Create Great Digital Prints

By Gary W. Stanley

Perhaps now that so many folks are shooting digital and the cost of a good printer is quite low, there is a common desire to see your work printed.  The questions that arise are; what steps should I take to get the image ready for printing?  What kind of printer do you recommend? Should you use the manufacturers ink and paper exclusively?  What are printer profiles and should I use them?  Can I or should I create my own custom profiles?  This program will explain these things to you in a simple, easy-to-understand language.

Most of us now know that shooting digital can and will allow us to produce incredible prints from our eight, ten, twelve, and larger megapixel cameras.

Let me say that this program is designed to make you feel more comfortable with the whole digital concept of going from picture to print.  While there are many books out there that get down and dirty with all the intricacies of printing, I prefer a more simple down-to-earth approach to printing.  I totally understand just how easy it is for you to want to shrink back from this and say:  Wow! This is overwhelming, how will I ever learn it all?  Trust me here: if you’re looking for simple, I’m your man!

Let’s take you through my own simple work flow for getting from picture to digital print.

Sad But True:  Again as we’ve mentioned over and over in the past, the common statement we hear is: “I’ll fix it in Photoshop!” I’ve got a better idea, how about this: “Get it right in the camera first, and you’ll spend the least amount of time editing the image afterward.”  Now let’s take that a step further:  What does this have to do with printing?  If you take the time to carefully capture the best image you can, right there in the camera you won’t have to do a whole lot of editing to get that image ready to print! 

Calibrate your Camera:  To “Create Great digital Prints” make sure that your have set up your camera properly for the type of shooting that you do, yes calibrate your camera!  The most important part of setting up your camera has to do with setting the color space to Adobe RGB.  The reason I do that is very simple; If my camera is set to Adobe RGB, and my editing software such as Photoshop is set to Adobe RGB 1998, and my printer is also set to Adobe RGB, I have consistency with my color profiles from the moment I capture the image, to the way I edit my image, and to the way my printer sees the and prints the image.

How Many Megapixels?  I have found that there is a tremendous amount of detail and quality in an image captured digitally.  While there are some 8, 10, 12, and 14 megapixel cameras out there, my first digital SLR camera, a Nikon D100 with a 6.1 megapixel sensor, consistently gave me quality 12x18 & 16x20 prints.  I have seen equally great results from other digital SLR cameras in the 6 megapixel range.  I now have a Nikon D300 digital camera with 12.3 megapixels, and it will easily match or exceed anything that I previously shot with film.  3’x 4’ prints can easily be made and with detail that will hold up to a magnifying glass.

Monitors:  The whole concept of digital printing is to be able to get the image that you print to appear as close as possible to what you see on your monitor. The first step is to make sure that your monitor is properly profiled.  I highly recommend calibrating your monitor with the Spyder 3 Pro from Datacolor (or similar).  So, why should we be concerned about monitor calibration?  I can give several good reasons right off the bat.  First: you are calibrating your monitor to a known ICC (International Color Consortium) profile. “The purpose of the ICC is to promote the use and adoption of open, vendor-neutral, cross-platform color management systems.”  In other words, if everyone uses this same platform of color recognition, we will all see and produce the same colors whether we print it ourselves or send it out to a lab to have it printed.

Suppose you want to email a friend to show them your images from a recent shoot.  Or you want to outsource an image to have printed by a custom lab.  Maybe you need some slides made from your digital images for a contest you’re entering.  What if you are just entering a digital image competition?  What if you want to make a submission to a magazine?  You would want all of these folks to see your images exactly the same way you’re seeing them, wouldn’t you?

