Secrets of great photo prints - get your print viewing lighting sorted. Screens vs prints

Setting up your print viewing lighting correctly is a key element of an effective print workflow. Why matching the colour temperature of your screen to your viewing lighting is not the most important thing to do.
Looking at the PDV-3e/D desktop viewing stand, a dimmable D50 desktop viewer for print proofing and evaluation. [RRP currently £1130 + VAT]
For more info on pro lighting solutions see:
www.graphictec...
See my original review:
www.northlight...
You don't need to go to the expense of a professional viewing cabinet - see the Ilford viewing light in my recent video
• Review: Ilford Ilfolux...
This video is part of Keith's collection of print related articles, videos and reviews covering printing, colour management and photography at:
www.northlight-...
Free test images are at:
www.northlight...
My absolute best source for info about colour management is the excellent:
'Real World Color Management' [Fraser et al.]
It's a really well written book - you only need read the relevant parts, but it has been my number one quick reference source for over a decade.
If the book above isn't available, I'd suggest reading Martin Evening's Photoshop chapter on colour management - very well written
www.photoshopfo...
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"Buy me a coffee" ko-fi.com/keit...
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My articles and videos are always free to access.
Any help with running this channel is gratefully received.
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I also have some affiliate links which earn me a commission if used.
US Amazon photo/print gear: amzn.to/3l9vJC6
B&H Photo: www.bhphotovid...
Adorama: www.adorama.co...

[@ddsdss256]

Thanks for the tips (and all of the other valuable information you've provided over the years). You're a great teacher and your students really appreciate you!

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - glad it's been of help!

[@flol3266]

The video the internet needed !!

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks ;-)

[@kend1964]

Thank you for the very thorought discussion. Quite helpful.

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks

[@johnvaleanbaily246]

You've added to my print knowledge, again - thanks Keith.

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - glad to help!

[@jessekoskinen]

Thank you for providing all of this information for free. It is much appreciated.

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - part of it is to promote the one-to-one bespoke training I do, but that's for a relatively small number of people with the money and not too far away ;-)

[@jessekoskinen]

@@KeithCooper If I lived anywhere near you, I'd definitely pay for one-to-one bespoke training. Unfortunately I live in Finland, and not wealthy enough to fly you here in 1st. class. ;) Edit:Typo

[@KeithCooper]

Yes - I have two prices - 'full price' and 'free' ;-)

[@Stefan-oc9bo]

Thanks for this video, just ordered the book Real World Color Management.

[@KeithCooper]

Hope it ends up as well thumbed as my copy!

[@andreipaul968]

keith, i really appreciate your channel! 🍻

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks!

[@marouaneokba6339]

thank you

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks

[@robertleeimages]

I don't know what candella my monitor is but brightness level like all or most goes from 0-100, i need to have my monitor brightness set to 20 to get print's as they look on the screen. Sadly my 2nd last print for a customer who ordered 3 of my old house milkyway image (my current profile photo) came out about 50% too dark, i found that for some reason that my monitor brightness was on 40 but don't recall changing it or why i even would have. The Sadly part is because i didn't realise it was changed i took my usb to my local printer with the image file and said its right to go and I'll have 3 printed please, bam wasted cost of 3 print's that i had to wear. Luckily my first thought was to check the monitor brightness rather than just increase the image brightness overall in my editing program, but it did mean after readjusting the brightness that i then had to re-edit the whole image again which meant all 24 sky images so they could be stacked in sequator to make the final sky image and also 14 light painted foreground images before i could blend them as layers in Gimp with the sky image. I just had another milkyway image printed, but this time i made sure the brightness was still set to 20. Other than my first time getting an image printed before knowing anything about monitor calibration etc, this was the only other time it's happened and is a lesson to always double check even if you think nothing should have changed.

