Soft Proofing #2 - Testing Update

The prints have been delivered and an initial inspection has highlighted several points:

1. The photos need to be brightened even more, although not by much.
2. With the photos using the "Perceptual" rendering intent the reds seem to be more orange than red.
3. Not sure whether it is my eyesight or the ambient light but the border of the photos were the ICC Profile is applied appear to have a very slight colour cast.

Overall I am at present leaning towards using the ICC Profile with the "Relative Colorimetric" rendering intent plus Photoshop adjustments, although further examination is required especially under different lighting conditions.  I will probably make some further adjustments, especially on the brightness, and re-submit them for printing.

Soft Proofing #2 - Testing

Following on from my post (http://iam-photos.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/soft-proofing-1.html) about ICC profiles and soft proofing,  plus the research that took place, I decided to do some testing and see how my existing workflow might need to be changed.
In total I prepared 6 versions of the some image, with 2 versions having the soft proofing techniques detailed by Sean Bagshaw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND_GzCueX4s) being applied to them.  The purpose of this testing is to try and find a suitable workflow within Photoshop for creating JPEGs that produce prints that are as close as possible to their on-screen version.

Version 1: This is the original image.  No additional adjustments have been made.

Version 2: A "Levels" adjustment layer applied to brighten the image.  This tends to be needed as the brightness of monitors is normally higher than the resulting printed version.
Levels
Input Levels (0.85), Blend mode (Screen), Opacity (20%)

Version 3: Version 2 with the "DS Colour Frontier for Lustre" ICC Profile applied using the "Perceptual" rendering intent.  No additional adjustments have been made.

Version 4: Version 2 with the "DS Colour Frontier for Lustre" ICC Profile applied using the "Relative Colorimetric" rendering 
intent.  No additional adjustments have been made.

Rendering Intent. This simulates how colors will be compressed when they are converted into the printer color space, and is the single most influentual control over how image colors are printed. If this option isn't available, relative colorimetric is usually the default. For more, see the tutorial on color space conversion (http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/color-space-conversion.htm).  Ref: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/soft-proofing.htm

Version 5: Version 3 with additional adjustments using Sean Bagshaw's techniques.
Levels
Input Levels (0.85), Blend mode (Screen), Opacity (20%)
Curves
Hue/Saturation
Saturation (+10)
Photo Filter
Filter (Warm Filter (85)), Density (25%), Blend mode (Normal), Opacity (25%)

Version 6: Version 4 with additional adjustments using Sean Bagshaw's techniques.
Levels
Input Levels (1.00), Blend mode (Screen), Opacity (20%)
Curves
Hue/Saturation
Saturation (+10), Lightness (-5)
Photo Filter
Filter (Warm Filter (85)), Density (25%), Blend mode (Normal), Opacity (25%)

Further information: My current workflow involves using Lightroom to export the adjusted PSD files as JPEGs but whilst creating these test images I discovered a couple of issues.

1. Doing just a straight export overrides the colour profile from the ICC Profile set within the PSD to sRGB.
2. At the export stage if you manually change the colour profile to the required ICC Profile it exports the image with a rendering intent of "Perceptual".  There is no option to change it to "Relative Colorimetric".

This means that to get a JPEG with the required rendering intent you must first create a virtual soft proof copy via Lightroom’s Develop module and export this virtual copy.  I have been using Lightroom to create my JPEGs as it automatically adds them to the catalogue but now it looks as though I will have to create the JPEGs using Photoshop and then afterwards manually import them into my Lightroom catalogue.
The JPEGs have been sent off to DS Colour Labs for processing, and once I get the prints back I will report on the results.

Soft Proofing #1

Last year I decided that rather than entering the DPI (digital projected image) competitions at my local photography club I would enter prints.

My workflow for producing the prints was:

1. Prepare image within Photoshop
1. Resize the image
2. Brighten the image by +10 using a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer
3. Resize the canvas (4800 x 3600 for 16" x 12", 3600 x 2400 for 12" x 8")
4. Save as a .PSD file
2. Use Lightroom to export the PSD as a JPEG
3. Send the image (JPEG file) off to be printed
4. Once delivered mount the printed image

The company I use to print my images is DS Colour Labs Ltd (www.dscolourlabs.co.uk), and have always been very pleased with the results.  Although the friend who recommend DS Colour Labs has recently experienced an issue with them, in that his printed images were coming back a lot darker than expected.  After talking to DS Colour Labs tech support they advised him to use their supplied ICC profiles.  This led me to thinking that I should be using the ICC profiles and also the whole aspect of soft proofing images before sending them off for printing.

