Following a couple of poor quality prints recently, I was informed that I needed to download some ICC Profiles and work in soft proof when editing images.
This still hasn't solved the problem and the images still fail to "pop".
It's not that my images are especially dark, but that they seem to have a colour cast across them, as shown in the attached images. Everything appears fine until I check the Simulate Paper and Ink box
It's natural and expected that an image would "pop" less after enabling Simulate Paper and Ink.
When the image is in Soft Proof mode, all that does is preview the image in the color gamut of the selected profile. Just the colors.
When Simulate Paper and Ink is enabled, the simulation now accounts for the white point and black point of the paper and ink combination. This usually results in less contrast, less "pop". It is not a mistake. It increases the accuracy of the simulation, because the paper does not have the same color or dynamic range as the display. If the paper is not perfectly white, Simulate Paper and Ink
must add a color cast to accurately represent that actual white point of the paper. If the paper is not perfectly bright (and it won't be), the simulation must darken the maximum white. Same with the black end, if the maximum black achievable by the paper is not true solid black (and it won't be), the simulation must lighten the shadows to more accurately represent the darkest tone the paper can actually reproduce.
This pulling in of both the white point and black point to match the paper appears as a lack of "pop" because dynamic range has been reduced, to create a more accurate representation of the paper. The degree to which it happens depends on the paper and ink combination. You see a "nicer" soft proof when you use paper/ink combinations that support a higher dynamic range (brighter white and deeper black), which usually means more expensive fine art papers. Below is an animation showing how the soft proof with Simulate Paper and Ink changes depending on the paper being simulated. (Yes, I did post this before here but can't find that post to link to)
The Soft Proof simulations show that the lowest contrast is usually with cheap matte paper, which is exactly what you find on actual prints. While soft proofing with Simulate Paper and Ink isn't perfect, the difference between how the soft proofs look for different paper profiles is usually a good approximation of how different the prints look on those papers if you put them side by side, and does help to make appropriate adjustments before printing.
Here's a Red River Paper web page explaining this in a different way:
Soft Proofing in Photoshop and Lightroom
Also, here's a classic article that the late color expert Bruce Fraser wrote in 2000, explaining why, when you enable the Photoshop equivalent of Simulate Paper and Ink, "…the image seems to die before your very eyes due to the dynamic range compression. The effect is quite unsettling and can cast doubt on the result."
Soft Proofing in Photoshop 6.0
