Help with prints... too dark!

Fri Jan 23, 2015 2:18 pm

I´ve been producing some images for a client and they showed me today the prints... they look ugly! Very dark and with all the black tones very "cramped" (to say it in some way) all over the image. Nothing to do with the original images.

Is there something I must have in mind when preparing the images for printing? The originals was 8-bits jpgs in RGB. Any advice will be very welcomed to avoid another nasty experience with my client

Fri Jan 23, 2015 2:27 pm

Try it as a CMYK TIFF.

don't know if that would be causing the problem, but the RGB colors don't always correspond to CMYK (which is used for print)

Fri Jan 23, 2015 2:28 pm

What are they printing them on?
Are they going to a prepress cmyk output or something like a desktop printer?
do your images have a color profile attached to them like srgb etc
Do they any form of color management for their printer.
If you send me one of your images I can take a look at it, as I have a 24" output epson printer that I use for photographers and have a fully color manged workflow from the display to the printer.
Keith

Fri Jan 23, 2015 2:36 pm

Well, I have no idea on how they printed it. I just know they don´t look at all like they should be. I attach one of the images.

Fri Jan 23, 2015 2:47 pm

Well I just did a softproof on the image and it looks ok in cymk so it should print ok.
I did assign an srgb profile to the image.
What might have happened is the client took it to get printed and they used the wrong profile to print it with.
You need to find out what the client did to the image. I will print a small print here to see what it looks like and let you know.
Keith

Fri Jan 23, 2015 2:48 pm

is Your Screen Color calibrated? Maybe You looking at way brighter image than technically is? =)

Fri Jan 23, 2015 2:58 pm

I´ve just calibrated my monitor, and found out it was too bright, anyways the difference is way stronger to justify it with the calibration, so I will wait for lightboy´s test to see if he can throw some light.

What about the 8 bits depth? Should it be in 16 maybe? So it preserves more information?

Fri Jan 23, 2015 3:00 pm

I will do a print later as I have to go out of town right now, will let you know how it goes.

Fri Jan 23, 2015 3:01 pm

lightboy wrote:I will do a print later as I have to go out of town right now, will let you know how it goes.

Thanks so much for your help

Fri Jan 23, 2015 7:13 pm

Sorry for the delay I forgot I had to take my wife to a medical appointment.
I just finished printing it out at 240 dpi 5x5 inch print.
It looks fine very close to the image on my calibrated screen. Tonal range overall is pretty good no crushed blacks, could use a little bit of contrast adjustment but overall a great image nice work!

If you lived a little closer I would bring it over and show you.

I suspect your client does not know what their doing when it comes to printing.
One thing I would do with your images though is take them into photoshop and assign an srgb profile to them and re-save. Right now your image has no color profile assigned and I'm assuming it is srgb which most 3d rendered images are. The printer on the other hand could be expecting an adobe rgb image and applying the wrong profile to the image before printing. That's why you should always assign a correct color profile to an image before sending it off for printing.
Your client may not even know what color management is so in that case it's a real toss up if the color comes out ok.

I would highly recommend you get a http://www.xrite.com/i1display-pro if you don't already have one and calibrate your display. it is a really accurate device and well worth the cost.
It will give you peace of mind that what you give the client is correct color and dynamic range.
Keith