Soft proofing is the ability to view a simulation of how your image will look when out- put to the printer on your monitor, based on the chosen profile.  Ref:  http://www.udel.edu/cookbook/scan-print/softproof/sofftproof.pdf

There is a lot of information available on the Net about soft proofing within Photoshop and Lightroom, telling you how to use ICC profiles and the soft proofing facilities in the applications.  But what a majority don't discuss is how best to adjust your images whilst soft proofing them.  One good resource that I did come across is Sean Bagshaw's YouTube video "Build A Photoshop Action For Soft Proofing" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND_GzCueX4s)  What this has done is made me re-evaluate my work flow and I am currently in the processes of testing different options.  Once the testing is complete I will give an update.

From That To This – Shane Byrne

Introduction

3 times British Superbike champion Shane Byrne came second in 2013 and is the favourite to win the championship in 2014.  The photograph was taken at Brands Hatch during free practice 2, the day before the first race of the season.

1/500th; f/8; ISO 400

Lightroom

1. Crop the image to remove the advertising hoarding (top left), rumble strip (bottom) and the patch of green (right).
   
   
2. With the Basic panel adjust make the following adjustments:
   
   Exposure (+0.20), Contrast (+10)
   
   Highlights (-100), Shadows (+75), Whites (+36), Blacks (-10)
   
   Clarity (+30), Vibrance (+20), Saturation (-5)
   
   
3. With the Detail panel adjust the Sharpening and Noise Reduction:
   
   

   Sharpening	Noise Reduction
   Amount: 70	Luminance: 40
   Masking: 74	Contrast: 10

   
   
4. Add a vignette using the Effects panel:
   
   Amount (-15), Midpoint (45)
   
   
5. Using the Spot Removal (Heal) brush remove any spots or marks:
   
   
   The “before” image highlights the marks that will be removed.
   
   
6. Finally using the Adjustment Brush, with the Exposure set to +0.50, brush over the bike and it’s direction of travel.  This will help concentrate the eye on the bike and assist in emphasising the movement:
   
   

Final Image

From That To This – Josh Brookes

Introduction

Josh Brookes, having moved from Tyco Suzuki to Milwaukee Yamaha, is one of the main contenders for 2014 British Superbikes championship.

The photograph was taken at Brands Hatch during free practice 2, the day before the first race of the season.  As we can see it is rather over exposed with a far bit of clipping.

1/320th; f/8; ISO 400

Lightroom

1. Although there is plenty of motion, it can be emphasised even more with a bit of cropping and angle adjustment:
   
   
2. With the Basic panel adjust the exposure and colour.
   
   First set the white balance.  Using the White Balance Selector click on a grey part of the track.
   
   Next drop the Exposure to –0.70 to reduce the clipping yet not make the photo to dark.  Increase the Contrast to +10.
   
   Decrease the Higlights to –100 and increase the Shadows to +100.  This helps reduce the clipping even further but bring out detail from the shadow areas.
   
   WARNING!  Opening the Shadows right up can make whites look false, so you might need to drop them back down a bit (i.e. +75).
   
   Adjust the Clarity (+41), Vibrance (+21) and Saturation (+5) to taste.
   
   Now adjust the Whites (+14) and Blacks (-12) to values just as clipping starts.  The best way to do this is to press the Alt key whilst adjusting the slider.  The photo will masked as a solid colour (i.e. black whilst adjusting the Whites) and clippings will appear as the opposite colour (i.e. white).
   
   
3. At the bottom left-hand corner of the photo is some white.  This can be removed using the Spot Removal tool.
4. With the Detail panel adjust the Sharpening and Noise Reduction:
   
   

   Sharpening	Noise Reduction
   Amount: 70	Luminance: 30
   Masking: 60	Contrast: 5

   
   
5. Finally, using the Effects panel add a Post-Crop Vignette:
   
   

   Amount: -14

   Midpoint: 45

Final Image