Printing help please?

[photokunstler]

Hi all,

I almost never print photos, but I tried to print one today and I was disappointed in the skin tones of the subjects. They are black, but a mocha/cappucino colour, and they came out brown, much darker than they are, and much darker than my Aperture/emails/blog shows them.

It is sRGB, and printing with Aperture and with the printer's own editing software yielded the same results.

Should I bring it into PhotoShop to convert to RGB or do some little tricky thing I don't know about to maintain the colour integrity?

I hate wasting photo paper! And on the island where we live now it is not cheap because we have to ferry to another island to buy it, so rejects add up.

Thanks for any insight with this.

[OsmosisStudios]

What printer are you using? Is your monitor calibrated? Are you using the printer profiles?

(sidenote: Where in "Canada's Capital" are you?)

[BCampbell]

Your #1 task is to calibrate your monitor. Settings we use for general viewing don't reproduce color faithfully to what your prints will look like.

It's best to buy a calibration tool. This will tell you if it's the printer's fault or not (but it's usually not). If you really don't want to, take your prints and adjust your monitor to look as close to them as possible. Then edit your files until you're happy, and send them off to the printer again to see what you get.

[photokunstler]

Hi BCampbell and Osmosis,

It has been calibrated with a Spyder.
And colour repro is fine on everyone else's monitor that I have seen the shot on. Mac or PC, the colours are fine.

The printer is an HP J4500. Not sure how to use the printer profiles or what they are, but maybe you can share that with me!

And - Manotick, but we moved on November to the Bahamas and will be here until August, when it is safe to get back to Ottawa (weather-wise)!

Thanks!

[BCampbell]

Sounds like it's your printer profile, then. This is one reason I send my files to a lab for printing.

[photokunstler]

How does one deal with a printer profile?

I live now on an island 5 miles long and 1/2 mile long and we're lucky to have a grocery store, no print labs here. And to send out and bring back in takes a few months, and costs more than double for import duty and shipping and all.

So there's nothing I can do on my own?

[teaking]

Do you have a full colour gradient you can print that has not been edited in anyway. As you should be familiar with the colours, by printing this un edited you will know if it is the printer or the screen as if it comes off on print and looks good it is your screen and editing process. Just because it says it is calibrated it could be calibrated wrong. If it prints wrong then go to your printers website some will have printer profiles now these are general profile and usualy created for the manufacturers chosen paper and ink combination but better than nothing.

It could be other things in you colour management but its best to rule out profiles.

[photokunstler]

Thank you teaking, I found a colour gradient on a British camera club website. I can start with your good advice -- thank you!