Colour Sync Help Needed


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Terence

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Nov 16, 2003
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Hi All,

I'm a digital media newbie. Just got a Canon i9100 and after my first few printouts, I noticed that the colours coming out on the printouts look a little different from what I see on my screen. The printouts have a slight greenish tint to the overall picture.

I use PS Elements to edit and print. Can anyone give me some pointers as to what I can to get the colors correct and synchronised?

Thanks
 

The correct term for your situation is known as "colour calibration". If you have money to splurge, then go get those colour calibration sets like the ColourVision Spyder. Otherwise...

I don't know if Photoshop Elements comes with Adobe Gamma; if so that could be your first step in calibrating your monitor.

Also, you may want to convert your photos to the CMYK colour space for your adjustment as that will more accurately reflect your printer's output colours. Then again, I may be wrong about this point.
 

Ah Pao said:
The correct term for your situation is known as "colour calibration". If you have money to splurge, then go get those colour calibration sets like the ColourVision Spyder. Otherwise...

I don't know if Photoshop Elements comes with Adobe Gamma; if so that could be your first step in calibrating your monitor.

Also, you may want to convert your photos to the CMYK colour space for your adjustment as that will more accurately reflect your printer's output colours. Then again, I may be wrong about this point.


Ok, I'm thoroughly confused now, especially by your last sentence.
 

anyway just my 2 cents, EPSON is lot more easier to calibrate then Canon, no offence I am a Canon user also but can never get it accurate, but my epson does.
 

I've a similar problem. My photo when viewed on my IXUS V3 is very different when viewed on my Sony CRT. In some instances, I'm able to see the details on the camera, but when I try to view the photo on the CRT, I can see them at all.

What do I need to do to solve this problem?
 

tamade said:
I've a similar problem. My photo when viewed on my IXUS V3 is very different when viewed on my Sony CRT. In some instances, I'm able to see the details on the camera, but when I try to view the photo on the CRT, I can see them at all.

What do I need to do to solve this problem?

That's different from colour shift when printing. What you need to do is to verify the exposure on the camera(assuming it has a histogram) and adjust the exposure accordingly. Never use the camera's LCD to gauge what you'll get later.
 

Kit said:
That's different from colour shift when printing. What you need to do is to verify the exposure on the camera(assuming it has a histogram) and adjust the exposure accordingly. Never use the camera's LCD to gauge what you'll get later.

I don't quite understand what u meant by adusting the exposure from the camera's histogram, could u elaborate further? Thanks :)
 

tamade said:
I don't quite understand what u meant by adusting the exposure from the camera's histogram, could u elaborate further? Thanks :)

Use the histogram to judge your exposure. It will show you if your shots are underexposed, overexposed, etc. Rely on that to get the exposure you want rather than reviewing your shots with the LCD. If your histogram indicates that your shots are underexposed(as you've found out yourself after uploading to your comp), adjust the exposure accordingly.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml This article will give you an idea how the histogram work.
 

Terence said:
Ok, I'm thoroughly confused now, especially by your last sentence.

sRGB and CMYK are colour spaces. They define the gamut of colours that your output device (be it a printer or a monitor) can display. There are many different colour spaces out there, but the two I've mentioned are the more commonly used.

Monitors use the sRGB space because they use the additive primary colours red, green and blue to create the many different colours we see.

Printers use the CMYK space because they use the subtractive primary colours cyan, magenta and yellow to create the range of colours. Black is added as one of the "primary" colours because mixing cyan, magenta and yellow pigments do not create true black in printers.

So, because they use different colour spaces the two devices cannot accurately translate one colour space to another, especially so if some colours are in one space but cannot be accurately represented in another. For example, you can never get lime green or bright red on a printer (well, at least not on the low end inkjet printers).

So, to preview the actual colours you will see on the printer, you can switch the colour space of the image from sRGB to CMKY. The colours will appear duller but it is a more accurate representation of your final output on paper.
 

Ah Pao said:
sRGB and CMYK are colour spaces. They define the gamut of colours that your output device (be it a printer or a monitor) can display. There are many different colour spaces out there, but the two I've mentioned are the more commonly used.

Monitors use the sRGB space because they use the additive primary colours red, green and blue to create the many different colours we see.

Printers use the CMYK space because they use the subtractive primary colours cyan, magenta and yellow to create the range of colours. Black is added as one of the "primary" colours because mixing cyan, magenta and yellow pigments do not create true black in printers.

