Our Discussion Evolves
If you're just tuning in, read Saturday's posting. For those of you who have been following and/or participating---here's the latest mock-up (click on it for a larger version), using your collective suggestions of adding the one-click color mgmt into the "Print with Preview" dialog box (rather than making it an Adjustment Layer).
You'd get to this feature by going under the File menu, choosing Print with Preview, then...where it normally says "Color Management" you'd choose "Print Matching" from the pop-up menu instead, and then these options would appear. So now, you'd print a photo, then hold it up next to your monitor and click on the version that is most like what you're holding in your hand. If your version is darker or lighter, then you'd drag the sliders until your currently selected version matches the print.
I think we'll still need some sliders to really dial this in, but I thought I'd go ahead and mock this version up and get more of your feedback before I proceed. Remember: the goal is absolute simplicity (less is more), so any suggestions that would keep from add a lot more sliders would be welcome. Thanks everybody for sharing your ideas. I love where this discussion is going. :)
posted by Scott Kelby at 12:28 AM
5 Comments:
I have used a saved curves adjustment layer and the advanced dialog box with my Epson 2200. Both work very well. I usually try to avoid other color management dialog boxes becuase the more you mess with them the worse things get.
mike meyer
Scott, where is the "Adjust for Color Blind Users" radial button? I have enjoyed all of the ideas being posted on this topic and find most color management solutions to be either too complex or just down right labor and media intensive. What I have never understood is why it must be such a difficult task to achive correct color balance in a print (this is where my vast ignorance comes in to play). One of the best color management tools I ever used was employed by Kodak (is that a dirty word?) with their old dye-sub printers. They had a program which sent an image to the printer of stored grey value boxes.
When it was completed you would choose the most nuetral of the tones and it would store that as a default value for making color shift adjustments to your prints. By printing out known values, it could
make changes to your prints on the fly. This could be done in Photoshop by having a reference image that you would adjust on your screen and then make a print and choose the tonal value which best matched your screen. You save it and are forever matched, until your monitor shifts again. No matter which method is employed, it will always require adjustment whenever you change inks or papers. Ain't life grand....especially for those of us in the color blind world.
Later,
Jeff
Scott,
This is a small point, but would it really be necessary to have two seperate sliders for Darker and Lighter? It seems to me that beginning users may get themselves in trouble by choosing to make it both darker AND lighter.
I would much rather see one slider with Darker on one end and Lighter on the other. Similarly, I think there should be sliders with Less Contrast vs More Contrast, and Less Saturation vs More Saturation.
I also love the idea of an Advanced tab. Under the advanced portion can we have sliders like More Blue vs More Yellow and More Green vs More Magenta.
On the whole, I LOVE this whole idea. Digital color management has needed something like this for years! This intuitive approach to color management is similar to the old-school color negative printing and will likely appeal to photographers who remember this method. (Dialing in color amounts into the enlarger, getting a print and then flashing those little color filters in front of the print to determine if it needed +5Y, or maybe +10M, then dialing that in, printing, and starting all over again. Gotta love it!) :)
Cheers,
AutumnRae
Scott,
I really like where you are going with this but I think it would be great if Photoshop had a decent colour management wizard to help you set up colour management properly in the first instance..this should encompass working spaces, colour management policies and printer properties.
I would also suggest a button to open the nozzle check program of a printer because blocked nozzles are a frequent cause of colour shifts, particularly relevant to people who only use the printer infrequently.
I am one of those 3rd graders....in my print with preview diaolgue box I have only 2 options Colour Management or output...I have no option for Print Matching.....why is this so?
Margaret
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