Getting Your Colors Right with Photoshop?

[Seiji]

Is there a tutorial by DVDCoverArt or anyone else about getting your colors corrected. Maybe there is and I just missed it. It might not be possible since all scanners scan differently, maybe I just need to play around with it myself.

I'm not happy with flesh tones, mostly. When I print them out their faces look too red, plus the cover is a little too dark. I know DVDCoverArt says not to add any contrast or brightness, but I feel I have to add a little brightness just to get the print as close to the original. I also have to take a little red out. Other than that, any cover I add to the site I don't do anything to the color/brightness/or contrast. I simply don't know what to do because I don't want to make my scans look any worse.

I have a crappy Epson CX3200, if that helps. It's an all-in-one scanner printer. I know I need to get a better one.

[DeadeyeRich]

Color calibration can be difficult because you have three pieces of equipment you are trying to match, your monitor, your scanner and your printer. It helps if you have access to a monitor calibration tool such as a Pantone Spyder and their profile making software, but it can be done without one. Here's instruction for a PC with Windows XP and Adobe Photoshop. The object is to print exactly what you see on your monitor, and then deal with your scanner after. Go to the Start menu from the Taskbar. Click on Control Panel-Adobe Gamma. This starts the Wizard. Load your monitor manufacturer's profile first and do a print test to see if you have any improvement between the colors of your monitor and printer. Then you can go to your printer manufacturer and download a profile for your printer and the type of paper you are using. If this doesn't help, try other printer paper profiles and/or you can make your own monitor profile. Try this first and then get back to this post with your results.

BTW, give us your computer and equipment specs.
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If you can remember the sixties........you weren't there.

[Seiji]

I'll give you my specs for now:

Windows XP Home Edtion
AMD64 3000+ 2.0ghz (1600mhz FSB)
1 gig of ram
GeForce 6600 GT
17' AOC flat panel monitor (60 hertz) sllllow
Epson CX3200 printer/scanner

Um, I think that's all you need.

[DeadeyeRich]

I went to the Epson website and found that they do not provide custom icc profiles for your scanner/printer. You probably have generic icc profiles loaded by your Epson software. You should try those when you print. So let's start. Set your monitor to it's default, out of the box settings and a color temperature of 6500 Kelvin. From your WinXP control panel, open Adobe Gamma and load your monitor's profile. Open Photoshop, and go to Edit-Color Settings. Make sure your RGB color space is set to Adobe RGB (1998). Open an image into Photoshop with flesh tones and greys. I use a calibration image from Pantone. If you need it, PM me and I will furnish it to you. The calibration image has known values. If you open it and you see colors that should not be, you know that your monitor is not displaying correctly. At this point you may have to use the Adobe Gamma Wizard to create a monitor profile. Now go to File-Print With Preview. Click on More Options. On the left is a drop down selection box. Choose Color Management, then click the Document radio button below that. Now to set your Options. Choose Let Photoshop Determine Colors for your Color Handling. Choose your Epson generic profile for your Printer Profile. Change your Rendering Intent to Perceptual and check Black Point Compensation. The next steps you will have to figure out, since I don't know what your monitor will display. The object is to disable the printers ICM (Image Color Management) in order to let Photoshop manage your printer colors. Click the Print button. You should probably see a properties button or advanced button. Somewhere within these you should be able to turn off the ICM. Return to your print menu and print your image. Let it dry and compare it to your monitor. If your printed image is not acceptable, try another printer profile. I have an Epson R800 printer. Epson provided 4 generic profiles and I downloaded 5 custom profiles from their website. The customs are found under Quick Links-More On This Product in the support section of your (not yours Seiji) printer. As I mentioned above, they do not provide customs for your printer/scanner. That does not mean you cannot download and try the profiles for other printers. It cannot harm your equipment. Write down your existing profiles and settings in case you need to get back to your starting point. Good Luck, and post your results so others can learn from this.
_________________
If you can remember the sixties........you weren't there.

[kylumi]

hey deadeye............you certainly know your stuff.....nice one

[Seiji]

Yeah, it's a lot of information (some of which I don't know much about). I will try and figure it out from your instructions. If I have any problems I'll keep you updated.

Thanks for helpin' me try to figure it out.

[Seiji]