How to Make Perfect Photo Prints Every Time

[@davidgooch7629]

Hi, why on earth can't others talk clearly and in a straightforward manner like you, clear & concise in an English accent. First class video. thank you so much.

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks. I don't think to speak clearly and concisely is very exciting. People seem to want speed and fast-paced description. Perhaps I can start a new trend.

[@davidgooch7629]

It might not sound exciting but I can understand your every word and when the years are slipping away together with most of your senses as mine are the last thing you want is someone shouting in a transatlantic voice which has to be played several times before you can work it out, your the man for for me, trend on my friend.

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks David. Perhaps if enough people thought like you I might even become popular. Seriously though, I do have experience in training and teaching. The one thing that was drummed into me at the start (a long time back) was to slow down and take the audience with you. I guess it stuck with me. 😀

[@Forthejoyofphotography]

So many videos give you fragments and bits of the printing jigsaw puzzle. Finally (and thank God). KZbin offered this as an option. I am so glad I watched!!!

[@RobinWhalley]

Great to hear that it helped.

[@GoneDogging]

I have screamed with frustration for years. Thank you for this superbly explained route to success, Robin. Can't wait to try it out. Thank you so much.

[@RobinWhalley]

Thank you very much. It should work for you but if you still have problems let me know. There are a couple of annoying but fortunately rare bugs that can mess things up.

[@richardcoomber9909]

Just what I needed having bought a view printer that wasn’t printing what I see on screen. Thank you for your clear explanation

[@RobinWhalley]

Great to hear. Thank you.

[@carstenhoeifoto]

Best video on KZbin yet about how to print... Very very good

[@RobinWhalley]

I agree. No seriously, thank you. I hope you spread the word.

[@Colin-ut4qf]

Watching your videos is always time well spent Robin.

[@RobinWhalley]

Thank you

[@marcorof5545]

ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC VIDEO! CHEERS ROB!

[@RobinWhalley]

Great to know you liked it

[@hawaiirealmedia5610]

So clearly explained. Thanks!

[@RobinWhalley]

You're very welcome. I hope that it helped.

[@melb5996]

Nicely explained , just one point to add. It’s essential that you must have the manufactures inks in your printer or the ICC profile won’t be accurate unless you carry out a printer/paper profile.

[@RobinWhalley]

It's a good point to consider. What I believe I said in the video is that the ICC profile must match the printer, paper and ink. You don't necessarily need to use the manufacturer ink providing the profile is for the ink you are using. Thanks for brining it up.

[@melb5996]

Your accent sounds local to where I live. Born in Lancs live over the Pennines 🙂

[@ggstylz]

First class tutorial and the best I’ve seen so far. Thanks!

[@RobinWhalley]

Thank you

[@davidgooch7629]

Hi Robin, many thanks for your reply and I will be looking at your other suggestions and hope to try them out. Have been using DxO Photolab again and so far have found it slow and not as easy to use as the version of lightroom that I have, so off to try others. thank you David

[@patrickfrischmuth4581]

Great information that has solved a problem that I could not figure out. Steps one through three were In place as described in the video. The soft proofing process has been producing totally unpredictable results. While I just finished watching this video and have not implemented what I have learned, I am confident my prints will be significantly improved. Thank you for sharing your knowledge..

[@RobinWhalley]

You're very welcome. If you run into any problems drop a comment in the video and I'll try to help.

[@TheMiniatureStudio]

Having just purchased my first printer, this has helped me out a lot. Thank you.

[@RobinWhalley]

Thank you. I'm pleased to hear it's helped.

[@Pixeltrainer]

Thanks! I just bought a 3880 with only 400 pages printed so I'm looking forward to learning how to successfully print my images. Your video is a good first step in helping me do so. I use Affinity Photo and sometimes Capture One 20 (steep learning curve). I'll look through your videos to see if you have any on those software programs. Cheers!

[@RobinWhalley]

Good luck with the 3880. I love mine even though it's quite large and it's served me well over the years.

