Printing in Lightroom

[CaraRose]

I've begun playing with lightroom and am really impressed with the capabilities. However I can't seem to get print results that reflect what the screen shows. Primarily, prints are far darker and less vibrant than they are on my machine.

I've tried different profiles, including no color change, and had no success. I've always found that using paint shop pro prints would be a little darker than what I've had onscreen, but in lightroom its a lot more significant.

Is this more of a monitor calibration issue? I don't have calibration software.

On another note, I may sound like an idiot, but could anyone tell me technically what some of the development settings do? Exposure and highlight recovery (I love this feature!) make sense to me, but what exactly is clarity doing? Is that just making colors more distinct over one another, or sharpening as well? And vibrance as opposed to saturation?

Thanks all,

Cara

To add an edit here-- my printer is an Epson R260

[drg]

Cara,

Without calibration of a monitor (LCD or CRT) printing is pretty much hit and miss unless you just don't touch the file at all with an editor. First start with Adobe Gamma that is built in as part of Windows systems (if you are using Windows). Then be sure to view anything printed under the same light as the monitor was in when you 'calibrated'.

Secondly try printing a good exposure (full histogram that is as far to the right of the graph as the camera allows without clipping) without making any adjustments.

Third be sure that you have the proper driver installed and that Lightroom is letting the printer and driver do the work. Print settings in the lower portion of the Print Module will call up the printer driver interface and make sure that there's no Color Management being handled by LR. Different printers have different looks, but you want it set initially to printer default. In the Edit pull down menu, Preferences will have a tab called Presets: Be sure that no automatic changes are occuring, such as Auto Toning.

Finally, a calibration tool is essential to printer. Yes they are $80 or more (look for sales and promotions) but they pay for ink and paper very quickly.


In Lightroom go to the Help menu or press F1. Then search for Saturation, then click on Set overall color saturation entry. This will give you a start on what Clarity, Vibrance and Saturation are and there differences.

Clarity is a sharpening tool that works a little less aggresively and slight differently by tweaking local contrast.

Vibrance and Saturation are fairly well explained, but they work on a different mixture or proportion of what is boosted.There is a video at ADOBE about using Vibrance (see Help Page).

If you look at the histogram display at the top of the Develop module tools (right side) and mouse over it, you'll see immediately below it the different areas from blacks to recovery that are adjusted.

These are all preset range of curve controls. They can be shifted or reset by dragging with the mouse.

Remember, any of the 'adjustments' you perform, can be instantly reset by clicking on the label, such as Exposure to return it to what was originally loaded.

Hope this is a small start, and check the ADOBE Help Resources on line and the readme files that come with each release of LR.

If you have other questions or want more details I'll answer what I can!

[fx101]

Definitely it's monitor calibration. I suggest you buy a colorimeter such as the spyder (around $50-65 on amazon) and you'll end up with prints very close if not exactly to what you see on your screen. If you send images from a calibrated printer to a printing shop (from supermarket to calypso) you'll get images that should exactly match your monitor.

[gahspidy]

Sounds like it could be a combination of both monitor calibration and also that I think PSP does not offer the same sort of color management that is with PS and Lightroom. Hard to tell without knowing exactly what Cara is doing.
what kind of monitor do you have and has it been adjusted or calibrated at all. Even with a calibrated monitor, prints will usually appear a bit darker and less luminous than what you see on your screen because your screen image is backlit while what your viewing on paper is reflective illumination. Also, paper choices and the use of profiles that drg touched on has alot to do with it. At this stage of the game, one can get away without having a printer calibration system because most popular paper manufacturers offer very good profiles for most popular printers. I find they work well enough for me.
I think we need to know more about your settings in LightRoom to understand whats going on with your flow.

[mattbikeboy]

I've had issues with printing from Lightroom as well. My colors come out very washed out. When I print from Photoshop I still have a fight with it -- but the colors are better. It did lead to wonder if the Lightroom and PS use different print drivers or just default to different settings. I pulled the triple whammy when I installed a new printer (Epson r380), Lightroom, Adobe CS3 Suite and Corel X4 Graphic Suite within a three month period.

I'm pretty sure I hate the printer since its been printing washed out eats those tiny little cartridges for breakfast and at nearly $100 per set -yikes. :mad2: It's considerably cheaper to get my prints done via Costco's Online print service -- so I print very little at home anymore.

I guess I need to calibrate everything this weekend and see if I can get the colors right.

mbb