Softproofing for matte paper (Colourmunki)

[pyracine]

Lightroom Version Number

lightroom 5

Operating System

Hello,

I have created an icc profile for a matte paper using colormunki.
When I try to softproof with this profile, the rendering on screen when choosing "simulate paper and ink" is very pale, way more pale than what is printed. The same is true for all matte papers, including the papers for which I use the manufacturer's icc profile (for example canson photo rag).
In general, on matte paper, the print appears significantly darker that what appears on screen, whether showing LR regular Prophoto or softproofing with an icc profile (nec hardwear-calibrated monitor).
Am I doing something wrong ?

 

[Hal P Anderson]

If prints are showing darker than what you see on the screen, you probably have your screen set to be too bright. Most calibrators will let you calibrate the brightness. If I remember correctly, around 100 candles per square metre is about right.

 

[pyracine]

Thank you hal, my screen is calibrated with spectraview at 80 cd/m2 ; ctrst 150:1 so as to better emulate matte paper.

 

[Hal P Anderson]

In that case, I don't know why your prints are too dark.

 

[LouieSherwin]

Hal has touched on the usual culprits so it's probably not that you are doing anything wrong but more a situation of discovering what it is that you need to do better.

One problem could be the quality of profile created by the colormunki. As I recall it uses a limited number of patches to create print profiles. In order to make a really high quality profile you need around 2000 patches as input to your profile generating software. This requires investing in really good spectrophotometer (i1Pro2 $1800+) or purchasing custom profiles for about $100 each.

Another that the soft proofing in Lightroom is a bit of a blunt instrument. Even with a very high quality profile it is at best an approximation. Things like making a monitor profile specifically for print proofing and setting up or purchasing a standard light booth for viewing can help.

You might start by taking a look at this Video tutorial: Why are my prints too dark by Andrew Rodney. He has also publish a number of tutorials about profile quality and softproofing.

-louie

 

[pyracine]

Thank you Hal and Louie for the answer. After spending a lot of time reading infos on how many variables are involved when softproofing, I am wondering if the best we can do wouldn't be to prepare your prints without softproofing (but with calibrated screen of course), then make a series of test prints with several variables, and fine-tune the prints accordingly, then print. This seems to be especally true for matte prints where softproofing is so different from the actual result, often more different than regular (melissa) version.

 

[LouieSherwin]

Did you watch the tutorial? He does a thorough job of explaining how develop an effective print workflow.

-louie

 

[pyracine]

Yes louie i watched the video. He advises to print a picture and then set the calibration targets (cd/sqm2, contrast, white point) so that the screen looks like the print, calibrate, evalute, recalibrate, for each paper, with softproofing enabled. This may be the answer : my screen calibration is 80cd/sqm2 / contrast 150:1. Maybe re-calibrating with different settings and softproofing enabled would bring me to something closer ? The problem is that LR does not allow you to soft-proof on secondary display, chich is what I do when editing pictures..

 

[LouieSherwin]

I recommend that you start by using one the color reference images that are suggested in the video and available from the same site. I found that using them was very helpful.

-louie

 

[pyracine]

I will give that a try, thank you very much louie