[@billhirst4837]

Another lucid and authoritative video - thanks, billjshirst

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks Bill. You're very welcome.

[@rockyrowe5970]

Robin, i came across your videos recently and thank you so much for explaining clearly how to produce prints correctly. I have watched numerous videos from several well known photography vloggers and to be honest they all miss key points or assume you understand what they are eluding too. I have recently purchase a Canon TS9150 and invested in a Datacolour Spyder to calibrate my monitor, plus used the ICC service offered by Fotospeed to get ICC profiles made for a couple of papers. The upshot is after several forays into printing over the years I am now getting prints that look excellent.

[@RobinWhalley]

This is great to hear. When I first started trying to print years ago, I found it very frustrating and there wasn't much information about. I even gave up a couple of time until I managed to piece things together. If I've saved you experiencing the same frustration I'm happy. Thanks for commenting.

[@SteveONions]

An excellent and detailed tutorial Robin and the results speak for themselves. I think I'll make a few prints for the next outing.

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks Steve. Much appreciated. I look forward to seeing them and will bring a few of my own. I have a couple of sheep prints because my camera didn't record the first one I made.

[@SteveONions]

I've added it as a link to the vlog I'm releasing on Monday too. I think I need to do a bit more printing now.

[@RobinWhalley]

Thaks Steve. Much appreciated.

[@2Langdon]

Very good, thanks for a clear guide.

[@RobinWhalley]

Thank you

[@heatherleephotography2578]

I have been so discouraged by my prints recently, and this really helped! Until reading this, I never soft proofed. I have always had a calibrated monitor, do not have labs handle color correction, and I had no issues. Then, one day my prints came back looking horrible - I lost saturation, and they were muddy. I thought my old monitor was to blame and purchased a BenQ. Since then, I've calibrated about 1000 times, and I'm still having issues, which is what brought me here. I did just download the soft proof files from my lab, and I was able to get close to the prints I have on-hand...but I still do not understand what caused the dramatic changes that caused my images on screen to become so different than my images in print.

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks. In could have been an update to your operating system or something similar (I've been hit by that one a couple of times). Perhaps the Lab changed their printer or inks. Maybe they changed the paper they used. There are a lot of variables you need to keep an eye on.

[@MrEnglishgolfer]

All I can say is a "big thank you!" for this video. Such an informative video when coming to printing. So chuffed with the results I've gotten, thanks to you!

[@RobinWhalley]

Thank you. It's feedback like this that makes the effort of creating videos worthwhile.

[@stanw4317]

An excellent educational production! Thank you very much for the outstanding video!

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks. Your comments are much appreciated.

[@neilmahon7756]

Hello Robin, Thank you for the video. I do like the systematic way in which you take the viewer through each of the steps. Just one question regarding your comment that unless you have a specific need to use gloss paper, you recommend not using it. May I ask, please would you expand further as to why. Many thanks, Neil

[@RobinWhalley]

Glad it was helpful! My comments about Gloss is because I don't really like gloss paper. It's easier to print to and reproduces a lot of detail, but I find the surface reflection difficult to handle unless behind glass. That said, my comments are really aimed at standard gloss printing paper. I do like some of the fine art gloss surfaces from the likes of Fotospeed. Their Fine Art Gloss Fibre papers are wonderful.

[@neilmahon7756]

@@RobinWhalley Hello Robin, many thanks. Having watched your video, I've taken your advice and bought some Fotospeed - Photo Smooth Pearl 290g. I'm looking forward to giving it a try.

[@richardfulcher9314]

Hi Robin. This is the best video I have seen on the printing process via Lightroom; logical step by step process, clearly explained with some excellent tips. Are there any differences when printing black and white images?

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks. You can use exactly the same process for printing B&W and it will work well. If you have an Epson printer, there is an option to use ABW (Advanced B*W) printing. If you use this option you don't use the printer profiles or soft proof. It's usually very good but personally, I find it a little bit more hit and miss in terms of getting the contrast and brightness right in the final print. I suspect other printer manufacturers have similar settings. Effectively, you are turning over the print management to your printer's software.

