PSE 7 Printing with red cast

[rodney47]

Since upgrading from PSE 5 to7, my prints on an Epson R285 have a red cast. There is consistent color profiling from camera thru Elements to printer, all Adobe RGB. If I print the same photo from PSE 5 it prints normally. Any ideas?

[Wendy]

Hi ...

... and welcome to the Village :)

If the prints are different between PSE5 and PSE7 then it sounds like some of the settings maybe different.

Hopefully one of the Windows users will be along soon and will be able to help you with this.

Wendy

[Codebreaker]

You mention 'consistent color profiling.....AdobeRGB' but I'm not sure what you mean by this.

Does this mean that...

a) your source image is in the AdobeRGB colour space and has a tag to indicate it is

b) colour management is turned on in Elements

c) colour management is turned off in your printer.

d) you have selected a print profile that matches your printer and paper

Colour casts can result if you have both Elements and the Printer trying to manage the colours - it must be one or the other.

Colin

[rodney47]

Thanks. By consistent color profiling I mean the the camera is set to Adobe RGB, Raw files are opened in ACR and are converted to JPEGs Adobe RGB, the printer is set to manage the color and color management in the Epson dialogue box is set to Adobe RGB. If I print from PSE7 browser, the print is normal. If I print from PSE7 Editor there is a red cast. If I print from PSE5 the print is normal.
The red cast is genuine tho not gross. Most noticable in portraits as our brains are finely tuned to facial color. It can be removed by -8 Magenta in the printer's adjustments ( and probably some yellow but I have not got that far). I believe there is a problem in PSE7 or why the difference between 5 and 7?

[athegn]

I print my Adobe RGB images from both PSE 5 and 7 from my Win XP machine to my Epson R1800 printer and get the same results.

I just made sure I had the settings the same. Make sure:-

"c) colour management is turned off in your printer."

and you select the correct paper profiles.

[rodney47]

Wendy, Colin, "Athegn" thanks again for your input. I think as usual Shakespeare was right when he said "The fault dear Brutus lies not in our stars but ouselves..". I have revisited all my settings and reprinted and there is improvement such that any redness is small enough to blame on my photo processing (I think). On the question of turning off color management in the printer, I tried that, giving control to elements and clicking on no color management in the printer. Sadly the prints were underexposed and drab looking, but then again the R285 is no R1800, it may well be set up differently. Rodney.

[Codebreaker]

Rodney....

Raw images don't have a colour profile so any settings in your camera are ignored. Raw images get a profile when processed through the ACR dialog and the result is either AdobeRGB or sRGB depending upon the Edit > Colour Settings option you have selected. Optimise for Screen gives sRGB and Optimise for Print gives AdobeRGB.

Of course in order to accurately process a RAW image (or any other type) you must Calibrate and Profile your screen and the only way to do this is by using a hardware colourimeter like a Huey, Eye-one or Spyder.

However, both of the above are relevant for all versions of PSE and there is no difference in the Colour Management Engine between versions.

As for printing what paper are you using and what Print Profile or Print Space do you select? It should match the paper you are using.

Also what Renderint Intent do you select? Best choice is Relative Colourimetric

There is a difference in printing from the Organiser and the Editor. The Organiser will not allow you to select Printer Manages Colour - whereas the Editor print dialog will allow this.

Advice though is to allow Elements to Manage Colours and turn off Colour Management in the printer. Epson is not overly consistent in how you do this in the Printer Driver. For some printers you must Uncheck ICM and for others you must Check ICM and then Check NCA (No Colour Adjust). I don't know your particular driver.

Note that there are differences in the Editor Print Dialog between 5 and 7.

It might also help if you could post a sample image for us to look at. Make sure its the complete image with all the Exif Data intact - not compressed or Saved for Web.

Colin

[rodney47]

Colin, I have found your comments extremely helpful and have visited your web site. I think there are a number of factors involved with my "red cast", not all of them related to printing, some to do with RAW processing and some to do with screen calibration. I think I will pause our dialogue while I get a decent screen calibration device (probably Pantone Huey as the name so appeals to me!) and do some more reading about printer settings in relation to colour. I must have been lucky in the past with my printing, so have never delved too deeply into gamuts and profiles. I think as with High Fidelity in music, there is great scope for obsessional seeking of perfection, which does not make the hobby relaxing! I would like to get it right though. Many thanks, Rodney.