Printing a decent comet image?

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

Hi,

I've been trying to print some of my recent images of comet Lemmon. The problem I'm having is that the detail in the tail just about disappears once printed.

I've tried bringing up levels and contrast in photo shop, it helps a little but looks a little un natural.

I'm using a standard, HP inkjet printer.

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Justin.

[naskies (Dave)]

Sounds like you have a problem with crushed blacks - it's a very common problem with consumer level printers. I've seen many printers crush grayscale levels from 0 to 50 (or even higher) down to solid black. It's a bit like how many point and shoot cameras over-stretch and over-saturate their pictures to make them look "better", but in reverse.

You can check whether this is indeed happening with one of these test images (especially the black and white test image):

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/a...st_images.html

If this is the problem, then the best solution would be to create a custom printer profile, similar idea to a calibrated monitor profile. This with deal with the crushed blacks and non-linearity of your printer, but it's not really worthwhile doing if you have a cheap printer (results will still be poor).

A quick-fix you could try is to compress your dynamic range into something the printer can handle. Open it up in Photoshop, open the Levels tool, and change the output range to say 50 to 255 (but level the other settings at 0 / 1.0 / 255). That should give you more detail in the blacks, albeit lowering the overall contrast.

Another quick fix is to enhance the local contrast of the tail. Create a duplicate layer of your image in Photoshop. On the bottom layer, use the Unsharp Mask tool with settings such as 30%, 30 px, 0 (play around with a few settings such as 10% / 10 px, 20% / 20 px, etc) - you'll see that it will make the tail detail really pop out. Gently mask it in with the other layer and you should get an image with an enhanced tail - try printing that one?

If none of these ideas work, then I think your best bet may be just to have them printed by a pro lab - I know they'd look fantastic from my past printing experience.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

Thanks Dave!

Tried some of your tips, no go though.
As you said cheap printer.

There's a chap in Clare that does high quality reproductions of art work, so I'll take the images to him and save the headaches.

Cheers,

Justin.

Originally Posted by naskies

Sounds like you have a problem with crushed blacks - it's a very common problem with consumer level printers. I've seen many printers crush grayscale levels from 0 to 50 (or even higher) down to solid black. It's a bit like how many point and shoot cameras over-stretch and over-saturate their pictures to make them look "better", but in reverse.

You can check whether this is indeed happening with one of these test images (especially the black and white test image):

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/a...st_images.html

If this is the problem, then the best solution would be to create a custom printer profile, similar idea to a calibrated monitor profile. This with deal with the crushed blacks and non-linearity of your printer, but it's not really worthwhile doing if you have a cheap printer (results will still be poor).

A quick-fix you could try is to compress your dynamic range into something the printer can handle. Open it up in Photoshop, open the Levels tool, and change the output range to say 50 to 255 (but level the other settings at 0 / 1.0 / 255). That should give you more detail in the blacks, albeit lowering the overall contrast.

Another quick fix is to enhance the local contrast of the tail. Create a duplicate layer of your image in Photoshop. On the bottom layer, use the Unsharp Mask tool with settings such as 30%, 30 px, 0 (play around with a few settings such as 10% / 10 px, 20% / 20 px, etc) - you'll see that it will make the tail detail really pop out. Gently mask it in with the other layer and you should get an image with an enhanced tail - try printing that one?

If none of these ideas work, then I think your best bet may be just to have them printed by a pro lab - I know they'd look fantastic from my past printing experience.

[Octane (Humayun)]

Justin,

I have a large format professional printing system at home, too.

I do my prints on archival/museum quality paper, if you're interested.

I can do up to 36x24" prints (between A1 and A0).

H

[sil (Steve)]

I'd be willing to bet the problem is the colour management. Typically printers manage their own colours, so no matter how you adjust the image it will do its own re-adjustments anyway.

You need to use software that will allow you to control the colour management and tell the printer to keep its grubby mits off your pixels! Photoshop has the option to allow photoshop to manage the colours from its print dialog.

Then you have the problems of what colour space are you using and monitor/printer calibration. Printers tend to prefer the official inks and papers of the manufacturer and using third party inks will need your own calibration of them. Quality papers are a little better in that you can sometimes download the paper profiles from the manufacturers.

Then there is the light you are looking at the print under...a print is reflective of light while a monitor is transmissive and the colours will be different. If you take your print outside under full sunlight you will probably see the tail you can't see indoors. Then you have to deal with ink fade over time (whether its exposed to light or not).

I do large format photo prints as well, and getting colours, tones, contrast working properly is a very tricky (and expensive) task. For the average Joe the best advice is to find a professional printer, ideally local so you can get to know them and discuss your needs. Getting reliable and consistent prints is essential for any decent professional printer and its not something general consumers will get out of the box with their own printers. Getting a professional print costs more than doing it yourself or at a local department store, but you're paying for a quality job by someone who takes care of the colour space you provide your images in and colour balancing them properly (unless you advise them not to).