[@gordonclarke1210]

Yes excellent video and well set out in terms of what has to be done. Thank you.

[@RobinWhalley]

Glad you enjoyed it. Thank you.

[@paulrookes1970]

Hi Robin.....excellent tutorial as always, can you tell me, when you set print sharpening in the print module, is this in addition to sharpening already added during processing?

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks Paul. Yes, the sharpenin gin the print module is output sharpening and is optimised to make the image looks its best. It compensates for the softening effect of the printing. The other sharpening you do is Capture Sharpening to overcome the softening effect of image capture and creative sharpening to highlight areas of the image.

[@paulrookes1970]

@@RobinWhalley Thanks Robin, prompt reply...

[@SL-we1yt]

Hi Robin, Excellent guide one of the best I've looked at about printing which I followed until I got to 19.08. I have just purchased the Canon Pixma TS6351 printer working with Mac and I can't find the Properties box when you go into Printer Options. Need this to change the printer from automatically manage the image changing colour adjustment. When I installed the printer it was in Series Airprint Bonjour Multifunction and said no driver was needed. Can you help in anyway? Many thanks new subscriber.

[@RobinWhalley]

I'm glad you liked the guide. Unfortunately there is a lot of variation between printer drivers and operating systems. On a Mac, you should be safe to just set Lightroom to use one of the printer profiles. This will disable the printer colour management and you should see that reflected in the printer dilog.

[@doubleletter]

Great tutorial. Thank you.

[@RobinWhalley]

Thank you

[@andychattaway1361]

Hi Robin thanks for another informative and well explained tutorial. My printing workflow is exactly the same as your own but I find I always learn something new watching your videos. But after all your soft proofing efforts it looked to me like the print came out a bit blue. My monitor is calibrated with the Colormunki Photo like your own so it's not to blame. I wondered if it looked blue on the video due to the filming process. But then I skipped back to the image just before you hit print and the snow is white compared to the snow on the print a few seconds later.

[@RobinWhalley]

Hi Andy. Yes, the print in the video appears a little blue but that's due to the lighting conditions and video camera I was using. The camera doesn't have the same colour balance as the screen which is profiled. When you compare the screen and print they are spot on. Perhaps I should have filmed the print next to the screen but then you would see what a mess my desk is.

[@andychattaway1361]

Re. Your desk LOL I just looked sideways at mine and laughed as it needs a good tidy too. Thanks for the explanation Robin I thought for a moment we were still losing the digital printing battle.

[@jimmycuadraphotography3273]

Famtastic guide. I can't thank you for this enough!

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks. Great to know it helped you.

[@diegomilanese3930]

Please, I wish to ask if you have done a similar tutorial to manage the soft proof in Capture One 20. Thank you so much!

[@RobinWhalley]

There is, here's the link kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJjUlpamerSUnbc

[@RichardSilvius]

Wonderful step by step video. Thank you!

[@RobinWhalley]

You're very welcome!

[@PH-gm2qe]

Hi Robin, An excellent video for printing beginner. Thanks a lot! I like your books and video tutorial, especially about NIK software.

[@RobinWhalley]

Thank you and thank you for your support by purchasing my books.

[@PH-gm2qe]

My pleasure :-)

[@srhphoto1]

Hi Robin. Another excellent video. A question about monitor calibration. I have the Colormunki Display you talk about. What sort of ambient conditions / light levels would you ideally have in the room when calibrating, and would you allow the Colormunki to continuously adjust based on light levels in the room? Thanks in advance. Simon.

[@RobinWhalley]

I use a daylight bulb in my office and tend to leave this on during the day and when it's dark. There isn't too much difference between the two so I took a measurement at night and just use that all the time. It seems to be working fine.

[@geraldmartin4227]

Great advice Robin, thank you.

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks. Much appreciated.

