You can try pulling the highlights back with a curve, or you can harass the lab into checking their machines. They may just fob you off by telling you to make a curves adjustment to work around it.

colinm wrote:
Since the files are down, I can't say this with any certainty, but it's possible the color in the file is fine.

Pinks in blown (or even hot) highlights is often the result of an RA4 printer run poorly. Basically, what happens is the exposure unit gives the paper so much exposure that the highlight areas are grossly overexposed. This will result in the affected areas turning either pink or purple—the same color you'd see if you left a sheet of unprocessed paper in room light.

You can try pulling the highlights back with a curve, or you can harass the lab into checking their machines. They may just fob you off by telling you to make a curves adjustment to work around it.

Since the files ARE down. =o) Let me reassure you that yes PINK is visable in the photos, I can barely make it out, but it's due to overexposure and then my mild color blindness. Reds, Greens are fine, but apparently high shades of pink are invisable to me.

One fellow mentioned he made a layer mask in PS, and saved the clipped highlights, removed the pink color cast, reblended to two seamlessly and that file is off to the printers ready to be printed and overnighted.

I guess blowing out the dress isn't a fix all in the print world. If it STILL comes back with pink, I will contact Miller's directly.

-tmiller
Tim Miller Photography
http://tmillerphoto.com