The Printer:  The quality of the various brands of printers, are very good.  The most popular however still seem to be Epson, Canon, and HP.  I happen to prefer Epson for overall price and quality.  The settings that I will show in the program will be for the Epson R1900.  While many folks use other manufacturers inks and papers, I have chosen to stay with Epson for several reasons; One, consistency! There’s that word again.  It’s their printer, their ink, and their paper.  Could I save money on ink elsewhere? Maybe, but why risk ruining your printer?  I’d rather raise the price of one of my prints a little to cover the cost of using the Epson ink.  Paper isn’t as big an issue but I happen to like what I use and it happens to be sold by Epson.  I really like the Radiant White Watercolor for that fine art Giclée look.  Epson Velvet fine art is nice too, but the white is not as clean as the Radiant White.  I also use Premium Photo Glossy for some of my work and the ink seems to lie very well and smooth to the surface, very similar to a darkroom print.

Printer Profiles:  Printer profiles are another area that has become a hot topic for discussion.  There are software programs out there that have profiles for virtually every type of popular photographic paper on the market.  My Epson R1900 has its own profile built into its printer software.  I can easily match the type of paper that I am using to the profile created by Epson for that paper.  You can also purchase custom profiles to match papers other than Epson’s, but these can be very expensive (up to $1,500).  Do you need those custom profiles?  No!  Will they help you make a better print? Maybe!  A friend of mine from Ohio spent over $500 for his custom profile, and he says he’s still had to fine tune it.  If you are spending thousands for a very large printer such as an Epson 9800, then the extra $500 or more for the profile may be a good idea, especially if you are doing critical work for various customers.

Step by Step

Okay, here we go!

Photoshop Color Settings:  I mentioned earlier the importance of consistency between your camera, your monitor, Photoshop and your printer.  Here are the settings I use for Photoshop.  Along your Menu bar select Edit-Color Settings.  For now leave it on Custom until you’re ready to save it.  Under Working Spaces you’ll see RG.  Choose; Adobe RGB (1998).  Next is CMYK, choose U.S. Web Coated (SWAP)v2.  Next is Gray and then Spot. Just make sure they are set at Dot Gain 20%

(Illust #1)

Under Color Management Policies all should say Preserve Embedded Profile and with no boxes checked.  Now under Conversion Options, Engine should be Adobe (ACE) and Intent should say Relative Colorimetric, and with both boxes checked. Finally under

Advanced Controls, leave Desaturate Monitor Controls unchecked, and Blend RGB Colors Using Gamma 2.2 checked.  Now save your settings giving it a new name.

Proofing:  You'll only need to use this option if you are intending to make Hard Proofs or Match Prints such as when emulating another printer, so I won't elaborate on this workflow.

Soft Proofing:  Soft proofing is simply a way that lets you view on your computer monitor what your print will look like when it is on paper.  So in theory you would be able to see how that particular combination of ink and paper would reproduce.

Along the main menu bar select View-Proof Setup-Custom, then look under Device to Simulate, Scroll down to the printer and paper that you are using, and select that.  Then under Rendering Intent, make sure it says Relative Colorimetric and that both Black Point Compensation and Simulate Black Ink are checked.  Now go to Save and give this setting a name such as Rad Wht Wtr Clr R1900.  By clicking the preview on and off you’ll see the difference in how the image will print verses how it looks on the monitor.  Hopefully if you have done everything we talked about earlier, the difference will be minimal but still noticeable.

(Illust. #2)

At this point you have the option of making a few adjustments now in Levels and or Saturation for example, or wait and create a custom profile later as I do.  My custom profile keeps me from having to do this with each and every image, as I will explain later.

Gamut Warning Option:  This option is located just under Proof Colors of the View tab along the main menu bar.  The Gamut Warning option lets you see areas that are outside your printer’s ability to reproduce that color accurately.  Don’t loose sleep over it, today’s printers are so good that I seriously doubt most folks will be able to see the difference. 