[@derektaylorphoto]

That's a great video and very well explained. You've answered lots of questions. I know the brightness of the monitor can make the printed image look darker than expected, but if I'm soft proofing correctly and adjusting the proof copy to match, then I'm guessing that the screen brightness is less of an issue (or none at all)? Thanks.

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks. And to answer your question, just soft proof as explained and ignore the additional contrast and brightness controls. All your prints to dry for an hour before checking them in daylight. If they look good then leave them alone. If they don’t look quite right, compare them to the soft proof in the develop module. If they don’t match, then try adjusting the brightness and contrast before making another print. Continue to compare the prints to the soft proof (with the simulate paper and ink option turned on).

[@FunkOsax]

I've been making decent prints for some time using Lightroom Classic (and all preceding variations) but you have shown me how to use Soft Proofing properly, so thank you. However, I have a weird problem when I select "Simulate Paper & Ink". Most of my prints are of dogs against a white background (mobile studio at dog shows etc, 3 flashes in softboxes) and when I select "Simulate Paper & Ink", the white background becomes distinctly grey/blue when compared to the "Master", nothing at all like the actual print what-so-ever. I have two Dell monitors, UP2716D & UP2516D, "daisy chained" from a GeForce GTX 970 using the display ports, both set to 60hz 32 bit, 10bpc output colour depth, RGB, output full dynamic range. Both monitors have been calibrated with a ColorMunki Display.

[@RobinWhalley]

It’s more likely the colour profile. Some generic profiles aren’t that great. That said, most paper isn’t neutral white. Some will use optical whither that gives a blue hue to white. It could be the simulation is accurate and showing this. Try some other paper profiles to see the difference.

[@FunkOsax]

@@RobinWhalley Thanks, I appreciate the suggestion and you taking the time to reply, but I have tried different paper profiles, including some custom profiles. What I describe isn't just a cast, it's extremely pronounced. I've tried Googling for the problem but with no success. If I do ever find the solution, I'll post it here.

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks, I would be interested to know.

[@marktizard7273]

Brilliant explanation

[@RobinWhalley]

Thank you

[@PixeloliausOliland]

Thank you for this very detailed guide. Very helpful!

[@RobinWhalley]

Thank you. I’m pleased you found it helpful.

[@AndrewJohnson51]

Excellent video, thank you.

[@RobinWhalley]

Thank you.

[@alejandromedina2349]

Really excellent explanation! Thanks!

[@RobinWhalley]

Thank you

[@hawaiirealmedia5610]

I followed your very clear tutorial exactly. When it came time to print on my Epson XP-970, I chose profile for "Epson XP-970 Photo Glossy," and it comes out pretty light. If I switch to "Managed by Printer," it comes out close, or about 95% perfect. But this should be working the other way around. What is going on? Thanks! Lee

[@RobinWhalley]

Yes, managed by printer will get you 95% of the way there but using the correct printer profile is always better. To say what you are doing wrong I would need to be watching you, but I'm 95% certain it will be a mistake you are making. It could be not selecting the correct printer profile, having the colour management set in both software and printer rather than just the software, not adjusting your image correctly when soft proofing, not having your monitor correctly calibrated, selecting a different rendering intent when soft proofing to when printing etc. The reason I say 95% certain is that there can still be technical issues which are much more difficult to track down. A couple of examples I've experienced are: 1. The printer profile is wrong. This was a difficult one to confirm because I had to use two separate printer and computer setups. That confirmed my suspicions and so I had a custom printer profile generated that worked perfectly. The company concerned has now replaced the problem profile but I have found other examples so it is possible. 2. I've had examples of Lightroom not working correctly. This sometimes happened after an OS upgrade or when switching paper types on the printer between Matt and Gloss. If you have a Mac, try the solution in this article (lenscraft.co.uk/photo-editing-tutorials/mac-os-photo-printing-problem/). It may work for you.

