HI

I'm new to photography and I'm trying to find ou a good way to get accurate color and detail in a digital file to print on our Epson 9500 printer. I've tried a Betterlight 6000 scanning back but couldn't get the colors to match. I tried using Kodak's Input Profile Builder with no luck. Anyone out there having any luck with a similar setup?

Thanks JS

-- JS Dawson (jsdawson@hotmail.com), November 28, 2001

Answers

that's a very complicated issue, having to do with the ICC profile you are using for your scanning back, the RGB colorspace you are using to shoot your digital photos, the color of the light illuminating the artwork, the calibration of your computer monitor, the gamut of the colors in the original artwork versus the gamut of the inks in your printer, the RGB colorspace you are using in Photoshop, the color bias inherent in whatever printing paper you are using, and the ICC profile you are using for your printer.

in other words, every step in the process introduces its own effects and limitations, which all add up and play against each other, so unless you have them ALL calibrated, you will never get a match right off the bat.

the easy solution would be to pull the image up on photoshop and tweak the colors until you get a print that's close enough for your purposes. that's known as WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). it will take several rounds of proofs each time, but eventually you will learn what the system's biases are and you can get closer and closer the first time.

the long route would be to study all of the above issues and fully calibrate your entire studio.

good luck,

~chris jordan

www.chrisjordanphoto.com

-- chris jordan (cjordan@yarmuth.com), November 28, 2001.

take a look at http://www.jackbingham.com

-- Ellis Vener Photography (ellis@ellisvener.com), November 28, 2001.

JS

When I attended Print '01 in September in Chicago, I ran across ColorByte Software. They have written a drive program for the Epson printers called Imageprint (I believe that is the correct name). It blows away the driver provided with your printer. Also, it gives you much more flexibility in producing the images. SinarBron was across the way from them and they could not believe how much better their images looked when doing side by side comparisons.

Take a look at their web site. The president of their firm is John Pannozzo who is most helpful. Give him a call and I am certain he can help you much better than I can.

http://www.colorbytesoftware.com/

Regards,

John Bailey

-- John Bailey (mdwphoto@aol.com), November 29, 2001.