Size your print:  Select Image along the top menu bar, then, choose the Image Size dialog box. Set your Resolution to 300, then Width and Height under document size.  You may want to check the Constrain Proportions box to keep the image proportionally accurate. To leave a white boarder around my print, I make 11x17 prints on my 13x19 paper so I uncheck the Constrain Proportions box.  It’s not quite proportionate to my image dimensions, (if I feel that it will make the image look strange, I’ll use the cropping tool instead).  I then check the Re-Sample image box and select Bicubic Smoother when I up-size (interpolate) an image.  After I crop the image, I then rotate the image to vertical (I only do this so that I know it is a print ready file). Now follow the steps below.

(Illust #3)

I created my own profiles several years ago and was able to copy them to my last two printers with no problems.  Your own custom profiles?  Well, it’s really as simple as doing a few tests of your image using smaller sheets of your chosen paper.  Remember I said that you match the printer to your monitor, not the other way around.  You’ve already calibrated your monitor so you know it’s accurate. 

A profile for your printer simply adjusts your color, saturation, contrast, brightness, amount of ink etc. to match the paper in use and the ICC profile that you now have on your monitor.  You can start with the printers existing profile for the particular paper that you are using, or even the auto setting and simply adjust (customize) those settings.  These profiles can be found when you first open the Print window on the middle right you’ll see Printer Profile, click on the down arrow and scroll down the long list of choices until you match your printer with the paper you are using, in this case; SPR1900 WtrclrRdWht PotoRPM icc.  Now you can print and see if you need to create or customize your own profile.  If the results you get please you, great!  But if you think they could be better, read on.

(Illust #4)

My Custom Printer Profile:  Select Ctrl Print which will again open the print window.  Now let’s set our initial settings that you will only have to do once.  Okay back to the Print page set-up:  Obviously you’ll want to select the number of copies with 1. being the default.  Next, along the right side of your print window, make sure Document is checked.  Now under Color Handling, select Photoshop Manages Colors.  Under Printer Profile, select Adobe RGB 1998.  Under Rendering Intent, select Relative *Colorimetric.  Finally make sure that Black Point *Compensatior is checked.  *Note:  Sorry, that’s how Adobe spells it!  Now you’ll be able to go straight to the Page Setup when you print.

(Illust #5)

Okay, now select Page Set-Up which will open the Properties Window.  Select Advanced from the four tabs across the top.  On the left side of the window, you will see that I have selected Sheet, then Water Color –Radiant White, then Photo RPM (it’s set automatically for highest quality), then below that the paper size Super B (13x19 in).  I also have Borders and Portrait set.

(Illust #6)

Along the right side starting at the top under color management I have clicked on Color Controls.  This allows me to select Adobe RGB under color mode and under Gamma I chose 2.2  Now, under that where it says Reset Controls, I have changed the Brightness, Contrast, and Saturation settings to my own custom settings of +5 +9 and +19  for My Radiant White Watercolor, and -8 +5 +17 for my Premium Glossy respectively to achieve the results that I want.  I then click on Save Settings on the lower left of this window, which will open a small window that allows me to type in a name for this custom setting, in this case it’s: Watercolor 1440 Best or Premium Glossy Best.  Now every time I print using these papers, I go right to my custom settings.  I do the same for each paper that I use, each with their own specific settings.  Most of us rarely use more than three or four types of paper anyway.  I’ll also create a custom setting for print quality for things like promo pieces or my business cards where I don’t need to use the extra ink.

While this was done by trial and error at first, it was done without a lot of paper waste and without spending $ 1,500 for a custom profile.  Now I rarely have to print an image twice because it didn’t come out the way I wanted it to the first time.  All I did was to set my own printer settings mostly making adjustments to Brightness, Contrast and Saturation (lighter or darker, contrast up or down, saturate more or less etc.) try it again, then if it looked good to me, I saved those settings.  Obviously use a small paper first (8 1/2 x 11) creating a 4x6 image to be printed on the one half, flip the paper using it again to print another 4x6 on the other half to keep waste to a minimum.

This method has worked very well for me, and I could have printed twenty 13x19 prints in the time it took me to write this article explaining how to do it.  But, if you take your time and follow my suggestions, I believe you too will be able to “Create Great Digital Prints.”