[@hawaiirealmedia5610]

@@RobinWhalley Thanks for you quick reply. My mistake? Probably!! I have selected the proper printer model and Epson paper profile. I don't have color management set in both software and printer, but maybe I have done that inadvertently, but I don't know how. My image is adjusted very slightly while soft proofing. It didn't take much. My monitor is calibrated properly using DataColor Spyder5 Elite. Rendering intent set to same as soft proof. I could just get a custom ICC profile. Maybe that's the easiest solution? I actually had the same issue with Photoshop, where I had to use the "Managed by Printer". Similar results. I just "reset printer system" on my Mac as you suggested, so we shall see. Thank you for taking the time to help me. Your Channel is an amazing resource. Thanks, Lee

[@hawaiirealmedia5610]

I reset the printing system on the Mac, but no change. I'll check with Epson. Thanks for your help!

[@RobinWhalley]

@@hawaiirealmedia5610 Another option is to try a different paper. Personally, I like the PhotoSpeed papers and they offer a free bespoke profiling service. It may help you narrow the cause of the problem.

[@hawaiirealmedia5610]

@@RobinWhalley I'll check PhotoSpeed out. Good idea. Thanks!

[@melb5996]

How would you compare software monitor profiling compared to hardware adjustable monitors?

[@RobinWhalley]

Hardware calibration is almost certainly better. There are too many variables that can creep in when trying to only use software lenscraft.co.uk/photography-tutorials/calibrate-monitor-for-photography/

[@mickhursey3887]

A great informative video, any chance of a video covering printing using Affinity photo?

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks. I will add the Affinity Printing to my list.

[@gerritbeumer7265]

Thank you very much Robin! This helped me get to grips with my Epson3880 Stylus printer and ILFORD GALLERY Smooth Gloss paper printing no-end! Question: My proofcopy's pure whites (in the picture) appear greyish/blue relative to the original picture file's whites. And it seems to be outside the scope of my colour correction sliders. It isn't affected by them no matter what I sdo in LRCC Classic. Is this because of an imperfect calibration of my monitor ? Again Thnx a million and keep up the good work! Gerrit

[@RobinWhalley]

The greyish blue is the simulated base colour of the paper. Almost no paper is pure white. Some have a slightly warm tint whilst others can appear cold. This can affect your perception of the image colours and you may want to adjust for it in your proof copy. You won't though be able to correct the white background of the paper in the proof copy. Having said all this, it can also be an indication that your monitor calibration has drifted. Usually, the paper tint is only just recognisable in the proof (for most papers).

[@gerritbeumer7265]

Robin Whalley Thank you Robin for your valuable thoughts and advice and kind reply! I (re)calibrated the Dell P2210 monitor yesterday and today, prior to sending you the respons/question. So I guess it is safe to eliminate monitor drift from my Xrite i1 Display calibration as a viable explanation? Calibration procedures worked as expected. My print came out considerably greener than previsualized by the proof copy ... So grateful as I am for your help and valuable words, thusfar I am rather puzzled still: What could be wrong if I may ask you once more? Really desperate: Calibration works OK (I have two P2210’s same results/identical images (80 cd, D65), Paper and printer (software version 6.63) are of reputable brands/quality, original Epson inks, papermanufacturer profile for this paper and printer combo downloaded and installed and soft-proofing procedure, printer settings (incl. bypassing printercolour management, printer profile etcet. , exactly as per your video. Only deviation: My proofing image does display a grey/blueish hue (once the simulate paper and ink is toggled) that is not affected by colour-, hue- or other image settings manipulation, except an extreme “tint” (+100) where it defaults to yellow, or heavy underexposures (or contrast minuses) that only makes matters worse/more darker grey. Even worse, the prints come out too flat and green (lack of red tints it seems) ....? Any and all help would be so welcome! Succes with your channel Robin, either way. Gerrit

[@RobinWhalley]

