lagado wrote: >> You should always fine tune your image with soft-proof turned on >> (simulating paper white and ink black) using the correct rendering >> intent. > > Yes this is how I am targeting the reproduction curve. I create a duplicate > file which I leave in Adobe 98 and adjust while soft proofing until the > views match.
And you do simulate paper white/ink Black? If not you get too much (nice looking) brilliance on screen which is unobtainable on print. Remember a working space can have a contrast range between Lab 0 and lab 100. Few output processes can get beyound L 6-7 in the shadows and L93-94 for paper white. Thus by converting you loose about 10% of you contrast. This will be most noticable in critical regions - shadows and highlight. If tones are compressed a bit in the middle it's not a bit deal, if you loose a couple of levels in the carefully targeted shadows it is! Unless you turn on Paper white/ink black you'll see contrast from 0-100 on screen as photoshop uses BPC for monitor profiles as well (unless you turn it off). > I am using the black and white eyedroppers to set minimum > highlight and maximum shadow after testing because I am never sure that the > monitor is properly displaying the lowest luminosity values. If you have carefully calibrated your monitor (the part of a profile uploaded to the graphics card) you can check that very easily: Make a black file. Set this to view > Softproof > Monitor RGB. Go to full screen mode (double tab the F button) so everything goes black including the menu at the top. Now draw a square with the marquee tool, and hide the selection. Open curves, select the Input 100% oputput 100% (black point) on the curve - and move the curves window as far out of the screen as possible - only a small corner should be visible. Now start to move the curve point towards lighter values in one step increments with the arrow keys. The point where you first see the square being different from the black background is the lowest point you can differentiate from black. This shouldn't be below 98% - if it is your calibrator/software doesn't do it's job properly. > > My second question was simply about why targeting is necessary if the file > compression is working effectively. Unless you see the file compression properly (ink black/paper white) you aren't seeing what's on print. > In Real World Photoshop 7 > Fraser&Blatner recommend always checking black point compensation but > then, they talk a great lengths about targeting the file's black and white > points for the maximum shadow and minimum highlight of the output device, I did read that but it was a few years back so I can't comment on exactly why the explain this. This is traditionally nessesary for CMYK work if you don't have a press profile, but I can't remember their argument... > which would seem to be an admission that neither perceptual rendering nor > BPC has effectively remapped black and white. Is the necessity to target > only due to poor quality profiles? In my experience it isn't necessary if your output profiles is good quality: I do all targeting in Adobe RGB (1998) or whatever with softproof on, viewing images on of our 20" Apple Cinema Display (profiled with an Eye One Photo and ProfileMaker Pro 5). Then I convert/print via a (self profiled and carefully set up) RIP onto an Epson 4000 - and I can do B&W without seeing any problems with metamerism (I've spent about a month developing a technique to do this a combination between RIP linearization and profile building - and nope I'm not sharing that <G>). It's a pretty darn close match to the softproof viewed in a Gretag Macbeth Judge II lightbooth, in my (not so) humble opinion... It get's just that tad closer if the printer profile is specially built for the lightbooth rather than D50. > > Thank you for your help. Cheers, Thomas Holm / Pixl Aps - Photographer, Educator, Colour Management Consultant & Seminar speaker - Remote Profiling Service (Output ICC profiles) - www.pixl.dk � Email: th[AT]pixl.dk -- =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
