Calibration & printing of underwater pics

I have just moved from four frustrating years with a motormarine to the Nikon D70 with housing.

In one trip i've got more decent pics than in all the years with MM, however I am a bit stuck on the processing side.

I've bought adobe Elements for processing, shoot in RAW and adjust the white balance on the NEF file, before saving it as a jpeg to crop and adjust other aspects.

The problem is when I come to print out on the inkject printer the photos don't look as good as on screen and have a yellow tint.

My original plan was to edit white balance in NEF file, before doing further processing of high quality jpeg. Print these out at home on the inkjet and the best ones get printed in larger scale online.

From reading around it seems:

1. I should be doing more than just white balance on the NEF file (can someone suggest what other aspects should be altered on the NEF file and how they are best altered to give the best print quality)

2. How do I go about calibrating my screen so what I see is what I get?

3. If I do calibrate presumably it is calibrated either for my inkjet, or for the online printers ie not interchangeable? I'd like to keep all the decent ones in a small A5 copy for reference and just print the best? How would I go about calibrating to an on-line printer??

If anyone can make any suggestions I'd be very grateful!!

Helen

Hi,

This can get to be quite complicated, as you might already suspect. There are some threads in the archives already that you can locate by doing a search of the forums. that will get you a lot of information to start thinking about. Here are some basic tips:

1. Calibrate you monitor. This step makes it more likely that what you see on the screen will be what others see on their screens (assuming their monitors are also calibrated). You will most likely want to get one of the hardware/software packages available to do this. The one I have is called the ColorSpyder, but there are others available and people prefer some over others and vice versa for various and sundry reasons that I won't go into. The system consists of a "hockey puck" type thingy, called a "colorimeter" that you hang over your screen and software to go with it. The software puts a bunch of colors on the screen and the colorimeter measures the colors and tells you how to adjust your monitor to calibrate it.

2. Printing. This gets really tricky because it doesn't just depend on the type of printer but also on the type of ink (assuming you are using a printer that uses ink), the type of processing, and the type of paper. If you have a name-brand printer (e.g., Canon, Epson, etc.), they usually come with a file called a "Profile". This file, which assumes you are using standard stock name-brand ink and the printer manufacturer's own paper, can be loaded into Photoshop and used to tell Photoshop how to send the printer output to make it print something that looks close to what you see on the screen. You can also use the profile to "preview" (in Photoshop) what the print might look like but this is not 100% helpful. You might end up having to do some trial and error as well to see what adjustments might have to be made to every picture for it to print (for example, if your prints are always dark and yellow, you might have to create and store an action to lighten all pictures and get rid of some of the yellow cast before you print them). If you use an online lab, you may be able to download from them a profile for their printer as well. I use Pictopia (a sponsor of wetpixel). I downloaded their profile and use it to preview images before I send them off for printing. Occasionally I will make adjustments to make sure I like what I will get. I've never been anything but happy with the printed result doing this. Oh, and to answer another of your questions, Photoshop will allow you to store multiple profiles and switch "previews" between the profiles. If you want to get really complicated, you can also buy hardware and software that will let you print a color chart and read the color chart with a separate colorimeter to make a profile based on actual output from your printer, ink and paper.

There really isn't anything special you should have to do to the .NEF file. It all boils down to calibrating everything to ensure that what you see on the screen is accurate and to going through the process of profiling the printer to make sure that what you see on the screen will be reflected in the printed output.

Mike

Hi Helen,

I always shoot RAW files with my D70 and D200 and my work flow is as follows:

1. Calibrate monitor/laptop with a device such as the "colorvision spyder" (Circa $150 US), and save your new color spaceto the hard drive. Although before i did that i was getting acceptable prints, what type of monitor do you have? Calibration is carried out monthly-ish, or when i can remember!

2. I use Nikon Capture (NC) for my NEFs, i tried Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) but found that i prefered the look with NC and it was way quicker! I adjust the sharpness(ensuring i dont over sharpen). Tone comp and white balance.

3. You could do more in NC, but i prefer to save as a 16-bit TIFF file at this point and re-open with Adobe Photoshop CS.

In CS i adjust the sharpening, color balance, levels, curves etc as neccessary and do any touching up with the clone tool if required. Depending what your image is for you may want to convert its color space to Adobe RGB 98 or CMYK during this stage, to ensure the outputted image still has good tonal range. My final step is to convert back to 8-bit and save as a high quality jpeg and print.

I am pretty much self taught though, im sure there are easier ways, but this may be a starting point for you. Hope this helps, Simon.

P.S. To all my fellow Brits i apologise for my spelling of "Colour"!

Helen:

As a first step (this is a very complex problem) read Real World Color Management" (second edition) by Bruce Fraser. This book is a bit expensive ($32 from Amazon) but it will help you a bunch. A lot will depend on which printer you have, but the first steps include profiling your monitor and then using photoshop and custom profiles for your printer/paper combination. Another good resource is photo.net. In their forum section there is a whole forum devoted to digital darkroom (http://www.photo.net/bboard/forum?topic_id=1841) where you can get lots of help and good ideas.

Good luck

Bill

Sorry, that was digital cameras, the darkroom link is http://www.photo.net/bboard/forum?topic_id=1701

BVA

Thanks for all the replies everyone....seems its not as simple as I first expected!!

Helen

In PS CS2 I also use 'view' then 'proof setup' to choose my printer profile. This will give you a very good idea of what your print will look like.

I have been amazed at how much better commercial prints are: calibration is the key, along with using, say, the AdobeRGB colour space. Once you have done this, sending a jpeg to a commercial printer is as easy, if more time consuming, than printing your own. I use a company that advertises on the web, and is aimed at the general public, not a fancy company marketing to pros. The colours are better saturated and the print sharper than anything I've ever achieved on an inkjet printer (I used a top end six-ink Canon printer until I gave up last year), and the overall price is comparable. The inkjet prints can fade or transmogrify (I often found a red cast developing slowly, which I can't explain), and the paper is absolutely crucial: a heavyweight mirror-like gloss was best, though, of course, the most expensive. Now I occasionally proof-print my best, but the reliability of the commercial printer that I use means that I know what to send: on a calibrated monitor the images look slightly over-saturated and garish, and although the highlights are not washed out, the overall brightness is also high. Files to print are different from files to view because they look artificial on screen. This image, entered as a print done in this way, reached the final of a national competition last month:

Tim

B)

hi,

what settings do you use for calibrating your monitors?

I use gamma 2.2 and 6500 Kelvin, is that right for the internet or posting pictures in wetpixel? or would you suggest other settings?

Rob

I've done it roughly, with similar settings, but I believe that the best way is to spend money and use a Spyder.

I keep going diving, and buying lenses, so I haven't yet taken this important step....

Tim

B)