This is going to take a bit of detective work to figure out what's going wrong. Here are a few suggestions that might throw up something: When you Soft Proof, are you selecting Relative or Perceptual rendering intent? Have you made sure that the same rendering intent is selected in the Printer module? Have you definitely switched off the printer colour management and had it set to managed by the host application? Can you try exporting the file to Photoshop and printing it directly from Photoshop with Photoshop managing the colours? When you export to Photoshop, be sure to save the file as a PSD format and check the Color Space is "Adobe RGB" rather than "ProPhoto" (which is used internally by Lightroom. Double check you have the right printer driver for your printer and paper combination. Check this for the website you downloaded from, in the Develop module when Soft Proofing and the Print module. I know it sounds silly but it's easy to get caught out. What printer are you using? What computer and OS? There are a few bugs in Lightroom when printing and you may be affected by one of them, although they are quite rare.

[@PaulTimlett]

Very clear instructions, thanks Robin. I've just bought my first photo printer - Canon Pro 1000. Everything you set out here holds true for the Canon until the last few minutes where the Canon does not have the dialogue box in the Printer tab to stop the printer controlling colour management. It does it by circuitous means but I'm never 100% sure I've taken control from the printer driver. Does your book cover the settings for Canon printers?

[@RobinWhalley]

The Canon Pixma 9500 used to have a drop down option in the Windows print driver to allow colour management by the host application rather than the printer. The problem here is that many of the driver dialogs differ between model and over time, as well as the computers O/S. If you are using a Mac, it's possible it does this automatically (it does for my Epson). For a Windows PC, I'm not so sure. Unfortunately, my book can't cover all the printer drivers on the different operating systems as there are too many.

[@petersullivan9045]

Can I suggest when trying to print, go into the dialogue and look at Set Up, go to Properties, Main, Clour Intesnity, Matching and set it to NONE. Then go into Setup, Print Options and check the Disable ICM box. You should now be good, this info was supplied to me by Datacolor and my prints are now perfect.

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks for additing this gem Peter. Much appreciated.

[@petersullivan9045]

No problem, I spent a lot of time and wasted stacks of paper and ink before I got told that, asking Canon was useless

[@Mackymcd]

Very informative videos, just learning the print game myself at the moment, fantastic information and very easy to listen too 👍🏻

[@RobinWhalley]

Thank you very much. Pleased you liked the video. Printing can be very frustrating but also very rewarding.

[@alangraham5843]

Hi Robin, you say you use a daylight bulb when printing. If you sell your prints and the buyer hangs them in a room with normal household lighting won't they look different to the print as you see it?

[@RobinWhalley]

The simple answer to your question is yes, and there's nothing you can do about this. Having said that it really doesn't matter. People will see your print in both daylight and electric light and unless they are comparing the two side by side (which can't happen) they won't notice a difference. The reason I use the daylight balanced bulb is to get the editing of the image and the soft proofing correct under consistent conditions. The screen will appear the same to me during the day or at night. Also once I have made a print I can compare it to the colours I see on screen more accurately. I almost forgot. No, I don't sell prints directly to people. I do though use services who will produce my work and sell it and who I know produce excellent quality prints. I print because I like to have prints of my work. Sometimes I hang them on my wall, sometimes take them to talks I give and sometimes I share them with friends and family.

[@alangraham5843]

Thank you for your quick reply and of course, it makes perfect sense.

[@ccuny1]

I knew I'd find another useful vid...great advice. Thanks a lot.

[@RobinWhalley]

Hopefully, you will find a few more. And I'm always happy to receive suggestions for new videos.

[@carolbrewertonseasider7091]

Hi Robin, just found your video while searching for print info, as my prints on P600 do come out darker than my screen image... I use the Huey Pantone calibrator,, do you think that is any good or should i renew... .. brilliantly well explained video Thank you...

[@RobinWhalley]

Most monitor calibrators are fine. Assuming you are doing all the other steps correctly, you often find it's the viewing conditions that are tricking you into thinking the print is darker. If your going to be comparing a screen and a print directly be sure the background of the screen is set to white to match your paper. Also, check that you're in natural light and not in the shade or with electric lights on.

