Canon Studio Pro & Pro 100

[BenKing]

I am attempting to create profiles using Canon Studio Pro using my own photos. I have been following the instructions, using the "Pattern Print", but I'm not convinced that I love the results. Of course, different photos have different colors in them, so what looks correct for one photo ends up not being 100% correct for another. Additionally, the "backlit" images on my computer monitors are a bit difficult to truly compare with the printed images.

I'm wondering if anyone has ever used something like a ColorChecker Passport to create printer profiles in PSP, and if that thought process is even valid. I'm thinking about using the following steps:

1. Use photo of CCP in LR to create a profile
2. Apply the profile to the photo in LR
3. Use the corrected photo in PSP for "Pattern Print"
4. Compare the printed pattern to the physical ColorChecker Passport

Anyone have any thoughts on my proposed method?

 

[privatebydesign]

There is normally a massive difference in brightness values between your screen and your print. To test this put a new document on your screen and take a camera meter reading off it, then do the same for a piece of photo paper that you didn't print on yet.

Equalise the two and you'll get much closer results.

 

[LDS]

I am attempting to create profiles using Canon Studio Pro using my own photos. I have been following the instructions, using the "Pattern Print",

"Pattern Print" is good to achieve quickly the desired result for a given photo. It can't be used to create a "profile" to be used for different ones. It is quite like what was made in the darkroom to find the best exposure/correction for a given photo, another one could have been quite different.

The reason is that if the monitor and the ink/paper combination are not properly calibrated, besides making very difficult to compare what you see on screen and on print, means also any change may have "uncontrolled" side
effects - which may impact some images and not others. So it becomes a "trial & error" approach, and obtaining repeatable result quite impossible.

1. Use photo of CCP in LR to create a profile

What kind of profile would you create?

You would still need something to read what the monitor displays to compare it with the expected result - yet, a calibration device can simply ask to display "known colors" and read what the monitor actually displays, without the ColorChecker.

You may try to do it "by eye" - and there are some calibration programs that adopt this approach - but it is far less precise. You can start following Studio Pro advice for screen settings (did you? color temperature D50-5000K, Brightness: 120 cd/m2, Gamma: 2,2), which should make images appear closer to the print (most monitors have default settings which make them way too bright and too "blue").

Still, what you'd really need is to create is a proper monitor ICC profile, and LR can't create it. The software that comes with CCP can be used to create "input" camera profiles, to be used instead of the LR standard ones. They tell to LR only how the camera "sees" the colors, not how to display or print them.

Once you have it, and you have the correct paper/ink ICC profile, the pattern print may be used for fine tuning for a given image if you don't like the "standard" results.

Anyone have any thoughts on my proposed method?

What would be the benefit compared to a standard color management workflow based on ICC profiles? A basic calibration device is not expensive (latest deal seen on this site had them at less than $100/150). Even without an AdobeRGB monitor it will lead to good results without wasting much paper and ink - repaying themselves quickly.