So, because they use different colour spaces the two devices cannot accurately translate one colour space to another, especially so if some colours are in one space but cannot be accurately represented in another. For example, you can never get lime green or bright red on a printer (well, at least not on the low end inkjet printers).

So, to preview the actual colours you will see on the printer, you can switch the colour space of the image from sRGB to CMKY. The colours will appear duller but it is a more accurate representation of your final output on paper.

what if i got the RGB icc profiles of the printers? i manged to get the icc profiles for kodak royal and fuji frontiers printers. but these profiles only has RGB working spaces and colour management policies.
 

Ah Pao said:
sRGB and CMYK are colour spaces. They define the gamut of colours that your output device (be it a printer or a monitor) can display. There are many different colour spaces out there, but the two I've mentioned are the more commonly used.

Monitors use the sRGB space because they use the additive primary colours red, green and blue to create the many different colours we see.

Printers use the CMYK space because they use the subtractive primary colours cyan, magenta and yellow to create the range of colours. Black is added as one of the "primary" colours because mixing cyan, magenta and yellow pigments do not create true black in printers.

So, because they use different colour spaces the two devices cannot accurately translate one colour space to another, especially so if some colours are in one space but cannot be accurately represented in another. For example, you can never get lime green or bright red on a printer (well, at least not on the low end inkjet printers).

So, to preview the actual colours you will see on the printer, you can switch the colour space of the image from sRGB to CMKY. The colours will appear duller but it is a more accurate representation of your final output on paper.
I'm afraid you just made a list of fundamental mistakes and errors... :rolleyes:

RGB and CMYK are NOT color spaces. They are color models. RGB is additive color model where you get colors when you add them, just like what you try in primary school with R+G+B -> White. CMYK is a subtractive model where C+M+Y -> black. Color spaces are those colors defined mathematically over an area in the visible colorspace like on the CIE xXY (yes, xXY) chart. Eg: sRGB, AdobeRGB, etc

Please read up on color management, etc before anymore confusion arises. I had recommended several books quite sometime back. Search under my nic and keywords "color" "management".

As for the original poster, you should never use a LCD screen to judge anything on the image taken except composition. Depending on the ambient surroundings, the image appearing on the LCD will appear differently. Exposure can only be judged based on the histogram...

Colorwise, there can be several issue with the color cast. Does this color cast appear when you print using other apps or only on Adobe Elements? Have you got the latest drivers? Do you use official 1st hand inks and paper?
 

Watcher said:
As for the original poster, you should never use a LCD screen to judge anything on the image taken except composition. Depending on the ambient surroundings, the image appearing on the LCD will appear differently. Exposure can only be judged based on the histogram...

Colorwise, there can be several issue with the color cast. Does this color cast appear when you print using other apps or only on Adobe Elements? Have you got the latest drivers? Do you use official 1st hand inks and paper?

Oh my, this all sounds very complicated. I will do a search like you recommended.

I do use original Canon paper and ink. I have yet to use any other software to print the shots and all the drivers are up to date. I'm afraid both the screens I own are LCDs so I guess I have to find a way around that.

Thanks for the pointers so far.
 

Terence said:
Oh my, this all sounds very complicated. I will do a search like you recommended.

I do use original Canon paper and ink. I have yet to use any other software to print the shots and all the drivers are up to date. I'm afraid both the screens I own are LCDs so I guess I have to find a way around that.

Thanks for the pointers so far.
It gets worse; ask 100 "experts" about color management and you'll get 100 different responses :D

The books I had mentioned are available in National Library (Orchard Br), so you don't have to spend $ if you don't want to.

Try printing an image using just the MS (I'm assuming you're using XP) print; nothing fancy. Then tell me if there is still a problem. As for the screen, it is the LCD on the camera, not your monitor...

You can chia me a tea or hot chocolate and I'll talk your ears off on color management... :D :p
 

Watcher said:
Try printing an image using just the MS (I'm assuming you're using XP) print; nothing fancy. Then tell me if there is still a problem. As for the screen, it is the LCD on the camera, not your monitor...

You can chia me a tea or hot chocolate and I'll talk your ears off on color management... :D :p

Thanks for your kind offer. I might just take you up on it. Let me go read up a bit first so I can ask some pertinent questions instead of flooding you with dumb ones.
 

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