[@carolbrewertonseasider7091]

Thank you... so when i am working at night time, should i have a daylight bulb in my lamp. my room is very well lit with natural light during the day.. and i have my screen side on to to the large window. as that is the only position it can be in

[@RobinWhalley]

I would recommend using a daylight bulb. If I hold a print and walk out of my office (where I use daylight bulbs) into another room you can immediately see it makes the print look completely different.

[@michaelktori5178]

Hi Robin, I'm using Epsom R3000 printer and read that quality can be reduced when using printer wirelessly. I can't see any logic in this. What d'you think?

[@RobinWhalley]

That's a new one on me and I can't imagine it. It isn't logical for this to happen unless the print driver heavily compresses the data (using lossy compression) before sending it to a wireless device. It's possible it could do this to speed up printing. Where did you read this?

[@dariaignatenko3559]

Thank you 🙂

[@RobinWhalley]

You’re welcome 😊

[@bjdent]

excellent video

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks. Great to hear you liked it.

[@pcpcnow]

Good info!!

[@RobinWhalley]

Glad it was helpful! Thank you

[@johevideos]

thanks very helpfull

[@RobinWhalley]

Thank you

[@davidgooch7629]

Hello again, as I have now watched several of your videos and enjoyed them may I ask your opinion of the following software for processing raw images based on your considerable knowledge. As you may recall I am using Lightroom 5 which is very shaky and slow most of the time so I am looking to replace it with some thing more up to date. Some time ago I bought DxO Photolab after a trial but I must admit I seem to have wasted £100 and do not find it to my liking. I have looked at the following but not come to any conclusions-ACDsee , Optics pro 1,Luminar, ON1Raw , and both versions of Lightroom - Classic and CC. I must say that I find classic the easiest to use perhaps because of Lightroom 5 but do not like the subscription idea. Any advice will be appreciated and I do apologize for being so long winded. thank you David.

[@RobinWhalley]

Hi David. Pleased to hear you like my videos and great question. I have to come clean here about my addiction to software. I own all the package you list with the exception of Optics Pro, but then that's a dead end and DxO will only be selling Photolab in the future. You also missed some great software in Affinity, Topaz and Alien Skin Exposure. Each of the packages has strengths and weaknesses and each covers a slightly different area of photography. Lightroom, for example, is great for managing image collections and reasonable for RAW conversion. It's RAW conversion results do seem to depend on the type of RAW file; it's great with Nikon and Canon but not as good with Fuji. I would sit down and write out the answer to some of the following questions before deciding on a package if I were you: Do you need more than just a RAW converter or would being able to manage and search your images also be important? Why don't you like to do more adventurous editing of images and therefore require Photoshop-like capabilities? What don't you like about DxO Photolab? What are the features of a good RAW converter or good software in your opinion? Once you know the answer to these questions you can start to look at the features of the different packages objectively. I should also ask why you don't like the rental model? A lot of the packages you mention tend to bring out a new version each year and require a paid upgrade. They may not have a monthly rental fee but the annual cost isn't that much less and in some cases may be more. Hope this helps.

[@Robertobinetti70]

Thanks great work

[@RobinWhalley]

Thank you

[@hvepseeksperten]

Very nice video

[@RobinWhalley]

Thank you

[@jacvanderspuy5618]

Excellent

[@RobinWhalley]

Thank you

[@josecolon8143]

Where can I buy it in the USA, purchase with dollars and mailed to the Caribbean (PR)

[@RobinWhalley]

Hi Julio, what is it that you want to purchase. Please let me know and I will try to help. Robin

[@josecolon8143]

Robin Whalley sorry I should have been more specific. The Fotospeed website don’t allow to pay with dollars nor to deliver to Puerto Rico.

[@RobinWhalley]

From what I can see, I think you will struggle to obtain the Fotospeed papers. I have though found the Permajet papers (which are very similar) can be obtained from the B&H Photo website in the US. You will need to search for "PermajetUSA Paper" but it appears they have a huge range. Hope this helps.

