Using Lightroom Softproofing

[happygun]

Hi all,

A question regarding profiles when using DSCL (or any other online printers that require srgb). My setup
I have downloaded the paper profile from the dscl site (" Fuji 570 dp11 pro Lustre paper (Copyright on the reverse)" from this page and added this profile to lightroom.
I edit in prophotorgb in lightroom.
i am using a monitor calibrated with colormunki photo

If i convert first to srgb (i can only do this by exporting a physical copy?), i can then softproof, but will need to export another jpeg with my lightroom develop settings added when softproofing.

So what is the best workflow in lightroom to send a softproofed jpeg in srgb format? I'm confused..

 

[LouieSherwin]

Hi Happygun and welcome to the forum.

You turned the corner and have entered into a maze of twisty passage ways...Welcome to the world color management ;-)

First of all you want to be careful that you don't accidentally make a double color conversion or have the lab (DSCL?) make one for you. So you either want to send the image SRGB or use the custom profile (Fuji 570....) but not both. That will certainly mess up your image. How to do that is really up to the lab and you have to follow their instructions carefully.

Most labs accept SRGB images as an easy default way to print. This is the default color space for most camera JPGs and most of the time you will get an acceptable result. The lab will take you SRGB image and as part of the printing process convert it to the color space (gamut) of the printer as it each image is printed. This is very similar to what happens if you choose "Let printer manage colors" in the Lightroom Print module

If you have raw images and you want to send them as SRGB then you use export to create JPG files and use SRGB as the color space. Then upload the resulting image files to the lab and you will get pretty good results.

On the other hand many labs offer custom printer profiles that you can use to get better color rendition than if you go through SRGB. To use this feature you DO NOT use SRGB but rather use the lab's custom profile when you export the images. Lightroom will then do a color conversion to this custom printer profile on the exported images. When you send these images to the lab you have tell them to turn off color management on their printer because you have already applied printer profile.

Soft proofing in LR allows you to preview how you images will look after they have been printed. It also allows you to choose which rendering intent relative or perceptual looks best. The images exported with a custom printer profile will not look very good at all in Lightroom because the color values only make sense to the specific printer for the custom profile that you used.

Summary:

Export with one profile or the other but not both.

If you use a custom profile follow the lab's instructions carefully for how to upload the images so that operator knows to turn off color management when printing your images.

Use Soft Proof to preview you images with the custom profile and choose your preferred rendering intent

Finally let the color management system handle any out of gamut colors. It will do a much better job you can by futzing with the HSL sliders

-louie

 

[happygun]

Hi Louie,

many thanks for the detailed response. If i use the icc profile provided by DSCL, is the following workflow correct:

• Develop photo as usual in develop module
• Select soft proofing with icc profile provided by lab, create virtual copy, and fine tune develop settings.
• Export this virtual copy as jpeg, 100% quality, colour space i select the icc profile provided
• select pre-sized and pre-corrected in the dscl upload tool.

Bloomin' complicated this colour management business and i'm quite tech savvy...

 

[LouieSherwin]

That looks correct.

One thing you might want to check is if the lab wants or cares if the printer profile attached. Some of the photo printers have a problem if the image has the profile attached. So check with the lab to see what they want. There is an option in export to exclude the profile on export though I don't recall exactly what it is. I believe that the option "Minimize metadata" will accomplish this as well.

Good luck

-louie