Your monitor calibration values appear to be very close to mine. I have a NEC
MuliSynch monitor and calibrate it with the NEC Spectraview II software using
one of their branded X-Rite colorimeters. I agree with you that it is likely
not the monitor. I’ve lost track of things regarding the problem you have.
Can you provide me the following information:
What paper are you printing on where this happens?
Do you see the same thing with other high quality inkjet papers?
What setting in the print driver are you using?
Do you see the dark issue when you are in soft proof mode in Lightroom or
Photoshop?
What happens if you make a print with the printer managing the color? Is this
too dark?
I agree with Ben that there might be something wrong with the workflow but it’s
difficult to pinpoint.
Alan
From: argyllcms-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <argyllcms-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf
Of Yves Gauvreau
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2022 2:25 PM
To: argyllcms@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [argyllcms] Re: Puzzled
Sorry for the delay Ben and Graeme
On 3/24/2022 5:07 PM, Ben Goren wrote:
On Mar 23, 2022, at 3:10 PM, Graeme Gill <graeme@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:graeme@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > wrote:
This hints at a systematic issue
with your workflow.
Agreed, of course. But one thing is nagging me … “prints too dark” veryoften,
in practice, correlate with “uncalibrated display set to high brightness.” Or,
sometimes, “prints viewed in dark viewing conditions.” It can also be, “Editing
environment has problematic ambient lighting.” (And, of course, it can be a
faulty measuring device or a brazilian and one other things.)
Yes, nagging is the right word for me as well. But I don't think is with the
display but again it could. I tend to calibrate between 90-120 cd/m2 and around
5750K, usually I give a good match for screen to print.
Currently, here is what I have
Current calibration response:
Black level = 0.3139 cd/m^2
50% level = 25.29 cd/m^2
White level = 107.81 cd/m^2
Aprox. gamma = 2.09
Contrast ratio = 343:1
White chromaticity coordinates 0.3066, 0.3205
White Correlated Color Temperature = 6938K, DE 2K to locus = 2.9
White Correlated Daylight Temperature = 6943K, DE 2K to locus = 1.9
White Visual Color Temperature = 6814K, DE 2K to locus = 2.8
White Visual Daylight Temperature = 7027K, DE 2K to locus = 1.8
Don't know if these results could cause the problem I have but I'll do a bit of
monitor calibration pretty soon.
Yves, this might sound like a vague and simplistic question … but how are you
determining that the prints are too dark? This isn’t to suggest that your
prints are satisfactory — they clearly aren’t! Rather, the means by which
you’re judging the prints might help identify where in the overall
camera-to-print system the flaw is to be found.
I have a high CRI 5000k Led bulb I use for this. DisplayCal gives me 4791K and
959.58 cd/m2 @ about 2 feet from my I1 Display Pro II
When I do a comparison, I stand up near this bulb with the print about 2 feet
under the bulb, by the way no other light comes in, I alternate from screen to
print and I think I can objectively say the print is darker. I'd a know a way
to measure this but I'm not sure how I would proceed.
One test that can help narrow things down … you have a ColorChecker, no? You
can find a Lab TIFF of a synthetic ColorChecker at Bruce Lindbloom’s very aged
but still excellent site: http://www.brucelindbloom.com/. You’ll have to be ;
careful converting it to a suitable color space for printing. But you should be
able to hold the result at arm’s length in one hand with your real ColorChecker
at arm’s length in the other and instantly think, “It’s a match.”
Ha! ColorChecker, yes, I have made one from Argyll reference ColorChecker.cie
manually in Photoshop directly in Lab 16 bit, I didn't convert to any space, I
used it directly. I use the profile I made for the paper in question to print
it and the next morning I use at first the ColorChecker tool with the hole in
the middle of the patch, it comes with the I1 Pro II. Again it's visually
darker, I mean the print of the ColorChecker. So just to make sure, I measured
the patches on the tool just in case and also the printed ColorChecker. here is
the data.
The Delta L* average is -1.79 and the delta a* and b* values are much smaller.
Seems to me just dark prints, color is more or less ok.
Thanks,
Yves
(It won’t be a perfect match for various reasons — not the least of which is
that Bruce made the file from measurements of his own ColorChecker, not yours.
But it should be really, really awfully close.)
Good luck,
b&