[@sumitagg1]

How does nik output sharpener fit with this workflow

[@RobinWhalley]

If you're going to use Nik Output Sharpener for the output sharpening, prepare your image with it and then turn off the Lightroom sharpening in the Print Module.

[@bitsbbc]

How to do proofing for a metal print

[@RobinWhalley]

It's the same process for softproofing but then export a file to send to the company that will do the print. They should be able to supply the ICC profile for the printer they will be using.

[@bitsbbc]

@@RobinWhalley first time doing a soft proof . all thanks to your wonderful video. however when i click on "simulate ink" , the photo has a grayish tint which i was not able to fix . any ideas

[@ThomCountryfan]

Why would I have to profile a paper which already has been profiled by the manufacturer e.g. Epson? That makes no sense...

[@RobinWhalley]

I'm not sure I'm following your question. The profile needs to match the paper to the printer and ink being used. Paper manufacturers produces profiles for their papers when printing with popular printers. These are generic profiles which assumes a standard printer and ink. Most printers will vary from this standard to some degree so it's usually best to have a bespoke paper profile produced for your printer with a specific paper. The genereric profiles might get you 90% colour accuracy but the custom profile will achieve much greater accuracy.

[@ThomCountryfan]

@@RobinWhalley I own a Canon Pro 100s printer and use Canon photo paper. So when I install the drivers for the Pro 100s, there are also profiles for all the different Canon papers included and I think these should have been made for exactly this printer and exactly this paper. So I still don't get it why I should profile a photo paper which has been profiled on exactly the printer I own.

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks, I think I understand now. The profiles that came with your Canon printer are generic profiles. They are intended for use with your model of printer using the chosen paper. They haven't been produced using your printer. There is always variation in the manufacturing process which means the generic profile isn't a exact match to your printer. It may be that you achieve excellent results across all prints but you may find you struggle with some prints because of the manufacturing variance. Having your own printer calibrated is always more precise than using a generic profile. To illustrate the point, I recently used a generic profile for my Epson 3880 printer. The result was terrible with an image that had strong orange colours; it literally turned them bright yellow. I then tried to print on another printer of the same model and got the same results. I contacted the paper manufactorer to let them know of the problem and they created me a bespoke profile. The bespoke profile was perfect on both printers. My guess is that someone made a mistake when producing the initial generic profile. Often these are created from calibration prints sent to the manufacturers and sometimes the person making the print forgets (or doesn't know) how to turn off colour management. This is a vital part of the calibration process. The result is an error which probably doesn't get reported because not many people understand the printing process and how to use the profiles properly. This may be an extreme example but it should illustrate the point. If you go to a professional print house, they regularly calibrate their printers and recommend soft proofing. Sorry for the long anser but I hope it helps.

[@ThomCountryfan]

@@RobinWhalley Thank you very much for this long answer. That makes perfect sense to me. I didn't consider that different printers of the same type might produce different results with the same profile of the manufacturer. So I guess I will use my Spyder 4 again and make a profile to compare it to the generic profile.

[@RobinWhalley]

Great to hear. It's also worth trying other papers with your printer as each has different charactoristics. Some of the papers from the likes of Fotospeed and Permajet are excellent and they both offer a free printer calibration service. It's worth trying out their paper calibrations against any you make yourself.

[@chazM6116]

ColorMunki Photo is NO LONGER its the i1Studio you out of date.... as for the display You do not get 100% prints as you need the paper profiles as any other profiles are generic.

[@RobinWhalley]

I'm out of date then but it still works for me. My videos are about how I do things in real life and not theory. And as I said in the video, the generic paper profiles get you most of the way there, especially if you have a pro-grade printer. My out of date ColorMunki builds me paper profiles if I need greater accuracy.

[@chazM6116]

ANd you can use it with the i1Studio software as I believe its still teh same just a new colour BUT the new i1Studio software is so much better. ( X-Rite tell you this)

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks. I will look into that. I haven’t updated the profiling software for about 12 months.