[@KeithCooper]

Yes, I'm always vary of sudden changes when nothing has 'apparently' been changed If you're selling prints, I'd say - get a proper calibrator, even if an older one and DisplayGui to drive it

[@robertleeimages]

@@KeithCooper cheers Keith so far all is ok other than that 1 blip, i was lucky enough that the owner of the printing business gave me their printer model and paper type for me to download the icc profile but a calibrator is definitely on the radar when finances allow

[@gigigi323]

Hello Keith, Im not sure you give laptop recommendations, but can you recommend a laptop best suited to printing digital art onto a Canon IP8750 printer. I cannot for the life of me get decent prints using my Mac Air laptop(weak colours and no vibrancy) and am wondering if you think a windows operating system may do a better job? I feel i have tried everything! I have been so disapointed with the quality from the Mac, is it just me? I am totally stuck, if you have any advice It would be greatly appriciated. Thanks Gina

[@KeithCooper]

I'm minded to suggest that the laptop is nothing whatsoever to do with the colours ;-) But, I don't know that printer though, so I don't know what drivers are available on the Mac However, I'm not really the person to ask since I've not used a windows computer this century ;-)

[@gigigi323]

@@KeithCooper Its such a mindfield. Okay, I shall have to keep trying with the mac. Thanks :)

[@KeithCooper]

@@gigigi323 Have a look at my Canon G550 review - this is also one of Canon's lower end printers and may offer some hints? www.northlight-images.co.uk/canon-g550-printer-review/

[@gigigi323]

@@KeithCooper Great thanks Keith, Ill take a look👍

[@jefffenske1958]

I'm first learning from you that our eyes quickly adjust white balance to different lighting temperatures, which explains how whites under 3,000°K lights can appear white, but I'm still thinking that warm, yellow light would affect colors, changing the way they look compared to if the lights were 5,000° or higher. In another video, you talked about tweaking a print to look best under a certain type of lighting, fluorescent or something, but they could have changed the lights since. If our eyes see whites in prints as white under 3,000°K, why don't the eyes also compensate to make the colors look normal too, the same as if they would be viewed under 5,000°K or daylight 6500°K? Or do they? When I was printing years ago now, I used the Image Print rip, which had different color settings depending on what color temp. I just chose their universal one, which seemed to work well. In the future, I'll likely be printing with regular software, Canon's own, Lightroom or another. How do you recommend adjusting software based upon a room's lighting? Many rooms are using LEDs now. Halogen spotlights focused directly on prints seem to be fairly rare now.

[@KeithCooper]

Our visual system doesn't handle colour perception the same way as the 'white balance'. It also depends on the brightness and spectral balance of the lighting and is quite a complex subject. In general I'd suggest making no adjustments unless you have a sound reason ;-) Read 'real world color management' by Fraser et al for a good grounding in all this.

[@jefffenske1958]

@@KeithCooper That's super interesting: "Our visual system doesn't handle colour perception the same way as the 'white balance'." So if we tweak our colors in a monitor set for 6500°K, but the prints are displayed in rooms lit with LED lighting at a lower color temp, will the prints look too warm and the blues not look blue, for example? I have a print that I bought from a US photographer, which only looks good under a daylight, blue coated bulb. It's too warm and blah otherwise. So I don't even hang it. I'm happy with the color balance that the ImagePrint rip produced, but now that I won't be using ImagePrint, I wonder how they did it. I used ImagePrint, because the 24 inch Epson 7900's yellow ink was its weakness, which the more recent printer fixed. ImagePrint blended green and orange with maybe some yellow to fix the problem. You probably know all of this. I was reading your reviews and material at the time. Luminous Landscape, Michael Reichmann was a big fan. Really sad to lose him! If you'd ever like to tackle this in a video, I'd be interested. God bless!

[@KeithCooper]

It's about profiling AND the chosen illuminant used in the profiling This is far too advanced a topic for a video I'm afraid - read the book! Next time I'm doing something about paper profiling I'll be sure to mention aspects, but only to say it's simply not worthwhile for most people and if you need this stuff, there is a book I'll suggest... ;-)